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The reality is people who get paid peanuts will rarely treat anyone like a king or queen. They have no incentive to. I have found that minimum wage employees are generally not going to go the extra mile. Most of the time the places I get the best customer service from are the places that pay more than minimum wage to their front line employees.
I worked at In-N-Out Burger as a teen. That was in the late 90's. I started out mopping floors, buffing tables, and sweeping the parking lot. They started me out $3.00 an hour above minimum wage at 17 years old. It was no coincidence that the entire company consistently ranked high in customer service. We went out of our way for In-N-Out customers because we felt In-N-Out went out of its way for us. And business boomed, and continues to. If management doesn't care about its employees the employees will pass that sentiment on to the customers.
Yes, In and Out is fantastic, it's clear the employees are glad to be there. Costco is like this as well, they treat customer service as an investment, not a cost to be shed, they pay their employees quite well. It's not even just about a financial incentive, it's about feeling like you are valued, too many retail companies treat their service people like a cost burden to be minimized whenever possible, not as an important part of a successful company. It's very hard to work under those conditions, especially with minimum wage buying less and less, most people just want to get out as soon as possible because they are miserable being there.
I disagree with the OP. In my experience, the roles have changed. Shoppers feel like they have to bend over backwards to get help because customer service is lousy. If you go to Wal-Mart or any other store for that matter, you have to say excuse me, do you mind helping me or could you help me find this...That's the retail workers' job. They are supposed to approach you and ask if you need help. Now, it's the other way. If you ask for help, they act like you are getting in the way or making their lives so difficult.
I think the problem is generational. In the past, people had more manners and were taught to address people as sir, maam, dr. etc. Now, retail workers feel entitled and not scared if you complain about them. They know they aren't getting paid anything and don't care if they are fired. A lot of them are young adults who simply don't care and are not afraid to act rude.
Customer service is a thing of the past. It's gotten to the point that stores with basic customer service advertise it because it's so rare. I only shop at certain stores. I will pay for good service.
I disagree with the OP. In my experience, the roles have changed. Shoppers feel like they have to bend over backwards to get help because customer service is lousy. If you go to Wal-Mart or any other store for that matter, you have to say excuse me, do you mind helping me or could you help me find this...That's the retail workers' job. They are supposed to approach you and ask if you need help. Now, it's the other way. If you ask for help, they act like you are getting in the way or making their lives so difficult.
I think the problem is generational. In the past, people had more manners and were taught to address people as sir, maam, dr. etc. Now, retail workers feel entitled and not scared if you complain about them. They know they aren't getting paid anything and don't care if they are fired. A lot of them are young adults who simply don't care and are not afraid to act rude.
Customer service is a thing of the past. It's gotten to the point that stores with basic customer service advertise it because it's so rare. I only shop at certain stores. I will pay for good service.
Most people do not want to be approached, when I worked in retail the response to "can I help you find anything," was usually annoyance.
The reality is people who get paid peanuts will rarely treat anyone like a king or queen. They have no incentive to. I have found that minimum wage employees are generally not going to go the extra mile. Most of the time the places I get the best customer service from are the places that pay more than minimum wage to their front line employees.
Yes, but you will also pay more for the items. You get what you pay for. Generally, the more expensive the place, the better the service. And that has to do with the employees being paid more. And when they pay more, they get better employees. Higher prices also means the customers who shop there tend to be more civil. It also means the store will be less crowded so your experience is better. It attracts a higher clientele so the parking lot is usually better lit and safer. I shopped at Wal-Mart as a kid and it was fine. Now, I will only shop at Wal-Mart at select times of the day and only at certain Wal-Marts because they tend to be pretty scary. That wasn't the case when I was a kid. If you go to Target, the service and experience is ten times better than Wal-Mart but you pay more for it.
I value peace of mind. I've learned its worth paying more money to have the peace of mind when you shop or dine out.
Most people do not want to be approached, when I worked in retail the response to "can I help you find anything," was usually annoyance.
Most people do not want employees to hide from customers and act like your a nuisance when you ask for help either. Maybe they don't want people to walk up to you and ask if you need help but making eye contact and walking the aisles to see if customers need anything wouldn't hurt either. In my experience, most retail workers want to be left alone to stock aisles or chat with their fellow workers.
That goes for customers, too, but they have the option to just avoid the store, and if too many do, bye-bye jobs.
