customer service your thoughts?

[lacktheknack]

Who says friendliness has to be fake? I like most of my customers.

This. I blame the general Canadianness (seriously, the stereotype is more true than you'd think), but people I serve are generally very pleasant people who are willing to have an actual chat with you, and as long as you don't slow down your work, no one nearby will mind.

Of course, occasionally we get "full moon days" where everyone is out to horribly murder the customer service representatives, and its there that you realize the horrible paradox of "This is how you should run your customer service": If you're friendly, they'll set you on fire for being annoying. If you're silent, they set you on fire for being rude and inconsiderate. If you're quiet and efficient, they set you on fire for being out of it and not having your mind on your job. There's no winning.

 

[Aramis Night]

I usually attempt to ignore anyone who looks happy to work at the store. It tends to be a sure sign that the person is either new and inexperienced or too stupid to realize that their job is sad. Or they have gotten where they are in the company by towing the company line and doing there level best to help the company they work for screw you over and rip you off(typically commission workers or people looking for promotion).

I have always found that your best bet is to approach the guy who looks like he is just over his job and has probably been there too long for his own liking. They tend to know more about the store and products than the others. Be polite and don't expect a smile and you will likely get someone who will actually be on the level with you about what to buy that isn't a rip off. They may hate their job and hate customers in the abstract, but if you don't come off like a typical entitled demanding customer, they will feel obliged to help you take advantage of whatever truth about your purchases the company may not want to make known. They tend to resent the company they work for more than they do customers so take advantage of that.

 

[lacktheknack]

I was in game to buy a game once and there was someone in front of me who was talking to the cashier for a good ten minutes, me and the rest of the customers started getting annoyed and grumbling to ourselves and eventually we were served.

That's a difficult situation for the cashier to be in because while they will want to serve all of the other customers as quickly as possible, as a sales assistant you're not really in a position to end the conversation. You can't really tell a customer to go away and stop talking because you have other things to do.

I'm lucky... in the rare instance where this happens, I have enough room to go right on ahead and keep serving more people, so the chatty customer is eventually pushed away from the till. They get the picture.

 

[shootthebandit]

It took a while to get my burger, not too long but about 10 mins or so longer than usual and the girl was very apologetic saying "sorry for your wait" she mustve thought i was getting pissed off but im a very patient person and i dont consider that a long wait. It must be nice for them to have people like me who dont complain about everything

Maybe she wasn't as sincere as you think...

Spoiler

If you seen me you wouldnt say it in that context im about 11 stone so i doubt thats what she meant. If she felt sorry for my weight she wouldve given more cheeseburgers

 

[Akytalusia]

i share your thoughts on the subject. i prefer people just do their job without all the unnecessary 'pleasantries' that only serve to make me uncomfortable. i especially can't stand it when they ask me if they can help me. if i wanted your help, i would ask for it. when you approach me like that, i get the impression you peg me for some kind of unsavory character. is that what you think? well fuck your profiling face. i'm here to shop, and i'd appreciate it if you'd let me shop in peace.

 

[MagunBFP]

In most retail positions, you would be fired for not approaching and asking people, even if they're just browsing. Even if you don't like it, most people will actually want some sort of help and it usually increases sales. So, don't get pissy at staff who approach you, they're just doing their job. You can quite easily say "no, thank you" and literally two seconds of your time has been taken up.

There's nothing worse than someone who's rude to people who are only doing their job. I think you can judge a lot about someone's character by the way they treat people in the service industry.

The problem there is for me, a lot more than two seconds has been taken up. It's my silver bullet (captcha). Here's an example:

I am browsing in a small supermarket with my shopping list carefully memorised. As I walk down an isle, a look of mild confusion adorning my face as is usually the case when I am concentrating, a young woman in a blue polo shirt approaches me with an overly wide, fixed smile and says "can I help you find anything?" ...... I stand perplexed for a few seconds wondering why she has chosen the moment of my deepest concentration to attempt discourse, eventually realise she is trying to be helpful and mumble out something about how I'm fine thank you and the confabulation is over. I begin to wonder the store, my concentration gone taking my carefully memorised shopping list with it.

A member of staff approaches the dairy produce section to restock the full fat milk. He sees a young man in a brown leather hat leaning against the sliding door of the pizza container, face blank and eyes glazed. The man is lost in thought, but it is the job of shop staff to sell. He fixes his best smile and utters his well rehearsed introduction. The man looks up, confusion, sadness and anger flash across his face in quick succession. "NO" he says tersely. As he heads for the door, his shoulders slumped in dejection, he pauses, turns to the shocked shop floor assistant and adds "but thank you."

