The 50 cents post card and the wedding

[Deleted]

No offense, but if you think that is bad try counseling. We work on a quota system with an average of 6 hours a day every day when we are full time. That includes 6 hours a day in our vacation time (which is a mandatory 3 weeks). So, we have to make up 90 hours (from the vacation time) along with those 6 hours a day. Given a no call/no cancel/ no show rate of about 40-50% it means we often end up working 12 hours a day to hit those 6 hours a day. Meanwhile, we get paid salary so we only really get paid about $30 an hour for the time we are in front of clients and the company we work for (meanwhile) is billing about $90 an hour to those clients. Grand!! Not to mention, we are required to have a 60 hour master's degree in order to start work and then we have CEUs every year to stay working (along with national licensing examinations of course). The plus: its so crappy that you are almost guaranteed a job because no one else wants to do it.

Haha, that sounds rough. Yeah I don't do the recruiting myself (i'm an accountant - sort of) so don't have to deal with it myself, I work in a recruitment agency and my parents were both in recruitment all my life, so hear all the stories.

[Daez]

Nowadays very very few companies promote management from within. So said boss most likely has zero clue about what the person on register went through and only sees "over on labor costs, inefficient, wasting time".

Funny, because I've never worked with a company that didn't promote from within, and I worked retail (and it wasn't that recently that I stopped working retail). Also, over on labor costs, inefficiency and wasting time is not that huge of a problem if you have adequate employees and employee policies. When I worked retail I could be at the register the second the customer was while still keeping my department in order. I also had the least hours worked (because of school) and the second highest sales in the department (right behind our full time person) because I could up sale like crazy. Its amazing how well you are treated if you have top sales (or close).

[Drungan]

If the worst thing you have to deal with at work is witnessing a person take 40 minutes to decide on a post card then you have no right to complain about anything. Ever.

This ..... unless ofc they force you to stand beside them and look at every card possible and it is impossible for you to do other work.

Is the issue realy that you are forced to be in the store while there is somone there ? so you cant sit out back playing online poker ?

[Daez]

That's not such a bad thing in all cases. Internal promotions like that are usually a bad idea.

Internal promotions in retail are almost always a good idea. Why would you hire someone from outside the company that has no clue what your company is about or how to work your products if you have someone that is already working for you that knows your products and your company. That makes zero financial sense. Sure, when you start talking higher than maybe district manager than you probably want someone with a business degree, but until then your management staff is simply relaying orders and doing pretty much the same job as the cashiers/stock people under them except they have to count the drawers and do a balance sheet at the end of the shift.

[Deleted]

To which you respond... you know that one customer with that one post card... 40 minutes. In which case the boss, who probably started on the register since most retail tends to promote within at least to the area of store management will probably laugh because they most likely went through a similar situation and then you will probably get help finishing up what you didn't get done. If that is not how it goes down your boss is a dick and you need a new job, but it has nothing to do with the customer.

Yes that is logically approach, but most people ain't that logically and will still try and do the tasks they normally do, and that means they have to make up for the "lost" time and that means working faster, which I think most can agree is not enjoyable, which brings us back to the OP rant about customers wasting his time.

[Kalis]

Yes that is logically thinking, but most people ain't that logically and will still try and do the tasks they normally do, and that means they have to make up for the "lost" time and that means working faster, which I think most can agree is not enjoyable, which brings us back to the OP rant about customers wasting their time.

Working harder to make up for the "lost" time spent on customer service is part of your job. The customer isn't wasting your time, it's those annoying jobs in between servicing customers that are wasting your time, which is why the higher up the ladder you go, the less of those piddly jobs you have to do.

The OP's rant shows they have their priorities completely arse-about-face.

[Kreeshak]

So what?

Your number one priority is your number ONE priority, which means they supercede everything else, and if they take up all your time then tough titties.

Which is why I raged on a computer forum and not on their faces. Technically both them and you are right. You are also assholes.

[Zervek]

The customer is always right!
That phrase is misused all the time

[Deleted]

You said that post cards aren't of any significant monetary value.
So ask yourself this: why are we buying them?

[Kreeshak]

You said that post cards aren't of any significant monetary value.
So ask yourself this: why are we buying them?

The post cards is the bait to lure you into the shop to buy what really makes profit and increases sales.

edit: ordinary normal customers that I am more than happy to serve, buy post cards on top of other stuff, in a significant faster timeframe.

I can understand these people are on vacations and they want to spend time without necessarily spending money. But they must also respect that I have plenty of things to do on top of serving them and making sure they don't steal anything.

[Deleted]

The post cards is the bait to lure you into the shop to buy what really makes profit and increases sales.

If you're selling them? Sure. But not if you're buying them. Post cards are personal and the monetary value is negligible.

[Kalis]

The post cards is the bait to lure you into the shop to buy what really makes profit and increases sales.

...and you failed to get any additional sales, so not only are you moaning about having to do your job, but you're not very good at it either.


Ever thought about being the bloke who spins people around at fairgrounds?

But they must also respect that I have plenty of things to do on top of serving them and making sure they don't steal anything.

That's your concern, not theirs.

[Kreeshak]

...and you failed to get any additional sales, so not only are you moaning about having to do your job, but you're not very good at it either.


Ever thought about being the bloke who spins people around at fairgrounds?

You are provocative and this is my last reply to you. Anyone including you would have failed to make additional sales on the time wasters. Its not about skill, doing your job right or wrong. It's about the time wasters not respecting other's around them. They want to spend time without being considerate about others and they are determined to not buy anything significant.

