Books and Bookworms [open]
Kahoko’s mouth was lifted into a smile as she waved the customer she had just made a purchase to out the door, the 8th sale of the morning. It was officially the weekend and she had received the honour of being on duty ‘manning’ the store for the day. The manager had had to attend some kind of function and the other assistant’s had given one excuse or another leaving her all on her own.
Not that she minded all that much, for working in the shop was fairly simple barring the odd moments when they were overrun by several customers at the same time. These moments were few and far between however, as most customers were of the ‘browser category’.
Kahoko had developed her ‘customer classification categories’ in her early days in the shop, making it easier to identify how to best attend each individual. The most common were the ‘browsers’ who would say they were just looking when asked if they required assistance. She had learnt from experience to leave such people be, as they tended to find more books that caught their fancy and that they were willing to buy than if they had someone nagging at them.
The next category were the customers who knew exactly what they wanted and could tell you with precision which author and genre they were searching for. The only help they ever required was knowledge of whether the book was available or which area in the store to find it. Aside from the browsers, they were the easiest to deal with and the least time consuming…
The final category was more challenging, for these people sought recommendations or wished to step out their boundaries and ‘try something new’. When helping such people, it was extremely important to ensure you didn’t recommend a book they would hate. Recommending a bad book was tantamount to bad service, which was a sure fire way to guarantee never seeing that customer darken the doorstep again. The manager tended to get very irate at such mistakes was known to dock said culprit’s pay in recompense for loosing a valued customer.
It had happened to her once in the beginning and she was determined never to have a repeat incident.
The store had been quiet for a while now, deeming it safe to get to work on tagging and shelving the latest shipment. Just by a precursory glance at the pile earlier, Kahoko could tell there were several good ones that were bound to have the regulars at the shop in hordes as soon as the word got out.
She had reached about halfway through her task, when the sudden jangle of the store’s bell alerted her to a new customer. Golden orbs shifted to gaze from their work at the new entrant, her mouth curling into a welcome grin as she called out the familiar greeting.
"Good morning, how might I be of assistance?"
Now to see what kind of customer it is…
