On store help being courteous and helpful

[LCHIEN]

Checking out a Lowes today with a few wood boards for a garden project.
{Clerk} Did you find everything you need?
{Me} No, you're out of cedar fence pickets, I need more than I got.
{clerk is silent while ringing up, I'm expecting her to call a supervisor to see if they have any more}
{Me, after a 30 sec of silence} Was that just a cursory question?
{Clerk} Yes.
{Me - I pay for the stuff and leave}

so here we have a store clerk who's trained to be courteous but is not helpful.

[twistsol]

Sadly, I've gotten to the point that I just automatically answer yes. It just saves time and the results are identical. On the rare occasion that I do get above average help, I get the employee's name and send an old fashioned paper letter to the store manager ... I don't send a lot of letters.

[Black walnut]

Sad how service is lacking nearly everywhere.

[cwsmith]

I'm not sure where the fault lies with this lack of courtesy... is it just a lack of store training (I don't think so),or is it just poor manners all the way around, or is it that in today's retail business there's that constant surveilance? Manners and simple courtesy are so rare these days that I'm almost set-back by those people who do display it. But I think there's a lot of factors that effect the "courtesy".

In many ways, I think it's almost regional. I grew up, here in the Binghamton, NY area. Pretty much a courteous place, though not gushingly so. When I moved to the Corning area (about 75 miles west of here) I found it grossly deficient in what I knew as common courtesy. People there were just rude, unfriendly, and seemingly suspicious of everybody and everything. Lived there 30-plus years and just got used to it. When I moved back to Binghamton about 10 years ago I was astonished about how friendly most everyone was. It was really a marked change and very welcome to my wife and I.

But over these last few years, the original population has significantly changed. Industry is way down, people moving out and the community focus changed to becoming a college town. A growing population of out-of-towners, students, friends of students and an ever-growing drug trade. Population shift from mostly middle-class to now a smaller group of upper-income and a good percentage of poor minorities, Manners and courtesy have fallen considerably. People in retail act like they hate what they're doing and the divide seems to be into those who consider themselves too good to bother, and those who feel it unnecessary to bother.

But I also see a nervousness with many retail people. Turnover is rampant and one week you'll meet a someone helpful only to find that on your next shopping visit, that person is no longer working there. Management has got their eye on everyone and you can almost feel that trying to be friendly isn't particularly a welcome thing. There are surveilance camera's everywhere. Yet, on a couple of occasions when I[ve spotted customers openly stealing, I've been told that there's nothing that can be done.... "So", I asked, "What are the surveillance camera's for?"..... to watch us, to make sure we'red doing our jobs!

I don[t think I could work in that kind of atmosphere. Still, it's a joy to say hello, ask a person at the register how they are doing, try to engage in at least a brief conversation and courtesy. But I too have to be concerned that my courtesy isn't misconstrued by the watchful eye of that company camera and their supervisor.... "let's just keep business brief"

Notice too, at least here in our area, that there are less and less real employees in places like HD and Lowes. Actually, at HD we have only one live cashier, and only two people returns desk. In both stores, finding an apron to ask advice is getting pretty darned hard.

CWS

[atgcpaul]

I've had to read a lot of managerial books lately. Not sure how much they've helped me, but I read them. This one parable comes up several times (and our pastor has even used a similar analogy in church) and I think this is one of the reasons why customer service can be pretty poor at some places. Some clerks/employees will always exceed expectations but it's very easy to lose the ones that aren't self-motivated or aren't shown there's a bigger picture like in Loring's case.

Copied from http://the-happy-manager.com/article...ship-quality/:

"One day a traveller, walking along a lane, came across 3 stonecutters working in a quarry. Each was busy cutting a block of stone. Interested to find out what they were working on, he asked the first stonecutter what he was doing. “I am cutting a stone!” Still no wiser the traveller turned to the second stonecutter and asked him what he was doing. “I am cutting this block of stone to make sure that it’s square, and its dimensions are uniform, so that it will fit exactly in its place in a wall.” A bit closer to finding out what the stonecutters were working on but still unclear, the traveller turned to the third stonecutter. He seemed to be the happiest of the three and when asked what he was doing replied: “I am building a cathedral.”


