With my customer service expectations?

[Winterjoy]

Another day of being completely blanked by a shop assistant and I'm starting to wonder if I'm out of touch and this is just the norm now in customer service?

I'm not expecting every member of staff in the shop to acknowledge me and have a conversation but I've just had an encounter at the checkout where the person serving said not one word to me (no response even to my 'hello' - it was honestly like I'd spoken to a brick wall!).

I know in the grand scheme of things it does't really matter but for some reason this time it's put a bit of a downer on my evening.

If you work for one of the big retailers do they train you at all? I know when I was in retail (a few years ago now) basic service skills were drilled into us as standard.

I worked in retail when I was younger and this is definitely not how you’re trained. However when there is a huge queue and you’re the only one serving you don’t have time to make conversation and ask about their day with a customer. Especially when it’s just you serving. The customers just get pissed off. I will say hello and thank you, if they need any bags or need anything else and be polite but I honestly don’t care about their day. Doubt you care about mine. I got paid minimum wage to scan people’s shopping i’m not there to be your friend.

The public can be cunts. Full stop. Nothing will ever please them even when you go above and beyond.

I think it depends on shop.

Staff in my local Sainsbury are friendly and helpful. The management do appear to be useless, but can’t fault the customer facing staff.

How are they useless?

If you work for one of the big supermarkets then you should get training on customer service. That said sometimes it’s mentally draining being on checkouts, you have the same conversations over and over again, there’s only so many times you can talk about the weather or you can laugh at the ‘it must be free’ when the item doesn’t scan first time. Then in the nice weather we get ‘I bet you wish you wasn’t stuck in here on a day like this’, honestly it’s monotonous sometimes but you still should acknowledge the customer. It’s a difficult balance of being polite but not getting into another full blown conversation you’ve had umpteen times and I think that skill comes with experience. I’ve noticed my staff who are older are good at getting customers through checkout fast but still engaging with them, young people are not as good communicating full stop and I think that’s partly down to them not having to do things face to face because everything is online or on an app. Also for a lot of people retail will be their first job and they are nervous, handling cash and trying to remember how the till works sometimes takes over them and they forget there’s an actual person there that they are serving.

Totally agree! Such a different experience.

Minimum wage minimum effort as they say now

I worked in a supermarket when I was young - I found most people were really nice. Obviously there’s the odd person who’s not but on the whole, people were friendly and kind.

Here's me thinking I had become invisible because I had got older.

They're acting their wage.

@Wagathamisty I don’t agree with this at all. You do have time to make conversation and be polite. You have the time it takes to scan their shopping. It doesn’t need to be much. Nobody is asking you to be their friend.

@Winterjoy I’m a retail manager and customer service is one of the main things we pride ourselves on. We have frequent reviews and while the sales figures are looked it, it is mainly customer service based!
Yes, everyone has bad days and personal issues that come up that make facing people much harder (myself included!). We are a team. If my team let me know they’re having a difficult day for whatever reason then I can help them. That may mean some time off, or less customer facing time, or not being customer facing at the times that are usually busiest and most stressful. It may mean I have to rearrange my workload to pick up some of that customer facing time that’s needed - that’s absolutely fine! We’re a team and that’s what we do!
I also remind them that we only see that customer for a few minutes. They may be having a horrendous day. Of course they shouldn’t take it out on staff, but everyone has a breaking point.

I will also give them time away from customer facing if there has been a difficult customer (although I do try to step in and take these situations on myself if at all possible!) as it’s normal to need a bit of time to let it go.

For the most part, customers are lovely. And I expect my team to be the same. And quite simply, if they can’t be like that to our customers then they won’t still be working for me.

I do believe a lot of bad customer service is down to bad management. A minimum wage job doesn’t have to be a miserable job.

Exactly that retail wages have never been great.I worked retail years ago and had to acknowledge customer's and approach them and have good product knowledge so they had confidence to purchase.

Definitely this one! We get this a lot in our local big Asda. People on checkouts scanning their friends food through a lot slower so they can have a good chin wag with them. 🙄

And with that attitude they never will be on anything other than minimum wage.

Which they are entitled to do - but they needn't expect to ever go above low wages if that is how their attitude. I've seen people in minimum wage jobs who have done them to the best of their ability, and when a promotion is in the wind they are the ones first in the queue.

I know it shouldn't be like that, but then they should be paid a decent wage they can live on.

Have you any idea how ridiculous this is - what the hell is a decent wage - they should earn what the job deserves - sliding goods over a reader. Also part of the job is to be pleasant to customers.

These are the people who think they should be getting benefits so they can do nothing.

Nobody is asking them to pretend they enjoy the job, but acknowledging a customer is basic manners.

I find that the staff in Lidl and Aldi are super efficient and manage to whizz through your shopping and acknowledge you.

There more likely regulars rather then friends as you are not allowed to serve friends and family. People want different things from their shopping experience some customers come in for a chat as your the only person they speak to that day others want to be in and out with minimal fuss

I had to speak to someone at Very about a damaged item and screw up they’d made regarding its return. The woman was so nonchalant it sounded as if she’d just woken up. Lots of silences and sighing and then she burped loudly down the phone and just carried on…..

She was probably working from home and had just woke up 🤣🤣

They whizz through your shopping so fast because products have either multiple barcodes or wrap around ones. Makes it easier for them because they don’t have to look for the barcode when they are scanning.

I think she was!

I also believe some staff are pissed on duty! But that’s another story.

No definitely friends, can tell by the conversations. I doubt Asda has time to bother policing whether someone is a friend or family. Especially now 2 thirds of the tills are unmanned by humans.

If you are being paid to do any job that involves dealing with a customer then responding to a greeting and making eye contact should be the barest minimum given in return. Some people enjoy interacting with strangers and make good customer-facing employees but others are just grunters and add nothing to the experience. Our local Range has excellent staff, helpful, smiley and seem happy to be in the team - I can't imagine they get paid much/anything above the NMW so there's more to it than pay cheques.