I work in retail as a sales assistant. I generally enjoy my job but it can be physically and mentally taxing it this time of year.
This is probably going to sound silly considerering its actually far from the worst thing we deal with but I am so freaking sick and tired of people cutting me off when im speaking!
First example - every time I went to greet or offer assistance to customers lately this is how it goest.
"Good morn-"
"I'M JUST LOOKING".
I was just saying good morning but okay...
"Hey guys, how are yo-"
"JUST LOOKING".
Sigh...
"Can I help you find som-"
"NO, I AM JUST LOOKING"
Okay but you've been wandering around looking lost for 10 minutes, I'm just trying to help you!
Second example - customer comes to me with a query about an item.
*Me, answering their question*
"This shirt is 100% cotton and c-"
*customer notices price tag, buts in*
"Don't worry, I don't want to pay that much".
*walks off*
That's fine but could you not have waited two seconds for me to finish answering your question?
Then we get to the checkouts.
We are required to encourage sign ups to our loyalty program year round. We have to ask every customer if they are a member or if they'd like to be a member. If they say no I don't push it but I have to ask.
Before I can even finish my sentence, they cut me off.
We're doing free gift wrapping at the moment, again, before I can finish I'm cut off abruptly. Funily enough they usually change their tune by the time I I eventually manage to tell them it's complementary.
The problem I'm really having with all this is that it really throws me out of my rhythm. It's getting to the point I'm tripping over my words with a lot of customers because I'm so used to being cut off!
How have others in this position managed to shake it off quickly and recompose themselves for their next customer?
I'm not necessarily shy or passive, I'm friendly and pretty courteous as a person so I think that may be why this is throwing me so much, because I would never communicate with people this way.
I know people are busy at this time of year, I know Christmas comes with some emotional sore points for some people, I know people are stressed and time poor. I know that finances can be stretched thin, too.
But is a little respect or even basic manners that hard?!
13 Replies
Maybe if companies didn't have such pushy salesperson requirements, people wouldn't need to be very clear that they want to shop in piece. Feed it back to your management
People and customers are shit. I can deal with sales people but hate rude customers hence I now do 99% of my shopping online.
I can't handle people harrassing or being rude to sales people who are just doing their job.
Totally agree. But I don't see saying that you're just looking is rude though. It avoids being unable to avoid listening to every special or whatever else they want to tell you when you just want to browse in peace. Most retail assistants don't even give you a chance to answer 'how are you?' They just keep talking at you.
And having them try to sign you up to your rewards instead of just ringing up the purchase is really annoying if you are on a lunch break/in a rush because they don't actually ring anything up while they try to upsell it. I much prefer the older sales assistants that say 'hi... sing out if you want anything". Reading the customer's body language is an undervalued skill.
OP here!
I totally agree with you. There's actually one store I avoid shopping at because the sales assistants are all over you like a rash and they're really pushy about their sales, deals etc, it's very off putting and doesnt really make you feel valued as a customer. Its more like they just want your money. I know it's probably not their fault as it would be the direction they're given but still. It makes me edgy lol.
So I try really hard not to be that sales assistant and I feel like I've been doing this long enough that I can read customers pretty well. I can usually tell who wants help and who wants to be left alone, at this time of year I pretty much just greet people and leave them to it as they know exactly what they want.
I also don't think "I'm just looking" is rude in itself either, usually it's the tone coupled with the fact that I've barely gotten a hello out before they hit me with it. Once or twice I didn't even get out the H sound.
It's just a bit demoralising when it becomes such a regular thing. It's like, please just let me finish my sentence or if I'm rambling or you're in a rush, politely interject if you need.
I work in retail too and I'm also guilty of this! I don't realise I'm doing it until after. If you think about it we genuinely don't care how a stranger is doing, it's all old fashioned courtesy which funnily enough comes off as rude anyway because it's not genuine. I don't really deep down want to know how my customer is going but it's my job to make polite conversation, my customer doesn't give a rats what's happening in my world either. It's all politeness, fake politeness, that gets quickly interrupted by genuine concerns or inquiries.
