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Topic: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?  (Read 6449 times)

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Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« on: November 06, 2008, 12:53:24 PM »
I took DD out for a walk this morning in her pushchair. As I neared our flat I stopped into the local Farm Foods Shop to see if there was anything that jumped out at me for dinner tonight. Well, I walk in behind a woman with a guide dog, obviously visually impaired and she proceeds to stand directly at the end of the set of tills. She was wearing a yellow high visibility jacket. The clerk looks up from the queue of customers at the woman and just proceeds to go back to serving the queue. The woman just keeps standing there. The clerk spends the next 7 or 8 minutes or so (the time it took me to browse the entire shop) with her queue before looking up again at the woman and then says to her 'oh sorry love, I didn't see you.' She then goes over to her to see what she needs. The clerk had the attitude of being completely bent out of shape with having to help this woman and if I was alone without the pushchair I would have helped her. You could see by looking at the woman that she was clearly irritated by the lack of response of the staff.

Mind you, there were 5 or 6 other workers in the shop in that time, I counted and I also approached one of them on the shop floor to let them know that a special needs customer was waiting by the tills. I was met with the reply 'oh sorry me duck not my job'.

I've noticed this before, a lack of courtesy and just plain politeness in most places & shops that I have been to. The only place that I could rely on to have a 'customer friendly' attitude was my favorite Starbucks in Derby. My husband and I frequented there because of it and now they've closed it.

Anyway, Back to this morning, I couldn't keep my mouth shut and did tell the clerk that she should be ashamed of herself for ignoring that woman. All the clerk kept saying was well I had a queue of people and I couldn't stop to help her. I replied with 'you have a little bell you push when you need assistance, right? That's what you should have done since there is at least 5 other people working in the shop right now. Where I come from that is just a common courtesy.'

So I did go off a little. As my husband would say I 'got American on her'. Oh well. I kinda feel badly but not much.

Is this just isolated to my area or is it much more common than I think?
« Last Edit: November 06, 2008, 01:22:56 PM by WebyJ »


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Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2008, 01:05:06 PM »
I think you did the right thing.  If I had been working that till I would have said to the customer, "I'll have somebody come right over and help you, but I can't leave the till just now."  Then I would have rung the bell (don't they have an intercom system--what's with the bell, that's so antiquated!)

I have a few pet peeves about grocery stores in general, mostly because I worked in one for a long time.  I hate how all the stick things that separate each customer's groceries build up down by the cashier and they don't seem to push them down towards the customer with any sense of urgency whatsoever.  So everyone just stands their not emptying their baskets.  (For some reason, I've noticed that shoppers in the UK are shy about putting their groceries on the belt without a stick to separate their stuff from the previous customer's stuff)

Also, due to everyone *sitting down* at the till, instead of standing, it just seems to slow the whole process down.  I hate how the till and the belt is virtually at armpit level with the cashier.  It just looks so ineffective.
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Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2008, 01:06:08 PM »
Don't feel badly, you did what you thought was right.  It's good that you care about others and stand up for them when you feel they are being mistreated.  
Once I was on the Tube in London and this elderly blind person came on and was struggling to stand up and hold onto the handrail.  I was the only person who offered her my seat, seeing as how she obviously needed it more than me.  There were so many young men around who could've offered her their seat, and in Texas, it would almost be expected.  Yet when going to college in Dallas, I still witnessed people closing the door when a disabled person was approaching on crutches who would have to struggle to get the door open.  People suck sometimes.  They should be so unlucky to end up in similar situation.   >:(
Bravo to you for doing what you thought was right.  Maybe she will take better action next time to not leave a disabled person unassisted.


Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2008, 06:01:49 PM »


Anyway, Back to this morning, I couldn't keep my mouth shut and did tell the clerk that she should be ashamed of herself for ignoring that woman. All the clerk kept saying was well I had a queue of people and I couldn't stop to help her. I replied with 'you have a little bell you push when you need assistance, right? That's what you should have done since there is at least 5 other people working in the shop right now. Where I come from that is just a common courtesy.'


I appreciate that you felt badly for the blind woman, but i think you were out of order here.
I'm sure there was a more polite way of pointing out what you felt were the error of their ways than this!

Dunno... maybe it's just me... but this is a small example of the type of behaviour that makes me cringe at being an American.    Because people don't remember the 'nice' Americans... they only remember the loud ones, the obnoxious ones;  the ones that 'make a scene'.  :(

I do understand that you were doing what you thought was right, but you're in a different country now, and perhaps you need to adjust your expectations and possibly your behaviour.
Just a thought.


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Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2008, 06:07:00 PM »
WebyJ, I think you did the right thing. It sounds like the clerk wasn't sure how to handle a long queue and a customer with an obvious need, but I think pointing out that what they did was pretty unacceptable was fine.
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Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2008, 06:24:26 PM »
This is not really a US or UK thing IMO. It's just an employee who either didn't know what to do or couldn't be arsed.

