Things that really get my goat!

Someone mentioned something on another thread that made me think of this, it's about poor service in shops. In particular there is one thing that sticks beneath my craw...

Retail Threesomes.

This is where you are waiting to get served and the person in front of you is being served by 3 assistants all at the same time - meaning that no-one else is being served at all.

It happens when a query pops up, that the first assistant can't handle. He/she then turns to ask the advice of a second assistant, who clearly hasn't got a clue either, and so drafts in the help of a third assistant.

It can be something simple like our shop girl Betty is putting a transaction through the till when suddenly...

"ooh Margaret - the till's done something funny - I just pressed this button but it won't let me proceed and it's asking me to do summat else, but I already did that summat else and it's not seemed to register...

Margaret comes over...

"you what luv?"

Story gets repeated only in more detail this time.

Margaret says...

"have you tried doing this....?" and starts fiddling about with it, not knowing what the devil she's doing either. And of course it has no effect, so she shouts Helen...

"Helen, can you pop over a minute luv? Margaret's got a problem with the till"

"What's a matter luv?" Helen says

So first Magaret and then Betty explain all the moves they've made with this piece of kit - meanwhile the queue is getting longer.

"have you tried doing this?" Helen says, as she tries a different manoevre on it. But that doesn't work either...

"Just a minute" Helen says. And Betty and Margaret watch in awe as Helen, who is on bigger wages than the pair of them, jabs the till a few more times until

PING! the till drawer opens and life is almost back to normal.

Except that Betty and Margaret want to ask her what she did, but Helen doesn't really know which one of the 4,532 moves actually caused the thing to open in the end.

The ladies all laugh and Betty says, "I'll know what to do now next time" - and you know for sure that she won't. She'll just call Margaret again.

OK, so what I described here is a fictitious situation, which could be blamed on technical failure. But it's not about machines going wrong - it's about people not being properly trained.

You take something back and want to swop it for something else - that should be simple enough shouldn't it? Oh no...that can cause Betty to have apoplexy. "Nowthen Margaret... he's brought this one back and he wants to take that one instead. This one is dearer than that one - so what should I do? Should I put it through as an exchange or do I have to refund him first for the one he's brought back and then re-charge the new one seperately? The only thing is, the one he brought back he put on a credit card, whereas this one he wants to pay cash for? Do you get me? Margaret looks puzzled and says..."just tell me again..."

Oh - and then the till roll runs out and Betty doesn't know how to change it!

IF YOU ARE WORKING IN A SHOP AND CANNOT DEAL WITH COMMON EVERYDAY SITUATIONS - GO AND SEE YOUR MANAGER AND TELL THEM YOU NEED TRAINING HOW TO DO YOUR JOB.

IF YOU ARE A MANAGER IN A SHOP AND HAVE STAFF LIKE THIS - WHO HAVE TO GANG UP IN 2'S AND 3'S BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T TRAINED THEM TO DO THE BASICS OF THE JOB - PLEASE CONSIDER IT WOULD BE TO YOUR AND THEIR ADVANTAGE TO DO SO.

What about when they stop half way through serving you to answer the phone?

And I'm usualy the one who Margaret is serving when Betty calls her over!

If something like you describe happened to me it would be a swift about turn and I would take my business somewhere else no messing.You don,t have to take bad service you can spend your money wherever you like end of!!!.

I don't mind being held up on 'technical issues' like the one you have so eloquently explained quite so much as when Margaret, Helen and Betty drop the line because Babs the popular girl who left last year to have a baby calls in to show off the photos of her new life, meanwhile customers can go to hell.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Derbytup, are you advertising training or setting up some training centre for retail. How much are your courses?

Im sure the OP of this thread is the ultra effiecient employee of the month every other month where he works

Maybe a stiff drink in a darkened room would help.

Im sure the OP of this thread is the ultra effiecient employee of the month every other month where he works

I'm sure I'm not Guy - although I work for myself so I could give myself that award every month of the year if I liked.

But I did start out in retail - in fact I worked for John Lewis, or Cole Brothers as you may know it.

In those days the tills were not the electronic type on many of the departments (they had just started to introduce them on fast moving goods). They were something known as a Lamson register. This was a till where you had a paper roll of bills inserted in triplicate - that you had to write on and then pull back a handle which would cause 2 of the 3 copies to appear (one for you, one for the customer) whilst the 3rd copy would deposit itself in the till.

The training course at Cole Brothers in those days was about 1 month in duration. You were not allowed on the shop floor to serve customers until you had passed your training course exam. (You could help out in the storeroom for example, but you could NOT be customer facing until you had satisfied them that you know what you were doing).

There were something like 19 different types of transaction I recall at the time. Everything from a straight-forward cash sale through to more complex transactions, including hire purchase or extended credit and transactions to record the loaning of samples etc. You had to know how to do every single one before they allowed you out on the shop floor.

There was no - "send them out there and let them ask Magaret if they get stuck" - absolutely not. You were expected to know it and to be totally professional.

You were not allowed to eat or chew whilst serving. If a customer approached you, you had to give them your full attention immediately, not finish what you were doing first, which might be chatting to a mate. The view was that if it was taking 2 people to serve 1 person there must be something wrong with one of them.

I'm fascinated by your response actually, because it suggests to me that you think what I've described here in terms of poor service is perfectly acceptable then?

I don't.

I think there's a better way and I think that the situation I describe is actually very common.

But it's good that you don't have an issue with it - because it shouldn't bother at all then.

Happy Shopping!

Derbytup, are you advertising training or setting up some training centre for retail. How much are your courses?

No mate, not at all.

I just genuinely don't like poor service - and my gripe is not with the shop assistants either - it's with their bosses for not making sure they are properly equipped to do their jobs.

If I was trying to sell something to someone I'd probably do what many folks on here do and have a little signature that advertises my services - and try and jump in on relevant threads.

Or write rave reviews about the latest sleazy burger bar that I work at and hope that people wouldn't twig I work there.

I take it you've never experienced what I describe then? Good for you. Presume you don't go in shops very much then?

Its like that in the co-op every day, i call it Q-up... what gets my 'goat' is when a shop assistant doesnt look at you or utter a word of please and thank you and a smile would crack her / his face and they have all on to tell you how much the bill comes too ( usually a woman ) total ignorance its a disgrace and they need pulling up by the manager.....

No mate, not at all.

 

I just genuinely don't like poor service - and my gripe is not with the shop assistants either - it's with their bosses for not making sure they are properly equipped to do their jobs.

 

If I was trying to sell something to someone I'd probably do what many folks on here do and have a little signature that advertises my services - and try and jump in on relevant threads.

 

Or write rave reviews about the latest sleazy burger bar that I work at and hope that people wouldn't twig I work there.

 

I take it you've never experienced what I describe then? Good for you. Presume you don't go in shops very much then?

I shop all over but simple things like this wouldn't bother me at all. The only thing I could whinge about is, when people walk into a shop ran by foreigners IE Romanians, Asians, Polish and sometimes change language and start laughing. How rude is that????? I think that is a lot better topic to whinge about.

we cant all be as perfect as the original poster. The situation you describe would not have been solved by training so stop moaning