Questions you’ll answer on the phone in retail
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boss !
you forgot about “directions to the store” !!!
The one that was forgotten that is THE MOST ANNOYING, “Are you open?” I answered the phone didn’t I?
That depends. I have called and asked if a retail outlet (drugstore) was open yet, and been told that the store didn’t officially open until 8 a.m. The person who answered the phone was in administration/management.
I answer that one all the time, “Are you open?” or better yet the statement “oh, you ARE open, I thought you might be closed.” -> then why did you call? And when you say that the store closes in five minutes, they say “Oh, I will be right there!”
Like I am going to keep the store open for them. Ha. I have a life too.
Those are the days that they come in, look at my name tag and ask “do you work here?” and I just want to say “no” and walk away.
Hehe, last year I was working electronics in a target.
It would have broken down more like
80% Do you have any Wiis
15% When are you going to get Wiis
3% Do you really not have any Wiis
1% What if I give you 10 bucks?
1% Other Questions
Now that would be a funny chart!
I worked at Toys R Us last season. It was about the same.
90% Do you have any Wiis/ Wii fits?
5% When will you get some Wiis/ Wii fits?
4% Are you sure you don’t have any in the back?
1% Other questions.
Maybe retail should give information about their opening/closing times online!
Um what retail store doesnt have their store hours online, if they have a website?
99.95% of them do.
Most customers are just to dumb to look it up.
My store not only has its times available on the company website but we also have a call catcher that plays for about 45 seconds before it actually rings through to employees. It gives store hours very clearly and I still get about 10 calls a DAY asking store hours.
It’s not the business, it’s the customer.
YES! My store has this too.
…and speaking of customers and time…I once had a woman report me to Corporate because the store clock said 9:05pm and her watch said 8:57, and I refused to unlock the doors and reopen the register for her–which, by the way, is a HUGE no-no–and I still got in trouble. I can still hear her screaming as she beat on the door with her fists, “I don’t care what time your clock says, MY watch says 8:57 and you’d better let me the fuck in!” Um, no. =D
We actually had someone call corporate on us last Sunday because of time issues. We’re one of maybe 3 stores in a company of over 750 stores that’s under blue laws. Meaning, we can’t open our doors to the public until 1:30 because of the Holy Day. So our website’s run by a separate company and says all the stores open at 10am on Sundays. I can understand the frustration over the confusion but it’s no secret this county is under blue laws.
Anyway, this customer comes up, gets upset, but was apologized to and explained everything about our hours. Two days later we get an email from our district manager telling us we need to call this customer and apologize. We read the email the lady sent to corporate and she claimed she drove half an hour and wasted 4 gallons of gas coming out for nothing. Sorry for her, but it probably wasn’t wise for her to put her address on the the complaint. She wasn’t but a 10 minute drive away and was in a compact car. Half hour and 4 gallons my left foot!
DM didn’t care, so we got in trouble anyway over something we had NO controll over because of county LAW.
That is if you can ever get a live person to talk to on a phone.
At my store I used to get questions about our hours, which really never bothered me, and the ever-popular “What were last night’s Lotto numbers?” I’d give them the 1-900 number on the back of the ticket.
My favorites:
Some random guy: Is my wife there?
Wife not being an employee, and he refuses to give names of course.
After saying thank you for calling store name:
Is this store name?
Are you open?
Can you pick come get me?
I broke something I bought and I threw it away. Can I get my money back?
I bought something at a different store. Can I return it?
We’ve had people break the lock on and then go through the dumpster out back and try to return damaged goods that we’d already discarded (and broken some more so that they COULDN’T be returned).
That’s because no one on the phone in retail ever knows anything about the store products.
I’d like to say that I proudly know about all the products in my store, thank you very much.
I know about most of my products… one or two very specific things might stump me for a moment, but then I would ask the other employees, or look it up, or possibly just be honest with you and say “I’m sorry, I don’t know. I asked some of the other employees, and they’re not sure either. We don’t have any way to look it up in the store, unfortunately, but here’s some idea for other stores that might sell that/places to find that product-or-answer online”.
— We’re not all useless morons, you know. And the few of us who aren’t don’t appreciate you treating us like we are.
Troll recognition fail.