Perhaps the forgetful and easily might do better if he wrote the list down, rather then blaming the staff trying to be helpful for "making" him forget it. After all the odds are that between home and the shops there are going to be more distracting things then shop assistants... like traffic

 

[Jinxzy]

But to be honest i like the no nonsense approach to customer service. If i go to a supermarket and someone in front of me is having a chat with the cashier it may seem like good freindly customer service but in fact its just holding me up. The whole point of a supermarket is so you go in pick up your stuff and leave. The person on the checkout is their to scan your items and take your money. Dont get me wrong im not rude to staff and im always polite. its not because i feel above them. I just think that forced over freindliness is just a bit awkward

Sometimes working in customer service you get really bored and actually want to have a conversation with people now and then. It also helps make our day go by faster because then we stop counting how many hours till we go home or have to deal with a unhappy customer.

For example ive been to america and everywhere you go its always the forced friendliness and i find it quite irritating. I went to a department store over there and your just sorta killing time looking at stuff and someone is constantly over saying "how can i help you?" I can see that you are a member of staff if i needed help i would approach you not the other way around.

Most stores push to make sure everyone is greeted and everyone is asked if they need help. It's a common thing in customer serive in most the jobs that I have worked in.
Heck I like to help people and I'm always chipper and always want to help even if the customer is having a bad day. I like seeing customer service, where the workers actually put effort into helping you and going out of there way to help someone. That's my favorite customer service.

 

[Nouw]

I actually really appreciate it when someone approaches me if they want help. I was quite shy when I was younger so I pretty much never approached customer service for help ._. It's not as bad today but I can definitely understand why it's appreciated.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Customer service people need to learn that most people who either call or walk up to them are angry at the company said customer service person is a representative of. Because many customer service people tend not to get that. And business is lost for the company due to them not getting this.

Actually, many customers need to recognize the limits of power a peon has to correct the problem. The average person in a customer service job has next to no power to actually resolve a customer grievance. Most of them aren't paid well enough to have abuse heaped upon them. If you want good customer service, a key part of the exchange is to be a good customer.

In my experience, when you go looking for help from someone in a service industry, it will help matters tremendously if you approach it with rational civility. And if a display of anger is actually called for, reserve it for someone in a position to actually do something to help rather than just stand around impotently while you abuse them.

There is a funny thing about customer service - your average peon is only a representative of the company in the sense that they work for the company and get paid by the company. At any major store or chain, it takes at least a manager to do something as simple as a refund in most cases.

 

[Little Woodsman]

At the K-Mart I worked at we eventually put up a bulletin board in the back.
On the left side of the board were all the letters & transcripts of phone calls that essentially boiled down to
"I really like your store but I don't want to be bothered while I'm shopping."
On the right side of the board were all the letters & phone transcripts that essentially boiled down to
"I like your store but why didn't anyone offer to help me?"
We called it the "Can't Win" board.

 

[DugMachine]

Personally I don't like to be bothered when I shop. I already don't enjoy talking to strangers for anything so having an employee come up and try to press you for questions/push sales is just annoying. Even when I worked in retail I did as little customer service as possible. I was not opposed to answering questions and if someone looked like they needed my help I would go over and offer assistance but I didn't go up to customers who obviously knew what they wanted and just wanted to shop in peace.

My managers hated it but I still sold what I was supposed to sell without brown nosing all the damn time. Suppose I deserved it when they finally canned me months later but good riddance. I. hate. customer. service.

 

[FalloutJack]

You don't have to smile fakely for me. I'll settle for any service which is decent and not being an ass.

 

[Lilani]

Customer service people need to learn that most people who either call or walk up to them are angry at the company said customer service person is a representative of. Because many customer service people tend not to get that. And business is lost for the company due to them not getting this.

Then perhaps they shouldn't be holding us up for 5 and 10 minutes complaining about things we don't have control over. No, I don't have control over what we do and don't stock. And no, I'm not going to pass word along to my manager about your grievances, because even if I did those decisions occur at a corporate level and not even they have any authority to make or suggest any changes. And certainly the hearsay of ONE customer who has a problem with the way things are being done is not going to change that.

Now, if you contacted them personally by sending an email or giving the customer service hotlines a call, then that might make a difference. At least it will be one more personal complaint on the pile. And a personal complaint they actually have in a database somewhere, not a sticky note from a manager that'll get thrown away before it gets to anybody important. But as a person at the desk, I only have control over the desk. I won't mind so much if they say the words, "I know you don't have any control over this, but..." but if they don't then to me that's indicating that they are assigning some amount of blame to me, and while I'll continue to apologize I will not give a rat's ass about whether or not your problem gets solved. If you don't even have the sense to realize that the person at the desk almost never has anything to do with whatever your problem is, and is not in a position to do anything about it, then I'm sorry, you just haven't done your research in figuring out how to solve your problem. I can't help you if you won't help yourself by taking two seconds to realize, "Oh, this person is under 25 years old and is working the desk at a retail store. She probably isn't ordering the stock for the store, or arranging the floor."

 

[HardkorSB]

For example ive been to america and everywhere you go its always the forced friendliness and i find it quite irritating. I went to a department store over there and your just sorta killing time looking at stuff and someone is constantly over saying "how can i help you?" I can see that you are a member of staff if i needed help i would approach you not the other way around.

Dont get me wrong its not something that really gets on my nerves its just something that i think is a bit awkward. I still understand bad service theres no need for them to be rude either. As long as they do what they are paid to do and do it in a calm polite manner then im happy

To be fair, the employers often impose the "fake smile policy" on their employees.
I used to work at a hotel and my boss once told me: "It doesn't matter how well you do your job as long as you smile". Fuck, he even forced me to smile just for him, when there weren't any customers around... and then he stole my holiday pay (but that's another topic).

Whats your opinion? Do you prefer an overly friendly customer service or someone who does just thier job

Edit: ill extend this to sales people too, i tend to think a pushy or overly polite salesman can actually put me off. Theres something untrust worthy about fake friendliness. As far as sales are concerned as long as they explain the product to me (usually ive researched it before hand anyway, so 9 times out of 10 i know more than them anyway) and offer me a good deal then im a happy chappy

Many companies are doing customer service related research and statistically, a friendly and happy staff is more likely to leave a positive impression.
I also used to work as a door to door salesman (terrible job, by the way) and they gave me a whole course on how to smile (it needs to be specific if you want it to work), how to react to what the customers say and/or do, basically how to fool the customer into buying your product with fake politeness.
They just want to make as much money as possible and they're using every trick in the book.

 

[Dirge Eterna]

One of the reasons for the overly friendly employees is Theft prevention.We are taught that the more you have eye contact or let someone know you are around the less of a chance they will steal I worked at Best Buy 10 years ago and we were taught to talk to and interact with everyone that walked in your department within 30 seconds unless you were with another customer already. I personally could never be fake and I hated pushing things on people so I quit rather than have to offer some poor soul a subscription to Sports Illustrated or Esquire with their CD purchase. Basically the companies want you to sell everything you can to every person so they push like hell to make you be in their vicinity and to encourage a conversation.

 

[Miyenne]

I used to be a shoe store manager. Until I quit because of the stress. Running the store and everything was great.It was the employees I was very close to taking down to the loading docks behind our store and shoving into the trash compactor.

Happy employees; honestly happy people I found did sell more. I always ran the numbers for every day/week/month of sales and yup, the best sales people were the ones who were the most outgoing and friendly. Or at least the best at faking it.

The suckiest salespeople were the whiny teenagers who thought they were above their work and the customers could see that.

A girl I'm still friends with was one of my best sales people. She's 21 now, I'd met her when she was 15 and we hired her. I changed jobs a few times, from assistant manager of a shoe store to managing a kitchen supplies store to managing another shoe store, and the girl worked for me in all those stores. She was tiny and cute and a little weird, but she was my best salesperson even though she worked only part time. Because she's one of those happy people. My little girl, her mom and I got along so well.

So yes; happy outgoing employees are the way to go. As long as they aren't overly chatty when the store's busy. It's a business after all, and the better rapport you can build with the customer the more of their money you can convince them to part with.

 

[shootthebandit]

One of the reasons for the overly friendly employees is Theft prevention.We are taught that the more you have eye contact or let someone know you are around the less of a chance they will steal I worked at Best Buy 10 years ago and we were taught to talk to and interact with everyone that walked in your department within 30 seconds unless you were with another customer already. I personally could never be fake and I hated pushing things on people so I quit rather than have to offer some poor soul a subscription to Sports Illustrated or Esquire with their CD purchase. Basically the companies want you to sell everything you can to every person so they push like hell to make you be in their vicinity and to encourage a conversation.

Ive learned that you just have to be assertive and say no. They prey on the weak minded and gullible, if you are assertive and no exactly what you want you wont get ripped off. Just say NO! In a loud assertive manner (not shouting or rude) they will try the old "why not?" Just reply "because i dont need it". My insurance company rang me up a week after i got my insurance to offer me extra cover. One of which was for my keys. He was like "what if you go out for a drink and lose your keys?" I said "I dont take my car keys out when i drink? Are you accusing me of driving under the influence?" Needless to say he didnt get my money and he ended his sales push there and then

 

[latiasracer]

I've not had very good experiences with Cryptic (Or Perfect world, which ever one handles tickets) as in December i purchased a premium ship for STO (All premium ships come with a special console that grants you an ability) And after fiddling around with my gear it wouldn't let me equip it. I Submitted a ticket, and kinda forgot about it.


I finally got a response at the start of May, suggesting that i dismiss and reclaim my ship again (Which was the first thing i tried)



So it took them half a year to reply with what is essentially "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

 

[Miss G.]

I think customer service should be helpful common decency. I believe as a customer I should not have to run a search expedition after you for help when I really need it (accessibility would be nice) or want you to disappear when I'm clearly not having a problem.