I really wish...

[darkdep]

Here's what I do.  If I walk in and it's busy, and the employee helping you looks distracted and stressed because they know they are supposed to be serving the other people there, I tell them to go ahead, that I can wait.  This usually results in better service when they get back to me.  

I've worked retail.  It is by far, the most thankless stressful type of job there is.  It's not the store, or the management, or the employees even that anyone should get mad at.  It's ok to get mad at a 'moment' caused by a combination of those things, but nobody TRIES to piss customers off.  

I started thinking about this thread and relating it to my current position (IT d00d at a law firm).

- Someone demands instant attention: Sorry, my queue is full, you can go on the whiteboard and wait your turn or get someone else to help you.
- Someone asks how long something will take:  As long as it takes.
- Someone gives me crap for making a personal phone call:  Well, really, that's just not acceptable.  I don't deserve to be treated that way.
- Someone asks for a detailed walkthrough of a system that is well documented:  RTFM.

Guess what?  If I worked in an LFS this thread would be about me.  But I don't, and the kind of things we demand of retail employees I just would not accept...and note that the points I made above would NEVER have me labeled as not caring about my "clients".

Interesting, eh?

[artw]

great to see a spiritied discussion but lets try and keep it civil..  no need for any personal attacks or the like (not saying there has been).    ...for what it's worth everything said in this thread so far is exactly the same in the diving/dive shop world too....

[squeeker]

Art, your signature is HILARIOUS!

[mseguin]

Don't look at it Trish, nooo... aw crap we lost her.

[AdamR]

Just found out who Squeeker is, I think SP Kanata got lucky having 2 good people. (not sure about the rest of the staff there, no offence)

You will find good and bad people in every walk of life, in every profession except used car salesman and lawyers.    

That last bit was a joke, no offence to the lawyers.  

[charlie]

Hi guys i worked in comission sales for a bit, & i can relate to mat & others but there is a golden rule in sales which is the first rule in customer service is - THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT, rule # 2 is  IF THE CUSTOMER IS WRONG SEE RULE # 1.
Regards

[Nerine]

Ahhh customer service I work at Merivale petsmart...and somedays it drives me INSANE! last saturday there were so many people, and I was the ONLY person on the floor for the fish/small animal/bird department...people were yelling at me because I was taking too long with each customer...even had customers yelling at each other because they couldn't pick out a fish fast enough! I got really fed up and told them all they had to wait in line. This saturday and sunday I'm not looking forward to it...so please please don't go shop at petsmart for fish I'm ALONE from 8-5 on sunday and saturday I MIGHT have help in the afternoon. It's crazy, we lack the staff, we lack the hours to give the staff that we're slowly loosing. I wish I had more time to spend with customers because I want them to be educated! This guy came in, bought 5 danios for a fishbowl...now if I had more time I could have done some more investigative work and found out he only had a fishbowl! (he told me he had a tank) and he just poured them in straight and they all died! Customers need to learn to wait and they need to learn to be patient and NEVER EVER shop at a fish store when you're in a hurry!! when I'm out shopping for fish I'm willing to wait as long as it takes, in a store in Montreal I waited an hour for assistance because the place was very busy and it was well worth the wait. Customers need to slow down and think of how overworked we all are! I do wish more fish stores had real fish people working in them and I know they do try most of the time! We have had our share of wonky people! I won't sell Plecos to people with 10 gallon tanks and trying to get across to a person that an oscar gets big and it won't fit in your 10 gallon either doesn't always go over very well. I hope people who come in to petsmart have a good experiance with me and I always try and help them and if I don't know, I ask because in the fish hobby you will be forever learning

[aidensmomma2000]

A point that I have been making, is that you shouldn't be overworked and also paid better :wink:

[Nelson]

Very well written Nerine......Contrary to what seems to be the popular opinion, it's not always the line staff that is the problem.  They are as frustrated as the customers  LFS managers are given a budget and objectives that their corporate handlers impose upon them.  When they fall short in certain areas they try to make up for it in others, and sometimes that make-up is accomplished by cutting back on staff.  Is it right?  Not from a consumers point of view, but that's reality in the world of retail.