I don’t get it. Those are valid questions. A lot of people don’t bother to check the internet for such things, because many places don’t list them. Many different businesses and services also open and close on different times, and are not always open on Sunday, since many business owners are creationists and don’t believe in working on Sunday for fear of eternal damnation
I know. I didn’t find it funny either.
I would agree that calling to find out when somewhere closes isn’t that bad.
But from the point of view of the person answering the phone, some days/places that really is 80% of the calls you get.
It’s not the customers fault that they all want to know the same thing, but it does get old saying it over and over again.
I find it funny from that perspective.
And sometimes, the things they add to “What time do you close?” is what makes it horrible. I’ve had customers ask me to stay open for an extra hour just for them, with no consideration that it might be an inconvenience.
The place I used to work had a machine.
“If you are calling to find out our opening time, press 1. If you have any other questions and would like to speak to an employee, press 2″
And we still had plenty of people pressing 2 to ask when we closed…sigh.
And let’s not forget holiday hours. I checked the websites of several businesses and organizations in the past couple of months to find out their holiday hours. I think ONE had updated their website with holiday hours.
I’d like to give an Extra-Special Honorable Mention to our local library, whose Christmas Eve closing time was posted on the library door (but not on the library website) — but the library staff had been given the afternoon off by the time I arrived (90 minutes before the posted closing time).
Holiday hours are a weird one. Where I work the management comes up with it, SHOULD post it in the departments so customers know…. although that doesn’t always help. Sometimes we won’t get anything at all and I’ll have people calling in and asking for holiday hours and no one knows!
hmm…
I like POO
This is usually because the store’s Web site blows chunks and doesn’t provide that type of information.
Or if it does, provides it in ROT13 form, on a page you can reach only by clicking on a link marked “Beware of the leopard.”
You forgot “Are you open?”
if you work in a book store 70% of the questions are “Do you sell books?”
The one that gets me is, a customer will walk up to me and say, “I’m looking for a book,” then stop and look at me expectantly. It’s like, “Yes, ok. Look around. There are heaps. I’ma need some more info than that if you want help finding one in particular.”
Or better yet, the customers who say to me “I’m looking for a book for my brother/mother/father-in-law/grandmother/grandson/etc.” Without providing any more detail than that. Not what age they are, what genres they like… Particularly impressive are the ones who will be standing looking at a section (say Crime and Mystery) when they announce this to me. I’ll ask something like, “So they like mystery stories?” “Oh no, not really. They’re more into Romance.”
Oh, but my favourite PHONE conversation with a customer went something along these lines:
Customer: My vouchers are out of date.
Me: …
Customer: I have some that expire in December, and some that expire in January.
Me: Yes, that’s right. We had a few different promotions involving vouchers, with different expiry dates…
Customer: Can I use them anyway?
Me: No, I’m sorry, we’re bound by the written expiry date.
Customer: Well, well… why wasn’t I told the expiry dates when I was given the vouchers?
Me: … (The expiry dates are written on the vouchers in large letters. All they needed to do was look at them.)
Customer: Well? Isn’t there something you can do about it?
Me: No, I’m afraid not. Whatever’s written on it is what we have to go by.
Customer: That’s not good enough. I’ll be going to another branch to spend my January vouchers! *hangs up*
The vouchers were only valid at our branch of our store.
You know this sort of thing only happens in the U.S, don’t you?
Actually, no. I’m from Australia.
Oh it happens all over the world. I live in the Netherlands and it happens there too!
Or the people who walk up to you and ask “Is this a good book?”, expecting that you’ve actually read the whole collection and know what they like.
Or the people who will tell you that they’re looking for a “Blue book, with a face on the cover, about this big”, without author, title or even what it’s about.
What’s even worse, I’ve taken up checking the Oprah book list, because of all the women coming in asking for “that book that was on Oprah yesterday”.
I worked in a bookstore when Oprah started her book club, when she did it monthly. It was hell. Women would come in and quite literally yell at us because we didn’t have tons of the book in stock. Well, when it started we were not sent the books in advance. They were shipped the day of the show, maybe the day before. Finally, as the show realized how popular the books were going to be they started the special printings with the “Oprah Book Club” logo on them and we would have them ready to go out the day of the show. But, and this was fun, we couldn’t put them out until after the show aired! We’d have women coming in early because a friend on the east coast told them what the book was!
