(no subject)
As you may know I work at *****, selling women's shoes. As such, I have had the opportunity to witness the good, bad and ugly of the retail business. Nice people, rude people, rude people pretending to be nice and failing. Nothing is more awkward than generally unfriendly people trying to be agreeable during a transaction. I find myself wondering: are they trying to be nice? Or do they think I'm an idiot? Perhaps both. When you approach someone who works retail you've largely decided in your mind what kind of people they are and everything they do reinforces that belief, at least in your own mind. Confirmation bias and all that.
After my retail experiences I've learned this: I don't have to like the customer and they don't have to like me. We just have to get along well enough to complete the transaction. Them finding shoes, me selling them. I don't have to be fake nice (I find that retail trait fake and irritating) but I should be agreeable. Agreeable enough to provide a good shopping experience but not enough to get ripped off. I'm tired of the arguments: "Is this on sale? Can I use two coupons? What can you take off this shoe for me?" We do not operate on a barter system, and yes I realize that the prices are high, quality sometimes low and our coupon policy stinks. Unfortunately, I break these policies at pain of being fired.
Don't get me wrong, some customers are a joy. Most forgettable, some are difficult. Just like the retail associates. I tend to fall into the forgettable category which is fine with me. In means I get the job done without being too obnoxious. Most of the time. Mistakes are made. You're having an off day, they're having an off day, your personalities don't mesh. One or the other person get irritated. I have never been purposefully rude to a customer. Doesn't mean that it hasn't happened by accident though. I don't care who you are, someone will periodically complain about something you did, usually something meaningless. In fact, some people live to come in to complain, and if they're ticked, even more so. You apologize and if they're gracious enough to accept so be it. If they still complain to the manager and reject your apology then they didn't necessarily make things better, but if that cools their temper and they leave you must accept that too. More often than not, the manager knows what complaints to weed out and which to address. Mistakes and neglect can happen in retail, especially in shoes. You leave your customer to do something you think will take only a moment for another and then it takes longer than expected. Then you have an angry customer who feels ignored. Nevermind that in this business you have to wait on more than one person. You can't ignore other customers while waiting on someone. Unfortunately it took longer to get back and now I have to listen to a "you're horribly rude" speech from some stranger who doesn't seem to understand that I can't pretend to not see the other people that need my services as well. When busy we cannot wait on one person and one person alone and that's just the truth. Mistakes happen, we're only human after all.
But through all this I realize that customers don't always recognize you like a person, much like in a rush associates see customers as $$$, especially selling shoes. So, chances are if you saw them on the street you/they may not even recognize you/them.
Which reminds me, this also applies to the past. Someone who said something about you that you didn't like umpteen years ago probably wouldn't even recognize/remember you now. The one who remembers it is you. So why let that moment still bother you. At some point you have to move beyond these minor blemishes. I find that it just wastes my energy. They don't remember you. Obviously what happened doesn't carry as much weight as you feel it does. It is these misunderstandings and hurtful things that cause us to have hangups, many based on a reality not quite true.
But really, I only work until the 14th and then law school orientation begins and then I don't have to think about these things any more. Yay. May have to go back to work during breaks, but who knows?
After my retail experiences I've learned this: I don't have to like the customer and they don't have to like me. We just have to get along well enough to complete the transaction. Them finding shoes, me selling them. I don't have to be fake nice (I find that retail trait fake and irritating) but I should be agreeable. Agreeable enough to provide a good shopping experience but not enough to get ripped off. I'm tired of the arguments: "Is this on sale? Can I use two coupons? What can you take off this shoe for me?" We do not operate on a barter system, and yes I realize that the prices are high, quality sometimes low and our coupon policy stinks. Unfortunately, I break these policies at pain of being fired.
Don't get me wrong, some customers are a joy. Most forgettable, some are difficult. Just like the retail associates. I tend to fall into the forgettable category which is fine with me. In means I get the job done without being too obnoxious. Most of the time. Mistakes are made. You're having an off day, they're having an off day, your personalities don't mesh. One or the other person get irritated. I have never been purposefully rude to a customer. Doesn't mean that it hasn't happened by accident though. I don't care who you are, someone will periodically complain about something you did, usually something meaningless. In fact, some people live to come in to complain, and if they're ticked, even more so. You apologize and if they're gracious enough to accept so be it. If they still complain to the manager and reject your apology then they didn't necessarily make things better, but if that cools their temper and they leave you must accept that too. More often than not, the manager knows what complaints to weed out and which to address. Mistakes and neglect can happen in retail, especially in shoes. You leave your customer to do something you think will take only a moment for another and then it takes longer than expected. Then you have an angry customer who feels ignored. Nevermind that in this business you have to wait on more than one person. You can't ignore other customers while waiting on someone. Unfortunately it took longer to get back and now I have to listen to a "you're horribly rude" speech from some stranger who doesn't seem to understand that I can't pretend to not see the other people that need my services as well. When busy we cannot wait on one person and one person alone and that's just the truth. Mistakes happen, we're only human after all.
But through all this I realize that customers don't always recognize you like a person, much like in a rush associates see customers as $$$, especially selling shoes. So, chances are if you saw them on the street you/they may not even recognize you/them.
Which reminds me, this also applies to the past. Someone who said something about you that you didn't like umpteen years ago probably wouldn't even recognize/remember you now. The one who remembers it is you. So why let that moment still bother you. At some point you have to move beyond these minor blemishes. I find that it just wastes my energy. They don't remember you. Obviously what happened doesn't carry as much weight as you feel it does. It is these misunderstandings and hurtful things that cause us to have hangups, many based on a reality not quite true.
But really, I only work until the 14th and then law school orientation begins and then I don't have to think about these things any more. Yay. May have to go back to work during breaks, but who knows?