[charlie]

Nerine , I was in your store very recently, & one of the asst. managers was covering the floor  because the girl who was supposed to be there had a accident @ work . The cust. service was great, Brian ( another manager) was covering the cash so the cashier could go on break, here is a guy who all other pet store staff should try to emulate he leads by example, in general always a good exp. @ petsmart merivale, on the other hand i was @ Aq. ser. Innis one night , when there was only one guy in the fish room & swamped , he tried his best but from apparent lack of Exp. & or knowledge was overwhelmed, I have suggested to aq, ser. , that maybe it would be a good idea to place some sort of tags to help identify the plants, so that when the store is busy & understaffed , a customer could retain the name & later do some research on the net or other, instead of trying to get info. @ a busy/understaff time.
Regards

[Aiglos]

I plan on going to Superpet and Big als Kanata saterday.  I am always excited about my trip into the "city" haha.  

Ive never had a problem at either of the 2 stores;  the longer they take to help me the more time I have to look at fish.  The poeple working there have always been friendly and proffesional.  

Now saying that; I am a firm believer in the costumer is always right and that your sales staff should be knoledgable in there job.

I like how dark dep used his own work experiance to shed light on the situation ( P.S If there is any paralegal jobs open at your law firm give me a shout my sister needs a job hehe).

I hope that the managers are aware and can start adaquetly staffing;  To have 1 person work a fish department ALL day on saterday and sunday is disgusting.

[darkdep]

Thanks Aiglos.  Retail, unlike some other professions, doesn't seem to be one where you get more respect the further you go with it.  

I recommend for anyone who has a bad experience to take a deep breath, go back to the same store (on another day) and give them another shot.  Opinions should not be formed on (the possibility of) one bad experience.

I had a bad experience my first time at SP Kanata (I'm not going to go into details, we've had enough stories in this thread) and because I went back and found people I wanted to deal with it is by far my favourite LFS.

Think of the things you all do for jobs, and try to compare the things we're talking about with your own jobs.  

I have a hard time getting mad at an overworked store employee when I say things at my job like "Does that problem affect less than 5% of the population?  Yes?  Then it's not my problem.  Go see the Helpdesk."  (There's definetly a little bit of sarcasm in that statement but a lot of reality; it's just how my job works).  :lol:

(Btw, Aiglos, I am not really in the loop as far as available positions in the non-IT areas of my firm, but I can pass along your sister's resume to our HR lady who is, if you want!)

[Sailfin]

Here's a question for the moderators.....Why is it when a conversation stating true facts...messages get deleted?   What's wrong with letting the general public know about situations?  In the message that I placed, and it got deleted... it just made a funny gesture that I would like to work for that person, since he thinks that it's ok to chat on the phone and forget about good customer service! That attitude wouldn't work in any other work place in this world! If the person can not take critisism, perhaps that person is in the wrong trade... Wouldn't you agree?  It seems that alot of messages are deleted, just to make others look good. :?  Just let things be fair in here as long as it doesn't get nasty! People tend to get high blood pressure in here hearing some true facts about experiences in the stores and then providing excuses in defence.   :roll:  Instead of always defending, they should be looking at this to improve themselves.  It might actually draw in some customers.

[Marc]

Here's a question for the moderators.....Why is it when a conversation stating true facts...messages get deleted?   What's wrong with letting the general public know about situations?  In the message that I placed, and it got deleted... it just made a funny gesture that I would like to work for that person, since he thinks that it's ok to chat on the phone and forget about good customer service! That attitude wouldn't work in any other work place in this world! If the person can not take critisism, perhaps that person is in the wrong trade... Wouldn't you agree?  It seems that alot of messages are deleted, just to make others look good. :?  Just let things be fair in here as long as it doesn't get nasty! People tend to get high blood pressure in here hearing some true facts about experiences in the stores and then providing excuses in defence.   :roll:  Instead of always defending, they should be looking at this to improve themselves.  It might actually draw in some customers.

I think if you look at the posts in this thread you will see that posts stating true facts do not get deleted and that posts that no one and no LFS are being "made to look good".  

If you think that "I would like to work for that person, since he thinks that it's ok to chat on the phone and forget about good customer service!" is a fact or a true situation or that it's funny then good for you but I disagree.  I think it's rude and insulting and certainly not funny especially when told to someone who is already feeling defensive because of things said about him, his coworkers and the LFS he works at.

There are posts about the same LFS where someone said something along the lines of "I went there and I had to wait for service while the clerk chatted on the phone or while employees chatted with themselves and it upset me".  That's a true situation and a statement of what happened to the person (or at least how the person interpreted it) and that has NOT been deleted.