There have been times when I've been blown away by exceptional customer service. Chick Filet is one of those places. The people there are the best compared to any other fast food and even many sit down restaurants.

I don't like shopping at Walmart for several reasons but I was pleasantly surprised when I was looking for something in the automotive section. I asked someone for help finding an item which it looked like they were out of stock of. She could have simply said, "Sorry, we're out". Instead she asked another clerk who cheerfully went in the back and got more and immediately started stocking the shelves. They didn't have what I needed (I was looking for a particular sticker for my friend's car) and they were extremely helpful and unnecessarily apologetic at the same time.

I was also extremely pleased at Costco a few months ago. I was waiting in a really long line at the food court. One of the managers was walking past and saw how long the line was and how short handed they were in the back. He looked around briefly, made a call on his walkie, then jumped into the kitchen himself, gloved up, and jumped in. He wasn't barking orders and just standing back, but in the fray asking the staff, How can I help. He obviously hadn't worked much back there, but he saw a need and tried to do something about it. The line sped up considerably because his team worked off his energy. I emailed corporate about that and provided his name (could only see his first name on his name tag) but hopefully they recognized him for that.

[LCHIEN]

My point is sort of, they are trained to ask if you need help, but not actually trained to provide the help if you say yes. Which makes the training excercise meaningless.

[sailor55330]

My HD has a big bell with a sign that said "ring if you received great customer service". I'v never hear it ring. Last time I was in there, it said "ring if you received good customer service". Still silent.

[leehljp]

Agreed on the point of ChickFila having great service. I have not had bad service from them in any city where I have eaten - Atlanta, N.O. Memphis several locations, St. Louis, Springfield MO, Birmingham, Little Rock, Dallas and more.

IN the Southaven MS area, the whole row of fast foods has terrible (slow) service except the ChickFila. I think that not only did they train them WHAT to do but HOW to do it with SPEED.

I work in a town of about 14,000 people. Last year, Crystal Burger built and opened a new store. In just over two months, the corporate management closed it down and refused to allow it to continue because the quality of service AND food was unacceptable. I went in only once (their 2nd day) and that is all it took to make me decide that I wouldn't go back.

In the ministry, I work with people who work with a huge percentage of generational poverty population (40 - 50% of the population in the MS & Arkansas delta region). A characteristic of the generational poverty mindset is to center on events and not time. "I'm waiting on you and when I get done, I will wait on the next person." Time/speed has little or nothing to do with the event, how quick it gets done is not relevant. What is relevant is - did it get done! Having understood this process, some of my co-workers come to me when they have problems, and ask if I can help in communication. Last year, three people tried to get a generational poverty mindset person to perform certain duties. They all complained to me. After the third one complained, I gathered the three and went to the generational poverty lady and had a discussion. After 5 minutes, the poverty mindset lady said to me, "Is THAT what they were trying to get me to do? I said "Yes". She said "They didn't explain it well."

The three ladies asked me how I did it (and they were watching me), especially since they had lived in the area all their lives and I had only recently returned from Japan. I said, Generational Poverty people communicate like the Japanese culture - indirect and in the passive voice when commands are to be understood! Works about every time. To Japanese - straight/direct talk is considered rude except when talking to those under you or unless you are a very close friend, i.e. and insider.

[atgcpaul]

Checking out a Lowes today with a few wood boards for a garden project.
{Clerk} Did you find everything you need?
{Me} No, you're out of cedar fence pickets, I need more than I got.

Playing devil's advocate. When you were selecting the pickets, did you seek out someone in lumber or go to the customer service desk to ask if there were more? Why expect the last, possibly the most disconnected person in the chain, whose job it is to get you out of the store the quickest to do something?