A similar thing that would happen to me is this:
Customer: I got that coupon in the mail, but I forgot to bring it with me,
Me: …
Customer: So… Can I still get the discount?
Me: No, you need to present the coupon to get the discount.
Customer: But I have the coupon.
Me: No you don’t, you just said you don’t have it.
Customer: No, I do have it, I just didn’t bring it with me.
Me: …
Customer: Why can’t you just give me the discount??
This type of thing would happen surprisingly often.
Now, I have never done that (if I bother to use a coupon I make sure it’s with me), BUT really, if you know the customer is referring to a coupon that does indeed exist, why not give them the discount? Since it’s a discount you’re offering anyway, you aren’t losing anything, and you could be gaining a customer. Heck, do a little “I need to see if that’s okay with my manager” thing to make sure they get the idea that you’re going out of your way for them.
Because when the till is counted the coupons are counted as well. Doing so would throw the till amount off and have the till show as short. This can resort in someone potentially losing their job.
How do I know they didn’t use the coupon already?
You’re forgetting about the amount of people who come in and try to abuse coupons systems. Coupons are coupons for a reason. If I leave mine at home, I know I don’t get my discount. Simple as that.
At my store, we will give a discount to those who sign up for a coupon program the day they sign up. This isn’t a policy, it’s a courtesy. It can take 2 months before they start receiving anything from us. I have this one customer who knows we do that. She left her coupon at home once, tells me so and asked if we had any in the store. I told her no. So then she just fills out the mailing list slip and demanded I give her a coupon. Again, I refused her. She then went on a tirade about who rude and nasty I was, stormed off and started shopping anyway. She finally came up with her stuff and went off on me again. “I’m a teacher and you know how little a year I make! I can’t believe you refuse to help me out. I want your name! I want to speak to a manager right now!” Too bad for her I am a manager, but I gladly gave her my name anyway. Never did hear a complaint from our corporate office.
Now here’s the kicker. Teachers get a total purchase discount in our store, the same % off that employees get. She was already signed up on our teacher program so she got a nice discount even without the one she left at home. That, and I know for a fact she makes more a year than I do so I can’t sympathize with someone who’s wearing more than a year’s worth of my salary in jewelry and designer clothing.
Do you by chance work at Joann Fabrics? Cuz I do, and wow we get that scenario almost daily!
Oh my goodness! Yes, that’s exactly where I work! I’m the RTL over at 1126.
LOL I bet we could share some great customer stories with each other.
This is too funny! I’m in an Indiana branch. I used to be one of the night managers, but then my OTHER job paid better with less stress. So now I’m a peon again =D
There’s nothing wrong with being a peon! This past week’s been hell, and I envy our peons not having to stress like us. I’ve been scrambling around to finish the seasonal set, fabric set, and all the new endcaps with having my STL out on PTO and my MTL breaking her leg. And then there’s the Winter Warmup sale to deal with, too. *sob* But it’s okay. I love my job. Been there for over 3 years and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.
Haha! I’ve been here 2 years & 3 months. We’re between store sizes, so our plan-o-grams are always wonk, and we never make enough for the proper amount of hours to set the store…so the peons get to do it too.
What do you think of the new system? Because I hate it. My handheld dies about 3 times per transaction at the cutting counter, minimum–among other things. =(
I have mixed feelings about the new system. Parts of it I love, parts of it I would love to like but they don’t work properly, and parts of it I wrap my hands around and strangle. The handhelds are one of my biggest pet peeves, but we’ve had less problems since they upped the frequency of the transmitter doodads in our store. Everyone knows how to rest them now though so we hear less and less cries for help. I hate the fact that I can’t log on to two things at once. You get your number locked up in the handheld or the POS and you’re screwed until you can get the thing to reboot. However, I love the receiving process now. What used to take me an hour everyday, takes about 10 minutes and has about 75% less paperwork to deal with. Special orders are so much easier now, too. All in all, if the system actually WORKED like it’s meant to, it would be great. But I don’t see them getting all the bugs out anytime soon. ><
MY favorite:
Me: “Good morning and thank you for calling [local Fabric Store]”
Lady: “Do you sell fabric?”
Me: “…Yes.”
Lady: “Do you sell black fabric?”