I'd have had a word no matter where I was though I'd certainly try not to make a scene.
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Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2008, 07:09:03 PM »
I live in Derby, and I normally don't have a problem with customer service.  Usually when I walk away thinking "The nerve!" it's due to a fellow shopper.  :P

I would have said something in that instance, and think you were right for doing so.  I don't think I would have shouted or been harsh, though.  I can understand being angry in that situation, but it really is more effective to say calmly what the person could have done differently.

I have had a couple of negative experiences, but I really don't think it's that bad overall here.  Maybe we just shop at different places?
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Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2008, 07:14:33 PM »
'Where I come from that is just a common courtesy.'

That's the bit that's going to get up their noses.  Meddling American, they'll think.  
But I do appreciate your sentiment and I agree that people seem to be getting ruder all the time. (Is it the economy?)  We have a number of high school students ride our bus in the morning.  Several of them have taken to sitting in the "Please offer these seats to the elderly and handicapped..." area at the front.  Two or three quite elderly women, a pregnant woman and a blind woman get on and are not offered these seats unless one of my friends or I speak to the students.  And even then its very grudgingly.
I was in a chemists recently (where they have a long counter with several tills and people tend to form one queue) patiently waiting my turn when a woman and her kid waltz up to one of the (busy) tills.  Then the woman goes off to find something and leaves the kid there, so when the assistant is free I go over but Shrew-Mom is back screaming at me that the kid was keeping her place.  You'd have thought I had duffed the kid one!  Everyone of course was all sympathy for her!
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Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2008, 09:33:06 PM »
For 2 years every saturday morning at 10:30 I would meet a nice blind gentleman called Steve and his guide dog and take them round the Tescos where I worked picking out his shopping for him.
I'd read him the labels as he was on a low sodium diet and tell him about new foreign foods because he liked to try different things but it's difficult when you're blind to pick out new things that take your fancy.
When his sister got married I helped him pick out a shirt and tie and when she had a baby we picked out baby clothes.

A free of charge service provided by Tescos, my mum (who still works there) says he still asks about how I'm doing when he comes in.

One time an old lady came in to buy a TV and asked at customer services if they could ring her a taxi and have one of our lads help her put it in the car. The manager happened to be working past (he was a lovely bloke) and said "I can do better than that love" and he drove her home in his Mercedes where (apparently) she waved at her neighbours like she was the queen (bless!) and he brought her TV in for her and set it up in her lounge.

What I'm trying to say is.... I wish people would stop generalising about things.
I've had some truly awful customer service in the States and in the UK and in India yadda yadda yadda

And to be honest, if you had time to be finding staff members and shouting at them about how people have more courtesy where you come fromyou probably could have helped the blind lady. She was probably just wondering where the milk was.


Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #9 on: November 06, 2008, 09:50:36 PM »
I'll just say, because I work in a shop that nothing winds us up more than people telling us what we can 'just do'.  You can 'just open another till',  you can 'just call someone to help', you can 'just order the sandwich/drink/candy bar that I want'  or our favorite: you can 'just sell this cheaper because Tescos does'.  Unfortunately unless you actually work there you've no idea what a shop  can do-who's till trained, who's job it is to do what, who's supposed to be where doing what.  Working in a shop is far more complicated than a lot of people think it is.
I do agree that the shop assistant should have spoken to this woman and told her it'd be a few minutes instead of ignoring her.  That was pretty rude, but she wouldn't have been able to stop serving  because people get pretty annoyed with that and the other people working there probably did have other jobs that they were supposed to be doing.  It really is expecting a lot of a shop to think that there is going to be someone free immediately to deal with something like this.  We have some people who are disabled who use our shop and we make the best effort we can to be helpful and efficient with our service.  But it just isn't always possible.  Sometimes they have to wait.

You'd have been better off asking to speak to a manager or supervisor about this to express your concern.  Having a go at the shop worker gets you no where even if you're right.  It just means that you've pissed her off and she won't forget it every single time you come in for the rest of your life.


Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2008, 07:46:07 AM »
I'll just say, because I work in a shop that nothing winds us up more than people telling us what we can 'just do'.  You can 'just open another till',  you can 'just call someone to help', you can 'just order the sandwich/drink/candy bar that I want'  or our favorite: you can 'just sell this cheaper because Tescos does'.  Unfortunately unless you actually work there you've no idea what a shop  can do-who's till trained, who's job it is to do what, who's supposed to be where doing what.  Working in a shop is far more complicated than a lot of people think it is.
I do agree that the shop assistant should have spoken to this woman and told her it'd be a few minutes instead of ignoring her.  That was pretty rude, but she wouldn't have been able to stop serving  because people get pretty annoyed with that and the other people working there probably did have other jobs that they were supposed to be doing.  It really is expecting a lot of a shop to think that there is going to be someone free immediately to deal with something like this.  We have some people who are disabled who use our shop and we make the best effort we can to be helpful and efficient with our service.  But it just isn't always possible.  Sometimes they have to wait.

You'd have been better off asking to speak to a manager or supervisor about this to express your concern.  Having a go at the shop worker gets you no where even if you're right.  It just means that you've pissed her off and she won't forget it every single time you come in for the rest of your life.


EXACTLY!!

