I am a friendly person. I talk with others in the checkout
line in stores (which never failed to make my kids cringe), and I thank whoever
bags my groceries (after I ask them to please not put all the cans in one bag).
Because this is how I tend to be in public, I do appreciate when a cashier or
clerk is personable.
However, I have a bone to pick with store managers.
Stop trying to make your personnel sound like a Hallmark
greeting card.
I can not be the only one who has noticed recently that retail store employees,
particularly department stores and pharmacies, are being forced to recite the
same thing to every person who walks in or out of the place.
Whoever is stationed in front is now designated to
call out “Welcome to Swifty Shop” before you’re even through the automated
doors.
Then there’s the poor sap at the cash register who, after
listening to the customer grumble about prices, write a check for the wrong
amount, and ask if the tags have to be on the item in order to return it
(because, you know – wearing something to a party with tags on is just tacky),
has to say (in a sincere voice), “Thank you for shopping at Uber Low Prices,
please come again.”
Stop. It.
Let your employees do it their way. Now, I don’t mean just let
them say whatever they want to say to clientele, because we all know that
could open up a whole can of worms (not to mention a lawsuit in some cases).
I’m just saying I would rather have someone simply say hello when I walk into a
store without feeling like they are force-feeding the name of the business.
Chances are that I know where I am. Fine, there are times when I don’t know
where I am or how I got there, but in general I do.
When I’m leaving your establishment, if the cashier wants to
compliment my purse or whisper that I have a piece of spinach stuck between my
teeth, I would prefer this over a mechanical monologue about being so thankful
for my business, yada yada.
It’s all right to bring out the best in your staff. Just do
so without sapping their mental strength by measuring their performance with
how well they greet customers or shove them out the door. Let it be real. Not real enough to
warrant an arrest because said employee told a customer just what they could do
with that umbrella they wanted a discount on, since it isn’t the rainy season
and they are doing you a favor by clearing out unwanted merchandise. I mean real enough where that person can have at least some personal investment in their words.
Help your employees to shine without auditioning them for a
part in a Nickelodeon series. That’s all I’m saying.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Have a nice
day. Seriously. I mean it!
2014 © Janine V. Talbot
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