Okay look. I'm going to lay it on the line and then I'm done in this thread. This will never work in a big box store. It might in a small store, but not these big box stores that are all over, where by the way, difficult people tend to shop. You might leave a store if you don't like the service, and you might not be the only one. But the vast majority of people do what's convenient for them, based on their finances, location, laziness or any mix of these. This is why people continue to live in crappy apartments where the management sucks, stay at crappy hotels, live in crappy neighborhoods, shop at crappy stores, eat crappy foods, buy crappy useless junk, and work at crappy jobs.
And for the last time, bad employees are not going to put businesses out of business. If by some miracle that happens, then there is a general climate of toxicity, which is the fault of management, either if they're not firing toxic people, if they're encouraging a climate of hostility or slacking, in which they lead by example, or if they're not running the store right. But it's pretty certain that if a big box store is failing, it's the fault of those well-paid CEOs who by the way nobody ever talks to.
Not shopping there and not feeling sorry for someone for losing his job (assuming that individual was part of the problem) is perfectly reasonable behavior. Taking frustrations out on someone by belittling them, demeaning them, or just not even showing good manners and assuming that common courtesy is a one-way street, is not generally acceptable.
I agree, and while I may contact the parent corp via their website to alert them of the inssues, or I may ask to speak to a manager, I see no point in any customer berating an employee, or the reverse.
Most people do not want employees to hide from customers and act like your a nuisance when you ask for help either. Maybe they don't want people to walk up to you and ask if you need help but making eye contact and walking the aisles to see if customers need anything wouldn't hurt either. In my experience, most retail workers want to be left alone to stock aisles or chat with their fellow workers.
Since Walmart is phasing out their greeter positions I think they should, instead, make them "Can I help you?" people. My store does still have greeters but they are all elderly, will likely be retiring 'again' one at a time and not be replaced. I've often thought that the store needed a 'roamer' just to help people find things. It really could be a full time job. I'm a cashier but I get asked, often, where things are. Lately I've lucked out directing people to the right place but sometimes that's hard to know because the store has a bad reputation of changing things around all the time. It's hard to use logic when it comes to locating things too because sometimes I don't understand corporate logic, at all!
I agree, and while I may contact the parent corp via their website to alert them of the inssues, or I may ask to speak to a manager, I see no point in any customer berating an employee, or the reverse.
After reading all these posts I have concluded that I must work in about the best retail store in the country! lol Well, we ARE the best in the northern half of AZ...out of 142 stores.
I've been cashiering for three years now and only had two customers get really angry with me. And, honestly, I did nothing wrong. A lady got mad at me because I wasn't friendly enough and gave me a piece of her mind over it. In my defense I WAS friendly to her in the beginning but she ignored me and I had a line <this long> so I concentrated on getting her stuff scanned and bagged. She wanted to talk to a manager so I directed her to the podium and told her to have a nice day. Manager came to see what that was all about and couldn't believe she'd had a "friendliness" complaint about ME! lol Customers still in line assured her it wasn't my fault, etc..
Another time a guy left a bag of stuff at the register but I was pretty sure he'd be back. He was, half an hour later, yelling at me, shaking his finger in my face and telling me it was all MY fault he left it. Well, in a way it was and I said so. I usually give the bag carousel one last turn to make sure they got it all, and I didn't. So okay...HE talks to my manager and later I jokingly asked if I was fired and she just laughed. Other than that I'd say the vast majority of my customers are good people, friendly and understanding in a lot of situations. Sure, some get impatient but most are pretty good.
Okay look. I'm going to lay it on the line and then I'm done in this thread. This will never work in a big box store. It might in a small store, but not these big box stores that are all over, where by the way, difficult people tend to shop. You might leave a store if you don't like the service, and you might not be the only one. But the vast majority of people do what's convenient for them, based on their finances, location, laziness or any mix of these. This is why people continue to live in crappy apartments where the management sucks, stay at crappy hotels, live in crappy neighborhoods, shop at crappy stores, eat crappy foods, buy crappy useless junk, and work at crappy jobs.
And for the last time, bad employees are not going to put businesses out of business. If by some miracle that happens, then there is a general climate of toxicity, which is the fault of management, either if they're not firing toxic people, if they're encouraging a climate of hostility or slacking, in which they lead by example, or if they're not running the store right. But it's pretty certain that if a big box store is failing, it's the fault of those well-paid CEOs who by the way nobody ever talks to.
Over his head.
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