Me: “…….We sell all kinds of black fabric, ma’am.”
Lady: “How much is your black fabric?”
Me: “That depends on what kind of black fabric you want. Chenille, taffeta, felt, cotton..?”
Lady: “I just want black fabric! How much is it!”
Then she got shitty. =D
Or this one.
Customer: Where is your polyester? (or cotton, it can by either most times)
Me: What kind of polyester?
Customer: *indignant stare and huff* Just polyester.
Me: Half this store is polyester. What are you trying to make with it?
Sometimes I just want to just want to reach over the cutting counter or through the phone, throttle them, and scream “help me so I can help you!”
I work in a Grocery Store bakery… the version of this we get is like this:
Customer: I want some donuts.
Me: Alright…. we have many different kinds, was there a specific kind you were thinking of getting?
Customer: I just want a dozen.
Me: Okay, but we have raised and cake donuts and those are one price and then we have donuts in our other case and those are all different prices.
Customer: How much is one?
Me: What kind did you want? We have the raised and cake and then we have crullers and fritters, danish, creamsticks, filled….
Customer: Just tell me how much one is!
Me: They’re all different prices, I need to know what kind you want.
And it’ll go on like this until they figure out that I can’t give them just one price or I start listing the different prices and they go “Oooooh. Okay. I want that”. Sometimes they just get all huffy and say something like “Well I’ll just go call *competitor store* then!”
*Snerk* bwahahaha!
Second favorite:
I have yet to sell one of those really expensive Ott-Lights without either a 40% off coupon, or a 50% off sale. Some woman bought one (with a coupon!) then wanted to return it a month later without a receipt, when I was the night manager. She wanted cash back, and the full price of the lamp. When I offered her–per policy, mind you–store credit worth the lamp + a 40% off coupon (lowest price within the last 30 days), she pitched a fit, cursed at me in front of several other customers, called our store trashy thieves, and then stormed out after threatening to call corporate and complain–which she did. Gigantic fiasco ensues, stretched over several weeks, culminating in my store having to dig out the register tapes (three days running to find it), only to find out that yes, in fact, she had used a coupon. Sigh.
Oo! Or the crazy/angry lady that wanted to return 20 yards of blue crepe-back satin without a receipt–which is against store policy! When we refused, she called corporate on us, and they called us and chewed us out. For following policy. =@
My STL has gotten fed up with all the stupid customer complaints like those. All corporate does is sends the email to the DTL, and I assume most DTLs don’t bother with what’s really happened, and ours just forwards the email with a “deal with it and let me know the result” message attached. A couple of weeks ago we had a woman raise hell over wanting the Organdy ribbon spools for 69cents because of the sign in front of it. She was told no, because the sign over there was for those $1 pearl strands. Sign states CLEARLY what the product is. She leaves after screaming at us and calls corporate. I only came up at the tail end, so I had to see for myself what she’s talking about. I go over to our value bins and find the sign she’s talking about is hanging right in front of the pearl strands ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE of the bin from the Organdy ribbon.
So anyway, we get the email from our DTL about the complaint and the lady had blatantly lied. She didn’t tell a story remotely close to what happened. She claimed she came in and got some thread. They were signed 50% off, but they didn’t ring up that way. She tells us it didn’t come up and we refused to do anything about it. And of course we were obnoxious and rude when she inquired about the price.
What am I supposed to do about this!? Our corporate office makes no sense. You get the right person in their and once they figure out they can do whatever they want, they are going to start robbing the company blind. Bad enough you have people stealing scissors and “returning” them without a receipt. At least we can do something about it. But the higher ups need to wise up to this kind of mess and stop putting the stores on the hotplate over nasty customers.
Last year with the fake receipts, they hit us with the scissors bit too. Ugh.
Actually, our main complaint now is this little old lady with a walker she doesn’t need, who parks her van right outside the store and then fills her walker bag with stolen goods and then PICKS THE WALKER UP and RUNS out the door. It would be funny, if it wasn’t so sad. =p
My graph would include “Boss calling to ask if I had customers” and “prank calls.”
OK, I would like to learn more about these “porn store prank calls.”
Pranks are usually teens not old enough to be in my store asking about my largest products.. or people moaning and giggling in the background.. while the proson on the phone tries (and fails) not to laugh. If it’s slow I’ll make up some ridiclous to make the middleschoolers giggle and I’ll tell them “well that was fun, I needed a good laugh.”
