Sick of customers moaning to shop staff about things beyond our control

[Jdot]

Please do not show your frustrations to the stressed and burnt out staff with:
. prices
. company’s policies
. the law
. supply issues - including local, national and global
. traffic issues that delays with deliveries
. staffing issues- both short staffed and if staff are on the sick
. your lack of planning. Waiting til Dec 1st for advent calendars and 31st Oct for pumpkins

Do you realise that this is unacceptable and unnecessary to shout at staff. Many staff are leaving mainly because of customers’ behaviour.

Think about this before you open your mouth at staff

I never really paid much attention to the customers who moaned. It was the ones who were physically aggressive that I didn't like. One of our security guards ended up in hospital for a week after he was attacked early on a Saturday morning by drunk customers. One of my colleagues ended up with a black eye. So many customers screamed abuse at me and my colleagues.
Thankfully I'm out of retail now and while YANBU to be annoyed by there customers I would rather have that than physical abuse.

The problem is that these jobs have been consistently deskilled and devalued.
I have worked in my current job for 10 years. We have 58 staff now instead of the 90+ when I started. The manager who hired me worked there for 30+ years. He (and other managers on the old pay scale) have been managed out over the past 3/4 years, and replaced by 'yes men'. They don't know how to manage a shop. All the decisions are made at a higher level. They are just there to be a physical presence. They can't make decisions about staffing levels, or budgets, they can't even decide to stack products on the shop floor. They therefore get paid sfa. And the business overall makes more money, which is all they care about. It doesn't matter that good staff are run into the ground and leave, and that customers get shit service because of the pressure the staff are under, and their inability to make any decisions, as long as the business profits increase year on year.
So please complain. As a customer your opinion is more important than mine. But do it to head office, not me, or my colleague on tills.

If i have a beef a about about a certain product ir problem either instore or over the phone about the OP list. If Customer Services cant fix it

I will say to Cusomer Assistance.

l know it is not your fault but would mention to your management about such and such a thing. It would really be helpful. Thank You

I use a polite frienndly manner anf finish with a nod and a smile.

This is the reason I left retail. 20yrs of it and I had had enough. And it’s not just the customers some “management” were absolutely awful to their staff (I could tell you a few stories) thankfully I am now running my own business and I don’t have to deal with being yelled at by anyone.
I always try to engage with the staff who are working, it’s nice to be nice 😊

Exactly this! I worked in customer services for years and learned very early that people just want to be heard. If you make the right noises they will eventually back down (usually) as long as they feel someone is taking them seriously. People are very frustrated these days as everything has become so difficult, and it's especially frustrating for those old enough to remember a time when life was so much more simple.

It's part of the job to deal with this, and if you can't, or won't, do it then you shouldn't be doing that job.

And your manager listens, worries about being seen as a moaner by management further up the chain and does nothing.

If people actually stopped and listened to themselves for a second (and I include myself in that) they would realise that sometimes moaning at the staff does nothing... emailing the CEO might however

My friend who has worked at the same store for 20 years - some have been there for 35 plus years. Used to have 150 colleagues now 52. Some depts have gone from 35 years ago - deli, butchers counter, overnights, bakery (bread brought in frozen then reheated - no
bakers who made dough from scratch at 2am) , Human Resources (that is all centralised plus training is done on the intranet and buddying - which isn’t the same)

When those staff who started 35 years ago sat on a till all shift. Now do that plus self scan, kiosk, food courier picks, click n collect. They are worn out. Including the ones in their 20s.

HO think they can do these jobs with the numbers above. They need about a dozen more people as to cover sickness, holidays, bereavement (friend and 2 others lost a parent in a space of ten days earlier this year) . People don’t want to work dealing with rude and abusive customers.

Customers need to understand that they are ones that making the staff leave and put off others from applying to work in retail

Used to have 150 colleagues now 52 ... HO think they can do these jobs with the numbers above...
Customers need to understand that they are ones that making the staff leave and put off others from applying to work in retail.
Not seeing your logic there. You just said that it's down to poor management ... and then blamed the customer!

Rude (to put it mildly) customers are putting people off working in retail etc.
Management don't give a shit.

