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| Punching Bag Bitch, cry and whine your way into oblivion. |
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Dec 15, 05
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But I agree, customers who stay in 15 minutes after close, that have 10 staff members congregated in that department waiting for them to leave, that continue to shop are rude. They most likely wouldn't stay late for their jobs, why ask us to stay late for ours? 
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Dec 15, 05
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^^agreed, I worked at toys r us last christmas season and contrary to popular belief "oh working there must be so much fun!", well no, not really, actually its far from fun...
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Dec 15, 05
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Dec 15, 05
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lol i usually just tell the customers we are closing, then they just pay and leaves
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Dec 15, 05
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I hear what your sayin Tys' but remember, they provide you with a paycheque. I've had some cases where someone comes in @ like 30 seconds before closing and I have to sit with them for 30 min or so. Its rare, but it happens...
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Dec 16, 05
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Just cause of a few bad experiences doesn't mean that we should have to get out of retail. Besides, there is always something to learn from from even the worst experience.
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Dec 16, 05
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Business is BUSINESS.
It's what pays our bills. My store is supposed to close at 9:00 every night. Usually, our doors are open until AT LEAST 9:30. In the summer on Robson we are often open until 11:00 on the weekends. Yes, it may interfere with employees' plans. Yes, it may suck to have to work that late. But, from a business perspective, it's foolish to ever turn away business. Yoko, some customers DO suck, however, it's extremely unprofessional to "laugh at them behind closed doors". I'm sure that I have been a pain in the ass customer my fair share of times, however, it doesn't often occur to the retail employees that maybe THEY are the problem. Not a lot of retail stores these days offer excellent customer service, and employees with bad attitudes who act like they are too good to be there REALLY piss off customers. There ARE a lot of people who work in retail and really don't have the personality for it. I don't really know where I'm going with this other than the fact that I am really, really, really sick and tired of poor customer service. It reallys says something about the industry when a manager like myself goes out to recruit and ends up calling head offices to complain about not only a lack of customer service, but outright rudeness!
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Dec 16, 05
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Why would you have 10 staff members waiting for one customer to leave? Send 8 home and have the manager on duty stay with one sales associate. We have to stay late for our jobs because we work in the service industry. I guess my outlook on retail is a lot different than most retail employees because I don't work retail for the discount. I work retail because I love the business, I love customer service, and I am extremely passionate about the industry.
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Dec 16, 05
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If we don't make sales plan, we don't get bonus. I work my freaking ass off for my bonus, and it's quite nice to get a little reward every month for working so damn hard (and not complaining about all the overtime). Next time all you part-time (non-salary) folk complain about having to stay an hour late and getting PAID for it, remember for a second how hard your manager(s) work and the fact that they're NOT getting paid to stay on their own time.
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Dec 16, 05
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i just started a retail job in a store that mostly makes sales through regular customers meaning customer service has to be top notch. maybe its cause im fresh in the field but i love it so far.
i have to put in some agreeance with the lady above this post, its a customer service job. you're there to serve people, just like how you should be served when you're shopping. maybe i've had too many jobs where its almost expected to be staying late, maybe im too nice, but i dont have a problem with people coming in and myself making one more sale. a sale is a sale. on my first day i had a lady trying to barder with me, it was uncomfertable, but fine. i handled it, she didnt get a deal but still ended up buying the mittens. i donno really, but i think working in the retail world is all about pleasing the public, and if you dont like it, find a job you do enjoy.
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Dec 16, 05
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natalie wins best attitude in this thread hands down.
guys, it comes with the territory. if im closing the queue and people call in 1 minute before we shut down customer service, i have to help them even if it takes 20-30 min, even if i've already closed down all my apps etc. the point is, closing means "closed to customers" you should begin your cleanup at that time perhaps, if its 2 minutes before you're still not yet closed :p i sympathize, but its really a part of your job.
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Dec 16, 05
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Hmmm...actually, most times (with very few exceptions) these people hurt my paycheque. Unfortunately the business I'm in requires all my staff present and when someone comes in at the last minute, the actual amount that they pay is less than what it costs to pay my people and hold my product. I don't mind the people who call in advance and tell me they are going to be late, it is the ones that walk in from the blue, completely unqualified or without a reservation and then proceed to bitch myself or my staff out for some retarded reason that is completely out of our control...I've managed alot of different businesses and this one is by far the WORST for ignorant/rude customers. It is my corporate clients that really pay our bills and the ones that are usually the most easy to deal with. Not only that, but because our customer service index is so highly regarded we almost always have to take crap which I would never had to take at another job. There is a saying by some of the employees that someone could come into one of our branches, shoot everyone who works there and the company would reimburse them for the bullets, as long as it made them happy. :( One thing I have learned through years of being in management is that your staff needs a healthy work life balance. When you already have your people there for 55+ hours per week, anything that begins to consistently cut into their personal time begins to become a detriment to both retention and customer service. If you are constantly having your plans shot down because of staying late (which happens to be the case in my job at other branches) it is hard to keep your staff cheery at that point which leads to lowered customer service. Anyone who's managed people should know this. Just because it is part of the business doesn't mean you have to like it. People are meant to work to live not live to work. Some may think that I may be wrong on this but I have consistently had one of the highest employee rententions, operating profit and customer service ratings in the group and I think that laying down expectations to my customers and thus minimizing last minute bullshit has alot to do with this. It's called weeding...and it works wonders. But then again I am not in the food service or true retail business so my situation is a little different than others... Last edited by Prissypants; Dec 16, 05 at 11:54 PM.
