The title of this post, I do believe, is becoming a reality. Not only at our store but, almost every store I go in.
My cousin and I hit the road Wednesday and decided to do some shopping. We traveled to one of the shopping malls, on the north side of town, and found the place to be rather empty. Had no trouble finding a good parking spot and, there was absolutely no rush of shoppers to contend with. Kind of reminded me of where I work.
In total, we visited four stores during our shopping spree.
Out of the four stores, there was only one that had great service. This store is a very popular, national company, if not international, and the service and personality of the employees was top notch. I found out that these employees are trained and they genuinely like their job.
This reminded me of how we use to be.
Now on to the other three stores.
At one of these stores I made a purchase and as I was being checked out, I got a little behind the scenes dialog. The clerk that was checking out my order, had the cell phone in her left hand, used the cash register with her right hand and when a co-worker came by she was able to start a conversation with her; multi-tasking.
Now granted the actions of the clerk was not, what would be considered, good customer service - but hey, I kind of envied the clerk's ability to do all three things at one time. But, what more caught my attention was the conversation that ensued;
Clerk #2 - "Hey, have ya seen the schedule?"
Clerk #1 - "No." (as she removes the cell phone from her ear)
Clerk #1 - "I had 32 hours last week and 28 hours this week." ( as she turns to Clerk #2 while bagging my purchase.)
Clerk #2 - "Well, you got 0 hours next week."
For a second, or two, Clerk #1 just stood there staring at Clerk #2 while holding my bag. Finally, Clerk #1 took my money and handed over my purchase.
So, as a customer, would I go back? Yes I would - I like the fashions at this store.
Would I send an email to the corporate headquarters about the type of customer service I witnessed? Not at all.
I look at it this way, the company is to blame for the type of service the employees display. These clerks had probably not been trained, except for the business end, and the actions they displayed will probably be how they act at future jobs which, sooner or later, could cause a problem for them.
And, just guessing, I would say that they have nothing to look forward to with this job except a minimum wage paycheck.
As a consumer, I feel the companies are at the root of customer service. How employees act all depends on how they are treated by the employers.
I'm glad that I was able to work during a different time. A time when employers provided their employees with incentive and good working conditions. When the pay you received enabled you to dream and provided a stable life. It was when employees were valued for their strong support.
Coming back to work, I see so much of what I have witnessed at other stores. But, that is to be expected when there are employees who are just passing through and making low pay.
Like one employee told me, "Hey, it's just a job."
Talk at ya later!
My cousin and I hit the road Wednesday and decided to do some shopping. We traveled to one of the shopping malls, on the north side of town, and found the place to be rather empty. Had no trouble finding a good parking spot and, there was absolutely no rush of shoppers to contend with. Kind of reminded me of where I work.
In total, we visited four stores during our shopping spree.
Out of the four stores, there was only one that had great service. This store is a very popular, national company, if not international, and the service and personality of the employees was top notch. I found out that these employees are trained and they genuinely like their job.
This reminded me of how we use to be.
Now on to the other three stores.
At one of these stores I made a purchase and as I was being checked out, I got a little behind the scenes dialog. The clerk that was checking out my order, had the cell phone in her left hand, used the cash register with her right hand and when a co-worker came by she was able to start a conversation with her; multi-tasking.
Now granted the actions of the clerk was not, what would be considered, good customer service - but hey, I kind of envied the clerk's ability to do all three things at one time. But, what more caught my attention was the conversation that ensued;
Clerk #2 - "Hey, have ya seen the schedule?"
Clerk #1 - "No." (as she removes the cell phone from her ear)
Clerk #1 - "I had 32 hours last week and 28 hours this week." ( as she turns to Clerk #2 while bagging my purchase.)
Clerk #2 - "Well, you got 0 hours next week."
For a second, or two, Clerk #1 just stood there staring at Clerk #2 while holding my bag. Finally, Clerk #1 took my money and handed over my purchase.
So, as a customer, would I go back? Yes I would - I like the fashions at this store.
Would I send an email to the corporate headquarters about the type of customer service I witnessed? Not at all.
I look at it this way, the company is to blame for the type of service the employees display. These clerks had probably not been trained, except for the business end, and the actions they displayed will probably be how they act at future jobs which, sooner or later, could cause a problem for them.
And, just guessing, I would say that they have nothing to look forward to with this job except a minimum wage paycheck.
As a consumer, I feel the companies are at the root of customer service. How employees act all depends on how they are treated by the employers.
I'm glad that I was able to work during a different time. A time when employers provided their employees with incentive and good working conditions. When the pay you received enabled you to dream and provided a stable life. It was when employees were valued for their strong support.
Coming back to work, I see so much of what I have witnessed at other stores. But, that is to be expected when there are employees who are just passing through and making low pay.
Like one employee told me, "Hey, it's just a job."
Talk at ya later!
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