[capncarl]

My local Lowes has a grate personable middle aged man hired just to walk around and ask people if they need help, then the will locate a clerk for you! That's great, this nice guy don't know crap about anything and he goes and grabs someone who knows even less than him? I really think that most of the people working there really want to help but really in truly don't have a clue what you are looking for.
Earlier this week I was in Lowes looking for a cable grommet like you would insert in 2" hole in a desk top to run cables through. I've bought them there before, I just couldn't find them. Finally found a brown one in the hardware isle in the drawer units that have some of everything. I wanted white, I've bought white here before. I finally remembered finding them in electrical, so I wandered down to the electrical area and trapseyed up and down every aisle for a while before I found 2 Lowes contractors. I asked them if they were to hide cable grommets, where would that be? One nice young lady contractor promptly said they would be on aisle xxxx in the exact drawer unit I found them! I thanked her but said those are brown and I need white, and have found them in the electrical dept somewhere before. As I walked away from the contractors, not 25 feet away, I spotted a drawer unit that had lamp parts in it, and there it was, the white cable grommet I was looking for! I showed it to them, they said they had never seen them there, I guess some other contractor stocks these drawer units.
i generally carry a sample of what I want because I've bought something in the plumbing dept at Lowes before and went back for more and couldn't find it and the "expert" clerk argued with me that it didn't exist, that no one made PVC pipe fitting like that, and I know dang well they did.
The moral of the story is when shopping at a big box store you better know where something is or how to look for it.
capncarl

[vaking]

Checking out a Lowes today with a few wood boards for a garden project.
{Clerk} Did you find everything you need?
{Me} No, you're out of cedar fence pickets, I need more than I got.
{clerk is silent while ringing up, I'm expecting her to call a supervisor to see if they have any more}
{Me, after a 30 sec of silence} Was that just a cursory question?
{Clerk} Yes.
{Me - I pay for the stuff and leave}

so here we have a store clerk who's trained to be courteous but is not helpful.

In theory stores now have computerized inventory. It means when you ring your purchase - computer (which is way smarter than person you talked to) should figure out on its own that you just bought the last item from the inventory they had on the floor and dispatch some apron to bring more inventory to the floor. Of course that is the theory that does not account for items dissappearing on their own from the floor inventory without being paid for.

[LCHIEN]

Playing devil's advocate. When you were selecting the pickets, did you seek out someone in lumber or go to the customer service desk to ask if there were more? Why expect the last, possibly the most disconnected person in the chain, whose job it is to get you out of the store the quickest to do something?

No I did not. I did not see anyone, the area was in disarray. I figured the empty racks would have been full if they had any more. And I thought I had some spares at home and Home Depot is across the freeway. I thought about looking for and asking someone but did not because I had an alternative.
The store making its people ask is so that you do not use your alternatives. In this case a cursory query did not do the job for them.There was no one before or after me at the cashiers so she didn't really have an excuse.
I got the boards i needed from HD.
I would have preferred she didn't ask if she had no intention of doing anything about it. I think she could have said, do you want me to check if we have them? In that case she could have checekd stock on her POS terminal (oh yes we have 2000 in stock received yesterday we haven't put out yet) or called the dept manager.

[JimD]

I look myself. Their stock is mostly overhead. I've gotten used to having to point out what I want - and checking for a barcode because nothing can be rung up without that. I've talked to clerks at big box stores that knew something but most might be able to point you to the right aisle but if you need help figuring something out they are lost.

I wonder if we are not to blame at least in part. I've been in stores where they know at least their stock and would walk you to am item but they tend to charge more. And it feels like I'm being followed around sometimes in these stores. I think our buying habits emphasize price, and inventory more than great service and well trained clerks.

I don't know why they ask if I found everything either. Happens at the grocery store too. Seems like they are trained to ask. If so, it doesn't make sense to not also train them to do something usefull if you say no.

[twistsol]

I wonder if we are not to blame at least in part.

I think we are. We've grown complacent about bad customer service and are surprised when it's good. We have a locally owned building supply center in Cannon Falls where the customer service is fantastic and more often than not you're dealing directly with the owner, Jeff. They don't have everything the big box stores have and their prices are usually competitive, but not the lowest. Unless there is a huge price difference, or don't have something I need,they're my first choice.

Added benefits are that I can call them from wherever I happen to be traveling during the week, and have anything they have on hand or need to order delivered to my house by the time I get home on Friday. It's a six dollar delivery charge because I'm not in the city limits but on one order that six bucks paid to have 50 sheets of Sheetrock carried into the house, up the stairs and stacked in each room.

[woodturner]

Which makes the training excercise meaningless.

Not to an MBA

Seriously, someone checked off a bullet point, maybe "check customer satistfaction" or something, and met a goal without really addressing the issue.