Though there was this one time that a girl called talking about how her grandma had all this good stuff and she was trying to get her own. I was pretty sure it was a prank until the next day when a grandmother came in with her graddaughter (over 18).
I still dont know if it was the same women from the phone.. but boy was I thrown off. hehe
do you have battletoads?
It’s one thing to ask when they close that night and then hang up like a sensible person.
It’s another thing to ask “When do you close? You’re sure? I really thought it was *insert unreasonable time here*? *Competitor* stays open till ___. And Wal-mart is 24 hours! Why aren’t you open 24 hours?”
Or to call and ask when we close every night.
Or to call back in hopes of getting a different employee in case the first one lied to you.
Or to call and ask about another store’s products.
Or a product that we don’t (and never would) sell.
Or to call a store in one city and complain about the service you got in another city.
I work in retail, and I don’t mind people asking honest, legitimate questions.
I don’t even mind people asking for advice without any intent of buying anything/even visiting the store., if it’s about something we sell/that general category (aka something -any- of us would know -anything- about.)
But when they ask ridiculous questions, ask something and then reject your answer, ask something and then get pissed when you don’t know, want you to fix something you can’t fix, get pissed when you can’t fix it, just want to bitch, etc… that’s why I tend to expect to hate a customer, and just get pleasantly surprised when they prove me wrong.
Oh god, tell me about it.
I work in a tool store. Costumers will make tools up and get angry when we can’t find it. They need to do something specific, so they try to describe it to us to see if the tool exists.
Also, when they ask if they can get a discount. If it’s a regular costumer who buys $300+ tools from us pretty often that’s okay, but we’re not gonna give a discount to the random schmo who walks in and spends $30.
Or they want a really expensive tool buy they don’t have money.
Or they put something in layaway and never come back.
Or they put something in layaway (which clearly says on the receipt lasts 90 days), don’t come back for five months, then get angry when we pulled it out and sold it.
COSTUMERS SUCK.
I agree with both of your statements. I know what that’s like. I also know what it’s like to get calls from customers asking me to stay there for 10-20 more minutes just to help them. I really *REALLY* hated that.
But Moot, it’s not costumer, it’s CUSTOMER. Costumer is someone who makes costumes, if it’s even a word that is.
Yes, “costumer” is a word. It’s my career choice.
Actually, I think that’s what MOOT meant. Costumers DO suck. They’re always getting your sizes wrong, or they use feathers and maribou that shed all over everything. You ask for a red wig and get auburn … that kind of thing.
Well, the stereotype for costumers would have them sucking AND blowing …
I get most of those and quite often this
Phone – I saw this product on your website but don’t want to pay for shipping. I want to make sure you have it in stock before I drive out there
Me – That’s not something we carry, sorry.
Phone – Well you’re website has it!
Me – *represses urge to sigh loudly* The website is able to sale a larger variety of products than stores, just like the only stores for places like Target and Walmart.
And clench my teeth from saying “because they ship out of an effing WAREHOUSE and we have all but 15k square feet of space in our store.”
Oh yeah, and the “I know you’re busy, but I want you to be my personal shopper because I don’t have time to look for what I want. I want my stuff waiting on the counter when I get there.” If it’s 1 item and nothing I have to go out of my way to get, it’s one thing but I had a lady keep me on the phone for 20 minutes because she wouldn’t shut up about her personal life and all the reasons she couldn’t be bothered to come in and do her own shopping. And any time I asked her politely to hurry it the hell up so I could get back to doing my job, she got really bitchy. “Ma’am, I really need to know what all it is you need because I have a line of customers in front of me who are waiting patiently for me to help -them-.” “Well -I- need your help too! I’m a customer too and they can wait in line behind me!”
Having worked retail I’d say it’s better to answer questions about hours than questions about products. Easier, anyway.
My favorite when working at a pet store was always:
“Do you have (insert random species here)?” and God forbid we don’t:
“Well why not? The store in (insert random city name here) has them all the time!”
You should have answered with “They’re not in season now, but I hear rabbits are… or maybe it was ducks?”
.
…That sounded funnier in my head.
