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mellowtune:
--- Quote from: Patrick on 25 Nov 2012, 00:34 ---I would like for all customers to leave me the fuck alone, because I have shit to do that is more important to me than they are. Fuck no I work stock for a reason.
--- End quote ---
lol, I get questions all the time from customers about where stuff is, and I think to myself "I dunno, maybe if you asked somebody in STOCK they could tell you."
but then again, like you point out, someone in stock has other things that are more priority: stocking items, organizing the store, getting stuff out of the shipping trucks, etc.
Papersatan:
The division of labor in most retail stores is not designed for good customer service. As someone who likes giving good customer service, it drives me crazy. It is one of those things I have trouble articulating without everyone hating me; like some sort of suck up to other peons, and like a troublemaker to management.
Hourly retail workers feel like they are entitled loath their customers, right? We are paid shit, and they just bother us and make it harder to do our jobs. That is so backwards, the customers should be your job. They are why you are there (see what a tool I sound like). The problem is the MBA's who work in corporate don't have any understanding of how to actually motivate employees or why they are there. We are not here because we have some deep desire to help people buy pants. We work this dumb job for a paycheck. Our goal is to not get fired until we have a new job. Or to get that 15 cent raise next quarter. You can't expect us to cheerfully help all our customers if we can do better at our measured performance by NOT doing so. Only tools like me will fight against the measurements and do extra work to help customers in meaningful ways. And tools like me? We have a high turnover rate, because you don't pay us enough for our trouble.
My biggest problem working at Macy's was that as much as they emphasize great customer service in their literature, the way they divided departments and measured employee performance made it impossible to do well while also giving great customer service. And I think it is the case in many retail jobs. "customer service" is listed as a job function for all employees, but no one employee is given the time or knowledge to actually do it. It leaves most employees feeling like "well it is not my job!" or "how should I know, that is not my department" and not helping the poor customers, who have no way of knowing which of the uniformed people are able to help them. Everyone loses. Customers are frustrated, employees hate their jobs, and the company loses money.
Someone hire me as a corporate strategist please?
mellowtune:
lol, I like your post Papersatan.
I'd hate to sound like a greedy bitch or something, but what would motivate a LOT of people in retail is if they were actually paid a decent amount of work for what we do.
We also feel helpless in the fact that we don't have a lot of control over how things are run. I had a customer asking me why he couldn't find chestnuts or licorice prices on the self-checkout machine, and I just said to him "unfortunately, they have it work another way" and he couldn't understand why. Yeah, that'd be a great idea, so they didn't have to memorize the bin number for every item they picked up in the snack aisle that goes by weight, but do I have a say in how the corporation does things? No.
If I have a void $5.00 or more, I have to call up someone to override it for me so that the customer can finish their order. I can't just override it myself. Why? Because I'm not high enough on the corporate hierarchy.
Basically, I think most of us have enough motivation to do our job. We get paid, not a large amount but we do get paid. What would motivate us more is if we actually had the ability to do more. And not just have to wave our hands up in the air and scream "help!" whenever a customer makes a boo-boo.
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and to help myself stay on topic,
these gloves look pretty spiffy!
riccostar:
How about all this?
http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TO&Category_Code=QC
mellowtune:
my favorite on there is probably the YOLO t-shirt. :D
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