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Do it right and employees are an investment that will give you a good return. OTOH if all you want is to line your pocket as quickly as possible, go ahead, hire cheap, treat 'em like dirt, watch the turnover and watch the customers eventually go elsewhere because they can't get good customer service.
Good point, treating the associates crappy isn't good business practice either.
That's why I take the usual attacks on Wal-Mart with a big grain of salt.
Wal-Mart has a pretty high turnover, if there are a million current Wal-Mart employees, there are probably 10 million ex-associates out there all with family and friends.
If WMT was really as crappy with their staff as has been suggested, they'd have a real problem since ex-associates are part of the general public and form a big part of their customer base.
Sometimes "firing" a customer is necessary. Most customers are reasonable, but a few are not and never will be. They are the kind of person who sues everyone, and aren't happy anywhere. These people can actually cost you money, and it's not worth the small amount they spend.
I know an ac guy that hirers his customers and fires them. He will bend over backwards for a reasonable customer to make it right but he has learned to quickly spot the customers that will make his job miserable and want a lot of work for nothing. He has no problem firing them. He still makes plenty of money with less headaches.
You shouldn't have to pander to "career idiots", they aren't happy anywhere with anyone. Some people simply have personality disorders. Fire them. They will cause long term harm.
Harder to do in retail, I do understand. Hopefully you have a boss who gets it. "Who was it? Oh, Mr. Jones, don't worry about it, he is always complaining."
Our MIS manager has been fired by 3 suppliers. The ones we found to replace them have cost us 20% more, for the same services. It wasn't the money that got us fired-it is his rudeness, and frequent change of mind, last minute.
The customer has freedom not to be a customer if he doesn't like the way he was treated. Not only that, if dissatisfied, the customer will tell his friends and associates if he thinks he wasn't treated right.
My father was dissatisfied with the 1953 Dodge he bought, never bought another until the day he passed over 50 years afterwards. A dissatisfied customer can have long lasting effects
It doesn't bring "stress" to the employees if the employees are understanding and accepting of the fact they are there for the customer.
Yes, my sister bought a lemon from Chevy and I've never bought a vehicle from them. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.
Better customer service= more business
The only way a company can have terrible service is if they offer something no one else does or it's the government.
The only way a company can have terrible service is if they offer something no one else does or it's the government.
The service at the one local post office here in Pittsburgh is dreadfully slow. I guess they didn't get the word out that people can get more friendly and efficient postal service at Staples and get their faxing done at the same time.
I've learned from working retail is the customer is most often wrong (sometimes they are right), but you have to talk to the customer like they are right despite the obvious error on their part. Keep the customer and treat them right and you'll gain more business. That's the bottom line.
I've been mistreated as a customer in stores. I don't tell people to go there if they are looking for something that store sells. I'll tell them to go elsewhere. Even if I was wrong in my claim to the store, how I'm treated is what matters to me. If I'm wrong, then explain what I'm doing wrong kindly to fix the problem, but don't treat me like I'm an idiot that just wants to burden your day. I'll tell my friends to go to that store despite my troubles with the product simply because I feel they cared about my concern and treated me like a human being.
What I hate is the really rude wealthy or business customers. I can't stand them. At my job, business customers get ''higher' placement than regular customers. But sometimes they are very inconsiderate and always have to mention how much money they make/ are losing.
I've learned from working retail is the customer is most often wrong (sometimes they are right), but you have to talk to the customer like they are right despite the obvious error on their part. Keep the customer and treat them right and you'll gain more business. That's the bottom line.
I've been mistreated as a customer in stores. I don't tell people to go there if they are looking for something that store sells. I'll tell them to go elsewhere. Even if I was wrong in my claim to the store, how I'm treated is what matters to me. If I'm wrong, then explain what I'm doing wrong kindly to fix the problem, but don't treat me like I'm an idiot that just wants to burden your day. I'll tell my friends to go to that store despite my troubles with the product simply because I feel they cared about my concern and treated me like a human being.
At my job I usually make the customers ''feel right'' or act like it's a problem with the ''system''.
One big issues is that employees are very biased because they are ''used to certain things''. For example, if there was a misprint in the ad, a customer couldn't possibly know that before hand. But the employee may become annoyed with hundreds of customers coming in line that day.
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