I lol’d – that’s my favorite Looney Tunes ever! XD
I used to work in retail. I had a girl come in one afternoon and wanted something blue. (She was getting married the next day) I suggested hankies, ribbons, jewelry, everything I could think would be reasonable. This lasted about 1 hour going through the store and looking at everything. she finally decided on one of those blue dolphin car deodorizers. She thought it was pretty. You really meet all kinds in retail.
Nope. When I worked at a comic book store called West Coast Fantasy, the majority of the phone calls were to ask if we were hiring dancers and if we did private parties. o_O;
When answering the phone “[store name] fashion department, this is [my first name]; how may I help you?”:
- “Is this the fashion department?”
- “Is this [other department]?”
- “Is this [store name]?”
- “Is this [competitor]?”
- “Can you transfer me to [other department]?” (Each department in the store had its own number, all of which were listed in the phone book alphabetically under the store name. “Baby” fell under the fashion department and was at the top of the list, so almost everyone just called us and made us transfer them.)
- “Is this the [store name] in [other city]?”
- “What time do you close?” (“6:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, just like last year…. No, we don’t close until Christmas Eve…. Yes, we’re open 24 hours…. Yes, we always have been.”)
- “What time do you stop selling alcohol [tonight/tomorrow night/name of major holiday]?” (“2:00 a.m., just like everywhere else in the county…. Because it’s the law.”)
- “Do you carry [competitor store brand]?”
- “Are you sure this isn’t [competitor]?”
- “Can I return underwear?” (Ew.)
- question requiring me to spend 15 minutes on the phone running all over the store to check if an item is in stock that the customer swears we carry, when I know we don’t
- customer wants me to describe all the shoes we have in their size, their prices, and whether I personally think it is a “good deal” or not
- customer wants me to hold merchandise for several days, when store policy only allows 24 hours
- customer wants me to ship merchandise to their home, which we cannot do
- customer wants me to special-order merchandise, which we cannot do
- customer wants me to describe different articles of children’s clothing so she can consider using it as a costume for her dog
- customer insists that I am lying about working in the fashion department and that we are “just a grocery store”
Haha, I’ve had the last one. Some older man became angry with me, and then CURSED at me for “lying” about what store we were. He claimed we were the copy store down the street. Sigh.
Yes, because customers have all the time in the world to drive 50 miles just on the chance that the store is open after 5 PM. And of course there’s no such thing as a customer who has to spend an hour and a half on the bus: oh, no, blind people and the disabled don’t buy things. Everyone who shops owns a car.
Whoever made this graphic is a whiner.
I don’t think this graph is complaining about people who ask this questions. Just stating a fact. And it’s kinda funny because it’s true.
No I’m not.
It’s a simple fact.
I worked at a major nation wide store (in Australia) and we have a website with all those details on them so why would they be calling the store to ask for them?
Admittedly most of the people where calling on a Saturday to ask for the closing time, which can be a little different, but on Saturday I started in the morning and worked most of the day and “What time do you close?” was the ONLY question I got. sometimes i’d answer one phone tell them the closing time the phone would ring again and another person would ask the same question, then finish with them and straight away answer the phone again and answer the same question from a third person
and the number of people who call on a sunday and ask “are you open?” no… I come in on my day off and answer phones for the fun of it.
Who cares? All this graph shows is that most people are well informed about what they want to buy before they get to the store, which I think is much better than impulse buying. Anyway, the graph is plain unfunny. Fail.
Actually, I think it shows just the opposite. If most of the customers were trying to be well-informed about the products, then most of the calls would be questions about the products. The fact that they aren’t calling doesn’t indicate that they already know everything they need to about the products, it just indicates that they aren’t asking about them. I suppose that could be because they already researched them on the internet or something, but if they’re already doing that then why aren’t they going to the store’s website to look up the store hours while they’re at it? It seems much more likely to me that they’re only calling to ask about store hours because they plan to come in and browse, and they won’t know what products they want to ask about until they get there.
I disagree. I work in a clothing store, and I get a lot of, “I’m looking for a Sonoma (brand) pair of jeans, size 12 short, in Petites in a dark blue color that comes with a belt. Do you have any?”
“…..one moment, mam, please hold….”
In my line of work (ie. Gamestop), 99% of this graph would be “Do you have Wii Fit?!”
