h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thats how i feel about so called shop assistants. The only training some of them must get is how to say, *ers yer change* and shown how to throw in on the counter. When asked *where are the toilet rolls* they just stare blankly at you for minutes as if you have just asked them to perform a heart transplant. Please and thank you are not even on their vocabulary. Are they tired of living? Do they know what a smile is? Ah come on it would not kill em, would it?

I have to say, speaking as a customer rather than a store clerk, that customers don't treat employees like human beings. The people who work the cash registers face other people all day, but are dealt with more like machines. You walk up, pay them, and take your merchandise without so much as acknowledging the existence of the person behind the counter. Maybe they just need a little more socialisation...

Well i can see your point, but if they didnt act like machines then they wouldnt get treated like them by most people. Just by saying hello when a customer goes to pay for something automatically breaks the ice and allows both parties to feel important and worthy.

That may be... but why can't the customer make the first move and smile and say hello?

Ah im not saying that they cant, of course they can! But they arnt the ones who are supposed to be providing the service!

Wholeheartly agreeing with you (as I do) I would like to pose another question for you to ponder. What type of shop produces the most miresable employers. I for one have never met a happy fishmonger - all I want is a smile and a bit of cod.

Theres a happy fishmonger in Stoke Newington, London, UK. On the High Street, next door to the butcher (who is also fairly cheerful).



pj

How about sports shops. They assistants are only a few years older than me but they walk like zombies.
Do u have this in a size 10 please?
yes
can I have it then?
yes
will u go get it?
yes.
(lurges off)...comes back a few minutes later
can I have then then?
yes

well maybe not that bad but still.
and don't try to take something back.

My point exactly! There should be a law against shop assistants with barely enough brain cells to get dressed!

Shall I write to my MP ?

Shall I write to my MP ?

Shall I write to my MP ?

Sorry

Well what can i say! No need to repeat your self Yeah lets all write to our MPs!!!

I cant remember who mine is.
I think it's Chris Smith.
Certainly labour (yay!).

I do find the above statement to be quite alarming, as I am a sales man myself!
I can only assume you are talking about a supermarket or PC WORLD salesperson!
One thing I would say is, you try smiling all day, each and every day to the customers!
Most members of the public look down upon you because we only work in a shop and dont sit on our bottoms each and every day,(well monday to friday anyway!), and finish work between 3-30 / 4-00!
No, most of us lowdown scum sucking shopworkers dont get home to our lowerclass dives we call home, untill around 7-30/ 8-00, but thats ok, because we dont have important office jobs that tax our little minds!

ooohh!

get that deep-fried potato rectangle of yer shoulder mate!

I've worked in shops and offices, and I do think shop work is harder, on your feet all day, longer hours (sometimes) and less money But office work can be much more boring. The uniforms for shop work are horrible and uncomfy, but in an office you have to buy 'smart clothes.' In offices theres more backstabbing and bitchiness than i've found in shopwork, but thats just the nature of middle management and the insecurites of the professional classes - carefully fostered by senior management to foster 'competition and motivation' - my 2 favourite things

Oh yeah- more promiscuity among shop workers than office workers

But then I am talking in blatant steroetypes here...

Now call center work - that really sux

hellomynameisjennythankyouforcallingthiscrappyshedimstuckinhowcanihelpyou

I have a pal who's a bus driver. he told me of a passenger who complained that he didn't smile. He politely asked her to give him a smile. She thought that he was being sarky, he eventualy got her to smile, and then said "Now stay like that for 12 hours".

One of his mates was told by a passenger that he was a miserable sod. His reply was that "I am here to drive a bus, not entertain you".

I have a naturally sunny disposition even when I have had less than 4 hours sleeps in any 3 day period .

I sing to.

but then again I've never had a job as I'm pampered by well off parents

I'm an American with 10+ years experience dealing with the public in customer service and management positions. Now, let me tell you the average customer deals with a CSA (Customer Service Associate).

The best CSA training has them greet customers with a smile as they come in the door - "Hi, welcome to (whatever store you happen to work at....)" When the customer is in line, you want to make eye contact with them, nod or whatever just to acknowledge they exist. This seems to help, but some people are just cranky and that's all there is to it.

However, a lot of customers apparently have never had to deal with the public before, because they refuse to make eye contact with the CSA, tend to talk to them in the 3rd person, and when handing them their money, they put it on the counter. To me, that's just plain disrespectful, and it broadcasts their disdain for the clerk's position. They're saying, "You're a second-class citizen."

Now, you try dealing with the day-to-day requirements of being a clerk, with all I've described plus cleaning up after a bunch of people that would never leave such filth in their own home (fountain cola areas are the worst!), and who break stuff, vandalize the restrooms, and you have to suggestively sell items to them that they would never consider normally.

After 10 to 12 hours of that for five days a week, most cashiers aren't very social....

I personally feel that a law requiring at least 1 year of customer service experience be needed to graduate high school. At least that way the customer would know the other side of the counter, and maybe show a bit more respect for the hard-working person taking care of them. And I think customer service would improve, in general. Make no mistake about it - Customer Service is hard work.