[Deleted]

You are provocative and this is my last reply to you. Anyone including you would have failed to make additional sales on the time wasters. Its not about skill, doing your job right or wrong. It's about the time wasters not respecting other's around them. They want to spend time without being considerate about others and they are determined to not buy anything significant.

You sell it. They can choose. If you're bothered with it, tell them, but I'm sure they'll never come back.
Don't sell things that make you think are a waste of time. Simple, isn't it?

[Kalis]

You are provocative and this is my last reply to you. Anyone including you would have failed to make additional sales on the time wasters. Its not about skill, doing your job right or wrong. It's about the time wasters not respecting other's around them. They want to spend time without being considerate about others and they are determined to not buy anything significant.

From the sounds of it you're not really cut out for customer service, which means unless your attitude changes you won't succeed at just about any job, as most of them are customer service in one way or another.

[Deleted]

Internal promotions in retail are almost always a good idea. Why would you hire someone from outside the company that has no clue what your company is about or how to work your products if you have someone that is already working for you that knows your products and your company. That makes zero financial sense. Sure, when you start talking higher than maybe district manager than you probably want someone with a business degree, but until then your management staff is simply relaying orders and doing pretty much the same job as the cashiers/stock people under them except they have to count the drawers and do a balance sheet at the end of the shift.

Well, statistically your company will be more successful by promoting people at random than doing the thing most companies do when they promote from within, i.e taking the best person of the job below and bumping them up.

The thing is that being a good manager requires an entirely different skillset to being a good checkout blipper. Yes, it's important to have an understanding of the company etc, but for a manager, you need someone with managerial skills, for a checkout blipper, you need someone who can keep doing mundane tasks with efficiency over a long period of time, someone who is good with customers, etc etc. These kinds of things arn't neccesarily AS important for a manager as being able to manage staff (which is entirely different to dealing with customers) and facilities.

The problem with promoting from within is you end up with horrible inefficiencies. People get promoted through all the jobs they are good at, untill they hit a job they are bad at, at which point they are doing bad so they don't get promoted any more, and they end up stuck there. Suppose the progression chain is tills > Store manager > regional manager > something else. You have Steve, who is good at tills, but bad at store managing, Bob, who is good at tills and store managing, but can't regional manage for shit, and Alice, who is awful on tills but is an absolutley baller store and regional manager. Steve is good on tills so gets a promotion, ends up store managing and sucks at it. Bob is good at tills, so gets promoted to store managing, which he is also good at, so gets promoted again and is now regional manager, which he sucks at, so doesn't get any more promotions. Alice is shit on tills so she never gets a promotion. What you now have his the three worst people for the jobs they are worst at.

So what are your options? Well, you could promote people based not on whether they are good at their current job, but whether they would be good at the job you are promoting them to. This is difficult because 1) there are few transferrable skills in many cases, so how do you know alice is good at managing because she never does any of it, you never see that she is good at these things, 2) because it requires you to be able to be an exceptional interviewer, and be able to see exactly where your staffs strengths lie from just talking to them. This is harder than you'd think because you're a store manager, not a recruiter, you arn't that good at inteiewing and people bullshit a lot in interviews, and because chances are you are in the position of store manager because you got promoted into it for being good on tills but you suck at it so never got promoted further so you probably suck at this anyway. and 3) if you promote alice to store manager when she's the worst member of the team on tills, steve and bob are going to be pissed off like hell "Why the fuck is alice getting a promotion when she's fucking worthless" and they won't respect her at all as their new manager, even though she would be best for the job.

Alternatively, you could hire someone in directly to the manager position. They don't know the store straight off, but that can be taught, and it allows the interviewing process to be a bit easier. You're hireing for a manager so you'll get people more in that bracket, rather than the minimum wage job slaves applying, and you can take references up on places where they have worked as a manager before to see how they did. Also, if you are that kind of company, you can pay a recruitment agency to find you a really good manager, and then you don't have to worry about it at all.

[Kreeshak]

You sell it. They can choose. If you're bothered with it, tell them, but I'm sure they'll never come back.
Don't sell things that make you think are a waste of time. Simple, isn't it?

Of course. I am not bothered with people buying post cards and the majority of the customers. I am annoyed by the rare occurance of customers wasting my time. It's not about the post cards. They could try out everything on the shop, waste me 2 hours and still be politically correct and I could not tell them off. I am and would be annoyed though. Everyone who works on customer service will have an example to symphathise. I don't expect others to understand easily.

[Tradewind]

Why does a customer picking out a post card affect your job in any way? Do you have to like hand it to them one at a time to look at it? Or guide them through the process of buying a postcard? Aren't they usually just in a fucking rack and they just pick one out and bring it to you to pay for it?

You're there for work any way, how is it wasting your time at all?

Is this thread a fucking joke?

[Deleted]

Why does a customer picking out a post card affect your job in any way? Do you have to like hand it to them one at a time to look at it? Or guide them through the process of buying a postcard? Aren't they usually just in a fucking rack and they just pick one out and bring it to you to pay for it?

You're there for work any way, how is it wasting your time at all?

Is this thread a fucking joke?

He's worried that they will steal something.

[Kalis]

Everyone who works on customer service will have an example to symphathise. I don't expect others to understand easily.

Virtually everyone works in customer service, the only differences are 1. the type of customer (internal, external, business, public, etc.), and 2. scale (50p postcards, multi-million pound contracts, etc.).

You are at the bottom of the rung of the customer service ladder and you can't cope with those customers! That really isn't a good place to be.


Change your attitude, or you will stay on the bottom of the ladder, and you may not like it but it is the best advice you will receive on this thread.