“What time do you close?”
“At eleven every night.”
“PM? Even on Sundays?”
“At eleven every night.”
“How long has this been happening?”
“Every night for the past two years. Get used to it.”
It’s so true though.
Reading all the comments made me think.
What are the right questions to ask customer service?
Seem like all the things I always ask are the wrong ones according to you guys.
Can you provide me with some examples of correct questions?
Basically you should really only be asking about product availability over the phone.
Store hours for any major retailer (and many minor) are on their websites, which they do try and keep up to date (for public holidays, etc).
The Store address will also be on the website, or failing that in the phone book (usually).
NEVER assume that the person answering the phone knows absolutely everything about absolutely everything in the store; the number of times I’ve answered the phone and they have launched in to a dozen questions at a million miles an hour and I’ve had to wait for 5 minutes before finally going “Okay; I’ll transfer you to the electronic sections.”
Don’t assume that the person on the phone can do absolutely everything, I’m the Checkout person, no I can’t run out the back of the store and see if it’s in stock, that’s what the floor staff are for, I’ll transfer them to you.
Oh, and could you please say “Hello” and “please” and “thank you” would it kill you!!
How about the customers who ask you if you have a product in stock, and then REFUSE TO LET YOU PUT THEM ON HOLD
Also, please make sure you say what you’re calling about first, let the person answering the phone figure out whether they need to transfer you, *then* give a more detailed explanation. I’m a cashier, so most of the time, if somebody’s calling to ask about anything other than the store hours, they actually need to talk to somebody other than me. It’s a waste of time for both of us when people immediately go into a detailed description of their problem/question and talk for several minutes without letting me get a word in edgewise and then when they get to the end, I just have to transfer them and they have to explain everything again.
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Really, though, answering most of these questions doesn’t bother me (although it does get a little repetitive sometimes.) What really makes a difference is how you behave when you’re asking them. Be concise and polite, let them put you on hold or transfer you if they need to, and accept “no” for an answer, and you’ll be fine.
Sounds about right, and with the Wii comments (I work in a video game store too). However, I’m also in the fun position where the Oneida Indian Nation used to have our number. They got a new one, we got the old one. I can’t tell you how many calls I’ve answered that want their gas stations or somebody in payroll or…
One of my jobs is in a Fabric store. On the phone, a lady once asked if we sold fabric. I said yes, and then she asked if we sold black fabric. =D
for the record, GraphJam ate my original post way up top about this. =( I’m a flaming spaz, but I’m not THAT bad.
i work closes at taco bell and every night, about 20 minutes after we close, we get a call asking if we are open
its usually drunks though :-\
Wth. I mean, is it really that bad to ask what time your store closes? I guess we could just drive there and take a chance. I know you would prefer people to ask better questions while making you 7.50 an hour, like, “What are your thoughts on the current political situation?”, or maybe, “Is there life after death?” but then again you joined a customer service. If you don’t want to have to answer questions, stupid or otherwise, you might try a different job. Thank you, come again!
Sorry you are getting questions from customers that aren’t to your liking. Sorry customers are too lazy check out your companies website online and search for hours at their local store. Sorry you are so stupid that you stay in customer service at 7.50 an hour. Maybe being the wonderkid at Best Buy isn’t for you after all.
So what, you ass-for-brain store clerk? If I wanna find out if your crappy store is open you think I’m going to drive over and find out?
Would you talk to your kids like that?
No… okay, then why is it acceptable to talk to other peoples kids like that?
Ok, “mkkay” and “paying customer”, I think you two both need to chill.
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It gets rather annoying when it’s so repetitive, but we’re not complaining about people ringing to ask what are, in all honesty, sensible questions.
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If you take the time to read the comments above, you’ll find that most of the complaining ones, are about customers who have been unreasonably angry or dishonest. Just because we work in the Customer Service industry, doesn’t mean impatient, grouchy customers have a right to treat us badly. We’re just people doing a job, trying to earn a living, same as anyone else. And where would you be without us? Lost in a department store somewhere.
Great comment DRS, ooh what is that, you should go, I think I heard “clean up in aisle 7″
People wonder why customer service is so bad at some places. This would be your reason.