Then the new starters when any don’t understand or get told - rotate. Friend who worked for twenty years has noticed new staff and the useless store manager that they put the delivery on top or in front of the existing stock. She is a code checker so noticed these things. Management want to reduce waste! How about telling yourself and the staff to rotate?

Exactly this.

I don't understand why you keep saying it's your friend when it's very obviously you that works in a supermarket? How else would you know all the little details you've shared here?

So we should lie and say we’ll do something about it knowing fully well we can’t?

It's part of the ob to have customers shout and scream at you? It's part of the ob to be verbally and physically abused? I must have missed that bit of the job description.
I'm afraid when I was working in retail I didn't get paid enough to put up with that, but then again I got out of that environment as quickly as it could.

I don’t want to speak for her, but when you’re doing a job and you have a large number of supportive colleagues behind you, and a manager who will ban abusive customers from the store, and instruct security to enforce that ban when they ignore it and come back, it’s a lot easier to deal with the general day to day shit you get from the general public.

However, when you’re doing the job of three people, for the same wage and in the same time, your manager is ineffective and either won’t ban people or won’t stick to it when they do get banned, you’re frazzled, unsupported and often working in an area by yourself, which puts women in particular at greater risk when dealing with aggressive men, it’s much, much harder to deal with the public’s shit.

No. As customers, we’re expected to use our brain cells and realise that Jane on the till has fuck all input over anything. Head Office don’t call her and say ‘Jane, we’re thinking of getting rid of another 5 manned tills and whacking another 20p on the price of cauliflowers, what do you think?’ And if Jane is already doing the job of three people and has been told to work in one particular area by her manager, it’s Jane who will get yelled at and threatened with formal proceedings if she goes wandering off to help a customer who wants something doing in a different area.

Instead, we need to be thinking about who is making the decisions (Head Office, in case you weren’t aware) and emailing those fuckers instead. I’m pretty sure Jane will be only too happy to give you their address because I doubt she’s happy with the way things are going, either.

This.

I agree it’s not ok to shout, swear or be aggressive but if you are customer facing you are the person people should tell if they are not happy with the service.

Can I also put in a plea - PLEASE don't save up all your winning scratchcards and then cash them in en masse in the week before Christmas when the queues are round the shop and out of the door! We don't keep a great deal of cash in the till, so if your winnings total more than about fifty quid we're going to have to call for Management to go in the safe and get more money out, it takes a long time to scan each card and print each receipt, so if you really must do this in a busy big supermarket, please try to come in outside the really busy times!

Obviously no one should be rude to you, but to the customer, you are the company. Who else are they supposed to tell?

Nobody should shout at, threaten or insult retail staff but they are absolutely allowed to complain to them. Part of the job of said staff is to manage customer complaints, or pass them to the correct place to complain.

Or you could tell them how to complain, or who to complain to? Or is that too much effort as well?

Whilst I do understand what you are saying, no front line staff deserve to be treated badly, I do think retail especially but others too need to be up front with any specific issues affecting for instance stock eg put a sign up apologising for lack of lemons (Lidl a few weeks ago for 2 weeks) rather than customers having to ask. Staffing issues are down to management and they should have thought it out, customers have every right to complain if you can’t access as planned, companies should have a mechanism rather than the person on the till. Similarly it takes seconds to print then put a sign up on the entrance door saying sorry our delivery was delayed today (don’t even need a reason but if it’s due to a major accident just say so) we’ll be more understanding you don’t have wholemeal bread or smoked back bacon than if it looks like you haven’t bother stocking the store (also means i can choose to go to another shop). Being honest with us puts us into a better understanding of the situation, defusing anger

Of course staff can feedback

Agree entirely. Customers should always be polite. And most of them are well aware that the exact person they are speaking to is not responsible for supply issues, delivery delays and staffing issues - but there is no other way to feed this back to the management without speaking to a staff member. Staff members on the floor are the face of the company, and should expect to represent the company. However, customers should always be pleasant and polite to the staff that are trying to help them. Communication is key, and it needs to work both ways.

Or maybe you should email headoffice and feedback?

I'd have thought that's all part of a customer facing role.

I worked in customer service for two decades and it's true the public can be awful, but also as a customer I am often shocked at how untrained retail staff are at dealing with these situations.