More retail adventures
I have teenagers tell me regularly of their travails in the retail world. Some of them agree with me that their customers must have been hired by the stores where they work to test customer service. No REAL customers could be like that.People living at or near the poverty line in the USA pay for groceries with a type of "check" that performs the same function that food stamps used to. The check has to be signed or it is worthless. And that's what one teen told me, after she forgot to have a $4 check signed. The store lost $4, and eight supervisors came, one by one, to tell the kid she screwed up. This is a scene directly out of "Office Space." The supervisory reaction not only wastes time and money, but it demoralizes the kid. The kid making the mistake should be told, EXACTLY ONCE AND NO MORE, what happens when this mistake is made. Then the incident should never again be mentioned unless it happens again.
In another store, on another day, a kid was dodging a supervisor. This kid told me "if the supervisor catches me, he'll ask me to work tomorrow. I don't have anything to do; I just don't want to work." Again, it's right out of "Office Space."
Um, I'm going to need you to go ahead and come in tomorrow so if you could be here around 9, that would be great. Umkay... Oh, oh and I almost forgot, ah, I'm also going to need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday too, ok? We, ah, lost some people this week and, uh, we need to sort of play catch up. Thanks...The kid could picture hearing his own personal Lumbergh, so he stayed as far away from the supervisor as possible. Until the supervisor hung out next to the time clock, playing basketball with crumpled paper, until the kid had to clock out. No avoiding that.
In one of the stores, a supervisor accused a cashier of "flirting" with one of the baggers, because they were working the same checkout line and they talked to each other. You know, the customers HEAR this stuff. And they LOVE it. AND they side with the kids. A word to the wise.
posted by Ron @ 10:17 AM
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