Like i was trying to say, there must have been a better way to let them know they messed up, rather than telling them how to do their jobs.
Nothing is going to get up someone's nose quicker... unless that same 'how to do your job' message is delivered with an American accent!   
The usual answer to the 'where i come from, this is just a common courtesy' comment would normally be, then FCK OFF back to where you came from.   Unfortunate, but true.   :-\\\\


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Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2008, 09:46:30 AM »
For 2 years every saturday morning at 10:30 I would meet a nice blind gentleman called Steve and his guide dog and take them round the Tescos where I worked picking out his shopping for him.
I'd read him the labels as he was on a low sodium diet and tell him about new foreign foods because he liked to try different things but it's difficult when you're blind to pick out new things that take your fancy.
When his sister got married I helped him pick out a shirt and tie and when she had a baby we picked out baby clothes.

MaryKate - this has intrigued me...how did you get involved in doing this?  Through some sort of charity?
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Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2008, 10:08:11 AM »
OK, well, only one statement from my whole post has been used to make a point, which everyone does and that's fine.  Just wanted to remind you guys if you read my first response to this situation, I pointed out that people are rude anywhere and everywhere.  Sure, when I originally went to London, I was pretty surprised that none of the strapping young men on the train would offer their seat to an old blind lady, where I thought to myself in Texas that would be common courtesy.  And I certainly didn't chastise anyone for not standing up for her!
Then again, I was also reflecting on the fact that in college in Texas, I watched people literally shut the door in a disabled person's face while he tried to manouver his crutches and open it for himself.  So maybe those Texas manners weren't really as courteous as I remember them being at times.  Poor customer service happens anywhere.  I understand what you are saying about people getting a bad opinion of Americans for telling someone how to do their job, etc., but I don't think Americans should just always walk around and keep their mouths shut for fear of giving a bad impression of the country itself.  
When we were in America, DH was shocked at the complete lack of help by salespeople, and he made a few snippy comments to them himself, and he is a pretty shy guy in public, but just felt he didn't have to tolerate being treated that way.  I doubt that left those salespeople thinking all English people are rude, and if they did, so what?  Why does everyone care so much what other people think?  What's wrong with speaking your mind sometimes if you think something warrants it?  
Only the OP was in the situation, and she did what she felt was right.  I wasn't there, so I can't say how serious an offence the situation was, but why should she keep her mouth shut just because she is American?  No one is saying its great to "make a scene" but why just walk around with your head down because you are afraid of what others might think?
If I give a few people in a store a reason to bash Americans, so what?  There are maybe 50 people here I have had conversations with who thought I was canny and nice and whatever and maybe I improved their opinions.  
Sorry to rant, but really, it gets old that people are always so worried about someone giving a negative impression of Americans.  Each person should decide for themselves whether their behaviour is appropriate or not, American, English, or whoever.  


Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #13 on: November 07, 2008, 10:29:59 AM »
I know that I pretty much opened my mouth and inserted my foot even as I was talking to the clerk. But, as someone who advocated for those not as fortunate as I in my past life (before coming to the UK I was a Social Worker) I cannot stand by and just accept that 'its just the way it is' because it's not (I am also a Libra and cannot stand injustice). I also want to say that when I did confront the clerk there were no other customers in the shop other than the visually impaired woman and at no time did I ever raise my voice, shout or use an angry tone.

My husband is the manager of a retail shop and was absolutely appalled when I told him about what happened yesterday. Appalled not at my action but by the non action of the clerk. Especially when I told him there were at least 5 or 6 other staff in that shop including the clerk that was up on tills. There are only 3 tills and 5 aisles at this location as it is quite small and to have that many people working there at one time is a lot. But he also told me that he too has had poor service when shopping there as well.

I worked retail for 7 years and often was alone working in my shop, but being retail trained in the US it was drilled into my head that you greet people as they come through the door, offer assistance and if you cannot assist someone at that moment, apologize and tell them that you will be with them shortly and if they felt that something or someone has slighted them I would apologize and accept responsibility even if it was not mine to do.

There is poor customer service everywhere, I agree, no matter what country you live in. As far as the line 'from where I am from, this unacceptable' I even used that line when I lived in the Bay Area in California. I was raised in the country and perhaps with different values than those in the city so for me to use that phrase is not just because I live in a different country.

But as this is grievances and I needed to rant. Yes, I could have handled it differently and possibly if presented with the situation again in the future I will.


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Re: Customer Service or Actually a Lack Thereof?
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2008, 10:40:53 AM »
Why do you feel you "inserted your foot"? 
You listed tons of reasons why you should've said something, but not too many reasons why you shouldn't, other than you seem a bit embarrassed that your DH said you "got American on her."  If DH had said that to me, it would've been a compliment, he likes that I am assertive and speak my mind when I feel I should (many English women do, as well), and I am sure your hubby feels the same, especially since he agreed with you that someone was being treated unfairly. 
Don't let other people make you feel bad with the "you're confirming the stereotype" blah blah blah.  You did what you felt was right, you obviously didn't make a scene, and you shouldn't worry so much what others think (hard when you are a Libra, but still!).  Maybe next time the clerks in the store will be more considerate to disabled people, maybe not.  But I am sure she appreciated the fact that you stood up for her, if she knew that you did. 


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