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Dec 17, 05
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I can't even believe that the company would allow you to have your employees working such ridiculous hours. If my payroll shows ONE hour of overtime I have my DM breathing down my neck!
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Dec 17, 05
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You're telling me sister!!! Problem is, those hours come down from corporate in head office in St. Louis. Everyone except for the part timers work those kind of hours...(Myself and other management sometimes work more) If you want to make it to management then you have to work those hours unfortunately. I always try to sneak in flex time for my staff though if I can (even though head office frowns on it). Unfortunately, it is not feasible to hire more staff. It is cheaper to pay the time and a half for overtime than have two full time staff. Not only that, but they work management like dogs. You get one staff member for a certain set of units you have. Believe it or not, most marketing companies that I've worked for or looked into work those kind of hours. Our company may teach you alot about business but it rips away any semblance of a social life you may have. Now you can see why I like to have everyone out on time. ;) Last edited by Prissypants; Dec 17, 05 at 01:53 AM.
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Dec 17, 05
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So you're telling me that you have NEVER discussed a bad customer situation with your team mates before and that you've never provided sympathy to your staff when they dealth with a really difficult customer? Even if you for some reason are able to refrain from discussing any customer situations with your staff or fellow management, I would call bullshit if anyone said that your team mates themselves didn't discuss a bad customer situation with one another. What I was saying is that the best thing about the team I work with is that we can tough out rude customers because we support each other and at the end of the day we can laugh about a shitty customer situation, even when the customer was outright disrespectful to one of the members of our team. I'd rather my staff calm down in the backroom behind closed doors and moan about it to me and blow off steam and congratulate them on their successes or provide them with the right tools for a better customer service experience next time, instead of having them keep it in and be pissy-faced on the sales-floor only to let it out on the customer at hand, or the customer that follows. Every team needs a support system and i think one of the reasons why our team gets along is because we support each other and we have fun. You don't need to lecture me about professionalism because trust me, I'm probably the most anal manager in terms of professionalism, staff-manager relations, customer service/situations, ensuring customers are attended to, and ahering to company policy/procedure as best I can, and my colleagues will attest to this fact as they know I take it seriously. -Yoko Last edited by yoko*; Dec 17, 05 at 05:04 AM.
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Dec 18, 05
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it takes us like an hour and a half. .dalyn.
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Dec 18, 05
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^ "open" meaning customers are still in the store. And yes, sometimes it takes us 2 hours to close. At Metropolis it would sometimes take 3. But keep in mind how much more volume we're doing than you guys.
Yoko, there's a difference between blowing off steam and shit talking customers. The way that you initially put it sounded like you were shit talking customers (ie. the customer who smells bad comment), which I would never support. Discussing ways to deal with a difficult situation/customer with your staff members is what great managers do, and I'm glad to hear that you find it important, however, making fun of a customer who smells bad is extremely unprofessional, I don't care what the circumstance.
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Dec 18, 05
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Dec 18, 05
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no i in team.
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Dec 19, 05
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There are business laws that require stores to close at the time they're supposed to. If it was up to them they would be open 24/7.
[quote=galaxie]But, from a business perspective, it's foolish to ever turn away business. QUOTE]
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Dec 21, 05
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^ For some stores, yes. Others, no. My store could stay open 24/7 if we wanted to. Waiting for 10-15 mintues after close for customers to finish up is no big deal, especially at this time of the year when everyone is just trying to get their gift shopping done!
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Dec 21, 05
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The costumer is always right and every costumer deserves great costumer service at all times. The costumers are what makes a business money. If they come in 2 minutes before the store closes, then oh well that's just the way the cookie crumbles.
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Dec 21, 05
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Ill admit that when I use to work at second cup we use close the doors right before the last sea bus got off so we wouldnt have to stay later. We hated it because we would clean everything and then one or two costomers woudl come in and mess everything up again :( Maybe its the companies fualt. We only had 1/2 hour to close everything up. We would seat to get it done on time. However Natalie I understand that AE sceduals their employs extra hours incase the store was to be open passed reg hours. That way employee's dont fret about costomers staying late. Alot of costormers are/should be aware of the time and when a place closes. It doesnt help when a store has policies such as not closeing doors or turning the music off. Those sighns tell alot of un-rude costomers the store is closing... please make yoru final disitions. Most costomers feel their being rude by keeping you longer and will hurry up and make a disition. The only way I feel miss treated is if you close the door on me (especialy if I beg and say ill only be a minute) or if im trying to make a final disition and you kick me out before i have a chance. Alot of costomers are also very rude... this in return makes grumpy disrespected employee's who loose their passion in retail.
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