So I’m a door greeter/occasional cashier at a sports and outdoors place and just......geeze.
I’ve recently had a woman storm over to me in a huff. She got about four inches from me and said very angrily, “I just wanted to let you know that we’re very upset and we’re never coming back here!”
First things first. This threat does absolutely nothing. Actually it makes me less motivated to help you out. Second. Telling me your concerns does very little. I am not a manager. I am literally just the person standing at the door. I won’t be able to give you a discount or anything that usually solves the ‘You just lost a customer’ tantrum. Come to me and say ‘I’d like to speak with a manager, please.’ and I will get someone who can do those things.
Regardless, I respond, “Oh no, I’m very sorry to hear that, is there anything I can do to help you?” And she says “We just came from the BBQ pits. We found one that we liked, and we were going to pay for it now, put it on hold and then come back later. And they told us we couldn’t do that!”
Now.....this is 100% correct. Our store very specifically states that we don’t put anything on hold after it’s been paid for. If you want to put the grill on hold and then come back later to pay for it and pick it up, that’s another story(Even then, we only keep things on hold until the end of the work day.) There have been too many instances where our back room is filled with merchandise that we can’t sell because it’s already sold, but we can’t get rid of because we can’t get in contact with the person who bought it.
I tell the woman that whoever helped her was correct and that that is our store policy. I was still working around the syllable “But-” to tell her that they could just put it on hold and not pay and end up with pretty much exactly what they wanted, when she throws her hand up and just storms out.
Let me just say right now, I am the friendliest person at my work. Constantly smiling, positive attitude, trying to help the customers leave happy. But that just kills me. I’m trying to help you. I WANT to help you. I’m going to help you. Have some patience and just let me finish my sentence and both of us will end up a lot happier.
I’ve noticed that this happens so much!
As people walk in part of my job is to push our store’s credit card. “Hi there, would you like to save $15 today?” Is the opening line. Most people just say no and keep walking. But every now and then someone says “How?” And I start on the next part of the pitch. (”Awesome! All you have to do is apply for our card. If you get instantly approved, you get $15 off your purchase!”) I have timed those two sentences. Because I say them to literally every customer, I’ve gotten to say it exactly the same every time. It takes 8 seconds. Not around 8 seconds, exactly 8 seconds. I am cut off so often when I say “Apply for-” Either verbally, with people sheepishly saying a quick ‘thanks but no thanks’, and more commonly, non verbally, where people just walk away, letting me just trail off mid sentence and get over the fact that I have been snubbed for the 13,425,443 time that day.
This is INFURIATING! So many coworkers from other departments will pass by and witness one of those instances and tell me that they could never work the front door because of that very reason. Or the very least, they’d give up on trying to push the credit cards.
I can’t just stop. My managers want me to ask everyone who comes in the door about the card. I know that you’re in the store to do your shopping and get out and you don’t want to be heckled, which is why I take on the very understanding role. You don’t want the card? That’s fine. You don’t want to apply? Don’t have time? Just got one from JC Penny’s? Building a house and they told you not to apply for anything right now? Cool. Awesome. Congrats. I don’t want to ruin your credit score or make you late for whatever you’re going. I am perfectly fine with being told “no.”
But at the very least, just let me finish my sentence. It’s 8 seconds out of your life. You can say no immediately after, but just let me finish my sentence.