So I went shopping for a few hours with my daughter today. Best day ever. Noone asked how I was. Noone told me the sales except that because I spent over a certain amount I got a free item of my choice from some older stocked shirts and noone upsold me on their stupid rewards programs. Having a daughter chatting away to me didn't give them an in and it was awesome. No fake politeness... no pushy sales... Noone stopping me from just having time out from my usual routine
For a few years I did nearly all my shopping online (I don't live near a shopping centre) and when I finally went to a large shopping mall I was shocked/annoyed that every shop I bought from wanted my phone number or email address, asked about joining up and gave me the speil about the benefits etc.
I just want to buy this $5 item and give you $5. That's it. It shouldn't take 10 mins to checkout.
I know that the sales people are just doing what they are told though so I have patience but it truly is frustrating.
On the other hand, I work in a Cafe and when I ask people how they are (in a greeting way) I get looooong conversations about their life which can be exhausting, time consuming and emotionally taxing. I'm not sure why so many people treat customer service people like therapists, but they do so I just gotta deal with it!
OP here.
Honestly, I agree with you. You shouldn't have to do all that at the checkout. One place I used to work at made us really push for membership sign ups (not even just asking but basically not giving in until we had an email address), then they made us push people to buy the incentive items at the counter (pens, tote bags, water bottles and other assorted crap), then we had to ask for donations to Unicef, then we had to ask the customer if they'd like to complete a small survey on the eftpos terminal.Then finally we could proceed to payment.
Most customers there were extremely tolerant though, maybe because they could see how much it pained us to go through that with every customer.
I also get the therapist thing occasionally, we have a lady who comes in time to time at about 10 minutes to closing just to have an emotional debrief with us lol.
I do understand, but basic respect & manners go both ways.
I was just in a store this afternoon, tired & in a hurry with two kids in tow. The retail assistant asked chirpily if I was the kids' 'mum or nan'. I'm not that old & am well presented & dressed, so why think it's ok to ask if I'm a grandmother when it's irrelevant? It's upset me so much I feel like crying.
I wasn't rude in my response but she got the message she'd offended me.
I'm going back to online shopping.
OP here.
Wow, that's poor form! She definitely needs to learn some more appropriate conversation starters.
When I speak to a customer it is always relevant to their purpose for shopping or the product they're looking at, if I get the sense my customer is up for a bit of a chat I always let them guide the conversation and I make no assumptions about them/their life.
(I have seen a colleague put her foot in it mistaking two similar aged friends for mother and daughter and many years ago I had a male colleague ask a women buying some towels when her baby was due - she wasn't pregnant. Absolutely mortifying).
So I get what you're saying, rudeness, either accidental or deliberate, definitely isn't specific just to customers.
I probably am one of those people.
We run a busy business, have 2 kids.
My shopping time is when I have 5 seconds.
Kids finished school 2nd December.
Me trying to sneak in shops get presents while kids are not watching me.
My work phone is a mobile saves me stuck in an office all day, but it rings a lot.
Hubby has ADHD, him alone needs so much attention.
I research what I want, have a pretty good idea, just need to find it.
I just want to think about my task at hand, interrupting my train of thought is frustrating as my line of work is responsive so being interrupted is part n parcel.
It’s therapeutic for me to just do one thing.
20 year old me, did ask these questions, I was genuinely interested.
40 year old me just doesn’t want to answer
I am polite but can cut people off.
My brain just doesn’t have any more room left to answer questions.
OP here.
I appreciate your perspective. As I said, I totally get that people are busy, have things going on in their life or just want to get in and out. The last thing I want to do is be a pain in the ass or waste people's time.
I am mindful of that (especially at this time of year), I generally just try to say hello/be welcoming (as is the bare minimum requirement of my job lol) and leave people to their shopping.
And I don't mind so much when people are polite about it, my issue is more when people bite my head off.
Especially when I can see they're struggling to find something and I'm just trying to offer to grab the item for them so they're in and out faster. Or when they have sought me out to ask me something but they cut me off or talk over me while I'm trying to answer their question. Then I get the people at the counter who cut me off to the point they're actually holding themselves up.
I feel like you can't win here. I work in retail and for a while we wouldn't greet customers as a lot of people complained, but they when we stopped they complained we didn't greet them 🙃 now we are back to greeting again but some people don't like it but the boss has said we still should do it.