You said "It seems that alot of messages are deleted, just to make others look good. "  This statement really upsets me and I feel insulted.  Next time you say something like that I'm not going to bother replying to you I'm just going to delete the post.  If you don't like the moderating here at OVAS then post somewhere else.

Marc

[kennyman]

I had a bad experience my first time at SP Kanata (I'm not going to go into details, we've had enough stories in this thread) and because I went back and found people I wanted to deal with it is by far my favourite LFS.

And thats what makes this all so interesting. That happens to be my least favorite shop

[Marc]

You said "It seems that alot of messages are deleted, just to make others look good. "  This statement really upsets me and I feel insulted.  Next time you say something like that I'm not going to bother replying to you I'm just going to delete the post.  If you don't like the moderating here at OVAS then post somewhere else.

Sailfin, as further explanation to my comment:  If you're gonna question my decision I can live with that but if you question my integrity then we have issues.  I will defend all other OVAS moderators in the same way.

Marc

[darkdep]

And thats what makes this all so interesting. That happens to be my least favorite shop

:lol:

First of all, Marc, I'll speak for (at least myself) and say you and the other moderators ARE doing a great job.

I think the idea of "facts getting deleted" is being blown out of proportion.  "Incendiary Comments" is more like it.  I mean, really, if you're unhappy with a store, shop somewhere else.  I doubt anyone on this forum is so dedicated to a single LFS that they don't shop anywhere else and would be truly devastated if they received a little bit of what they perceived as "bad service" from that store.  I shop at all the LFS near me, all for different reasons.  Even the ones I perceive as having "bad customer service".

The problem with "this store sucks!" type posts is it just degrades into a back and forth flame war; nothing else can come of it...as this thread proves.

[Sailfin]

I think if you look at the posts in this thread you will see that posts stating true facts do not get deleted and that posts that no one and no LFS are being "made to look good".  

If you think that "I would like to work for that person, since he thinks that it's ok to chat on the phone and forget about good customer service!" is a fact or a true situation or that it's funny then good for you but I disagree.  I think it's rude and insulting and certainly not funny especially when told to someone who is already feeling defensive because of things said about him, his coworkers and the LFS he works at.

There are posts about the same LFS where someone said something along the lines of "I went there and I had to wait for service while the clerk chatted on the phone or while employees chatted with themselves and it upset me".  That's a true situation and a statement of what happened to the person (or at least how the person interpreted it) and that has NOT been deleted.

You said "It seems that alot of messages are deleted, just to make others look good. "  This statement really upsets me and I feel insulted.  Next time you say something like that I'm not going to bother replying to you I'm just going to delete the post.  If you don't like the moderating here at OVAS then post somewhere else.

Marc

Well gee, I had one comment deleted last evening.....there was no hurt intended what so ever....That last paragraph seems to be true in here since I have seen it before.  Instead of deleting one message because your insulted for hearing something that's true....you should then delete the whole thread.  People vent for a reason on here....it started with one person, and it opens a can of worms because your users/viewers read this...and most times agree with alot of statements.  Messages are deleted, and they don't imply hurt on anyone, they just state true facts!   If they think that is is insulting...that's the guilty feeling that they know that they done wrong!

As to posting elsewhere?   Why?  I have met alot of people here and deal with them in ways every week....Great people.   People post sale ads on here for LPS..thats great!  People also have bad experiences in these LPS.....nothing wrong with posting that.

Since I audit alot of big name stores, I know that companies love feed back..positive and negative..this is how they improve services.....If the person that looked at this thread and took it as an offence.....He/she should read what I just stated before this sentence because he's obviously in the wrong choice of work.

That's all I have to say with this.  

[BigDaddy]

If they think that is is insulting...that's the guilty feeling that they know that they done wrong!

I'll take issue with that comment.  A person can be insulted by a comment without being guilty of anything on their part.

I joked with 3 people yesterday that there must be a condition on this board.  It seems at least once a month, someone has a rant about customer service.  I'm gonna call this condition OVAS PMS   :lol:

Here's the simple truth.  I delete posts when I think its in the best interests of the forum.  I haven't deleted a single post in this thread.

The simple fact is this.  As a user, you can post a message on this board.  As a moderator, I can delete it.  End of story.

[aidensmomma2000]

I feel bad for starting the thread now!  :oops:
I figured OVASers could probably empathize with my frustration with my particular situation- my partner really didn't get it  :wink: