So you wake up and you had a bad night’s sleep, you get to work only to find that you are in a dead end retail job because you are over qualified for the fast food method of income, but under qualified or unwilling to kiss rear to work for a Fortune 25 company. So you get to work and deal with the needy people who you honestly don’t care if they upgrade or buy the extra large mocha frap, but are pushed into doing it because of your need to pay rent or mortgage. Add to that the fact that if you want to continue to be employed, you need to make sure the customer is happy with his or her *insert finished good here* or their repair of their *insert computer or mechanical device here*
Then along comes some customer and maybe he’s just not happy with his product. Maybe his wife didn’t make his breakfast to his liking that morning. What am I, a psychologist? No, I’m a retail employee that is just there to help him out because of his *insert item here* is not working. Maybe because he broke it, maybe because whatever company I work for makes a crappy product. Regardless, I deal with his issue as best I can, even though I can’t control how he is treated by my co-workers or bosses or both.
I get home, kiss my boyfriend, fix a cuppa and start to relax only to find out the next day that said customer has lodged a complaint with the BBB because he’s just not happy with the service of his *whatever it is* and would like a full refund on the *life mask of david bowie* because he thinks it doesn’t look right.
Working in retail you get used to the stories about how to get your way by customers who actually tell you “I’m not mad at YOU. I’m just frustrated that my Dell/HP/Compaq isn’t working the way I want it to, and I heard that if I just came in here and raised cane, I could get a new one.”
I have actually heard these words come out of a customer’s mouth! In a smaller computer company with enough employees to maybe play a game of footie with…
So the retail store is a smaller company. You have met the owner of the company and you only have a small handful of stores, so you’re not as big as some of the Goliath stores like Best Buy or CompUSA, but you get by with the small client base you have. Only to have those customers who come in acting a fool so they can feel less frustrated.
Is it really my fault that Tom is frustrated by the product he’s bought? I guess this is why I work retail, because say I worked at Cisco or IBM in a corporate setting where I could have my own cubicle and not deal with any customers and just be able to apply my own ideas and develop my own software, I would get a little pissed if my brand new shiny BMW had the muffler fall off of it. But I wouldn’t go into the dealer wanting the salesman to give me a brand new model. I’d get the car fixed and sell it and buy a Benz or Infiniti.
Retail employees get the crappy end of the deal. So next time you go to a retail joint and have an issue, remember to be nice to the employee even if you’re pissed off and frustrated. Even if the employee is a complete crackhole to you, why do you need to stoop to their level? At least YOU aren’t working in retail.
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There’s a delicate balance between being a forceful customer and being a patient customer when you’re trying to get your product fixed. If someone has never been in your shoes, they don’t understand how stupid they look. A grown adult throwing a tantrum in the middle of public while a young store clerk stands patiently behind the counter is an all too common sight. Working at a luxury hotel, I see this very very often. But here in America everyone thinks they’re royalty and that they must get their way and it must be perfect or the world is gonna split itself open and devour humanity. As the calm young person behind the counter, it is our duty to look at the irate customer with that same look your mother gave you when you cried and cried and cried because she didn’t buy you that ice cream when you were 4. That look that says, “Really? Are you seriously that upset over something so minor? Do you not realize that here on Planet Earth there are much more critical matters taking place? Famine, disease, war, and you’re a grown man with a family throwing a fit because the hotel room you booked had a Queen size bed instead of a King size bed? Really? Wow.” It doesn’t calm the customer down, it doesn’t fix their product. But it reminds you how lucky you are to not be an average piece of sh*t American making us look bad to the rest of the world. (and I’m focusing on Americans because at my hotel with all of our international customers, 90% of this BS occurs with Americans)
Welcome to mybiggestcomplaint.com, Samantha and thank you for not pouncing the customer and digging your thumbs into his eye sockets.
The best business advice I ever received on dealing with irate customers was a from a multi-millionaire who had started his own surf shop. Anytime we had an irate customer, he would look at me and say “Kill ‘em with kindness.” 5 minutes after unleashing this art filled kindness on the screaming customer, they would end up buying more stuff from the store even if they were returning an original item. He had made the kill.
You should hear the stories my friend tells me of working in food service at Disneyland. People who are tied of waiting in lines all day who have to wait in a line to eat. So much anger. Adults have temper tantrums more than the kids!
M on November 3rd, 2007 at 12:46 pm | Link
i work in a consignment store where all sales are final, it states on our receipt clearly. This lady bought a leather jacket, loving it soo much at the time, din’t care if it was a little too big. she bought it to her seamstress and it would cost $100 for her to fix. 30 days later she came back and said it cost to much to fix and she wants to return. She got irate & back pedling and making up excuses that she din’t know it was a final sale and that it din’t state anywhere in her receipt and that she’s a big spender in the store and i should take it back. She was not a big spender. I was firm and told her i cannot take it back, once items are bought we pay the consignor. policy are policy and that she waited too long to bring it back, she then blame it on her seamstress that she kept it all this time. She said she’s never coming back etc…I handle it as calmly as I should but wish i could have made her realize how unfair and ignorant she was being without insulting her. she had bought from the store before and knew that all sales were final too. I know this is only a comment but can some post a comment regarding what they think i could do better or a more creative way so the customer will walk out feel stupid for what she did and not irate?
robson on December 11th, 2007 at 11:22 pm | Link