I’m not your personal shopper, I’m not your child’s babysitter while you shop, I’m not there for you to bully to make yourself feel superior, I’m not there to clean up behind you. Those of us who complained have only complained about unreasonable customers. I love and adore several of my customers. I’ve gained friendships outside the job from customers who’ve come into the store. There are plenty who walk through my doors who I will bend over backwards for because they are wonderful human beings who don’t see me as just some grunt in retail. There are more of these people than there are the bad ones, but the bad ones are overly obnoxious. They are examples of what NOT to be towards other people.
But don’t worry. Keep pretending your so much better than the grunts, and I hope you enjoy the amount of spit you eat every time you order food.
Ok, so I’m a few months late with this comment, but my point still stands…
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I work in a bookstore. There is no “Clean up in aisle 7″.
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The reason I work in a bookstore is because I need to do something for money while I’m at university. I was just lucky to get the bookstore, and not be forced to work with fast food or groceries.
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I’m not an idiot or a drop out or whatever else you may think. I graduated high school with an OP2 (2nd highest achievable), and am in my 2nd year of university. I’m studying a Bachelor of Information Technology (Advanced, with Honours), and have a GPA of 6.88 (Highest possible is 7). I’m also in my university’s Honours College, for high achieving students with leadership potential.
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When I graduate, I’ll probably continue my studies and eventually earn a PhD.
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Have I made my point yet?
i understand that people dont want to drive and risk it
it wouldnt be too bad if it wasnt every single night
we have our stores hours posted on every door, the menu, and the drive-thru window in big letters
what really annoys me is the people who are rude for no reason
example:
Customer at drive-thru: now listen carefully, i want 3 soft shell tacos with enough taco sauce to cover all three tacos, got it?
Me: Ok what kind of sauce would you like. we have mild, hot, and fire.
C: i SAID i wanted enough to cover all three tacos!
M: i understand that sir but we have three different kind of sauces.
C(shouting now): i want enough for all my tacos!!
M: sir, please dont yell, its very rude, im just trying to figure out which sauce you want: mild, hot, or fire
C: i want mild!
mkkay, yes, we work in the service industry. that doesnt mean we are dumb by any means, nor are we less human than you. i am 18 years old. i am not a punk kid, i graduated high school, and i plan on going into the air force but im saving up money before i go
you see, not everybody who works at a taco bell or mcdonalds is a brain-dead, punk kid who has no direction in life
but what i really love about your comment is the fact that DRS gave you a very reasonable reply and you give him/her crap about it
i take it that you havent had to work at a fast food resturant or a grocery or retail store…maybe you havent worked at all yet or maybe mommy and daddy bought everything for you
i really dont know but whatever the case, you dont have to be a jerk about it
i hope you arent this rude to people who make your food because we are making what you EAT and some people just might mess with it
so please, get off your throne and show others a little respect
i work a a dollar store and i get questions like this all the time. even though it is a dollar store, that does not mean that everything in the store is $1. it means that we sell a lot of things at a cheaper price than most other stores. we do have a lot of items that are just $1, but not everything is. some people it seems dont have the mental capacity to grasp this abstract concept. example:
me:*beep**beep**beep*(ringing up merchandise for the customer at the register)
Customer: Hey! that [item] rang up $4.25!!! Everything in the store is supposed to be a dollar!!! Take that off now!!!
me: Actually this item is priced correctly. not everything in the store is one dollar. there should have been a price tag next to all of these items when you picked them up off the shelves.
Customer: No!!! this is a dollar store!! so that means that everything in the store HAS to be a dollar!! It’s against the law if its not!!!(im not making this up-and its not by the way because we never said everything is $1)
the customer then continues their protest until i am forced to take the item back to where they got it and show them the price tag that clearly labels it as $4.25, at which point a huge line has formed back at the register and i am the only cashier on shift. this results in the other customers getting angry for a legitimate reason, but unfortunately they decide to take it out on the cashier (me). the first angry customer then storms back up to the register and allows me to finish ringing up the whopping total of $12. the next several customers have decided that they would like to be extremely rude be cause they are now 5 minutes late to wherever the hell they needed to be. makes me glad im going into the military next week.
One more you forgot. You answer the phone by saying, “Thank you for calling______.”(name of store). They promptly ask, “Is this _______” (Name of store you just said). No joke
The only guys that call our shops are the ones that want donations to a charity .__.