Michael Weinstein (Edison):Customer Service and Courtesy

27. February 2009 by student.

  Have you ever been in a store and had an employee just walk right in front of you or even into you?  It seems that many employees in places like grocery stores, Wal Mart, and others like these don’t even care about the customers anymore.  What ever happened to an employee stopping and asking if they could help you find something or stopping to let a customers walk by?  This isn’t the case with everyone, but it seems to happen more often than not.  I absolutely will drive a little further if there is a store selling the same product with more courtious and helpful employees.  The Target at Coconut Point is really nice.  My wife and I have been in there a few times and the employees are very nice and helpful.  One of the things we like most about this store, which may sound stupid to some people, is their shopping carts.  We have an 8 month old baby and the carts their seem much more comfortable than others.  Instead of being hard metal, they are thick plastic and seem a lot better for a baby to sit in.  Would you rather sit on a metal wire bench, or a plastic bench?  It may not mean a lot to some people, but it makes a difference to us.
 
  Just the other day, we were shopping for a new fish tank for our baby’s room.  I won’t name the store, but I don’t think we’ll return there.  Instead, There is another pet store about 6 miles from them that will get our business.  The reason why is the cashier.  She was very rude to my wife in a few ways.  First, we told her we had a member card but didn’t have it with us.  She asked for our phone number and I began giving her my number.  My wife interrupted and said the card was under her number.  The cashier then rudely said it doesn’t matter, just give me a number and had a few other comments about it.  Then, as she was bagging our items, my wife said just to put everything in one bag that we had forgotten our reusable bags and didn’t want to waste extra bags.  The cashier said she didn’t want the bag to break, and my wife said just don’t give us a bag then, we’ll carry our things.  We only had three items.  The cashier then threw everything in one
bag, pulled four or five bags off the holder and threw them in the trash.  What’s wrong with people?  There was no need for this except to prove a point that she didn’t care about us, our business, or the environment.

  Maybe I should put the name of this company on here.  I’m sorry if any of you work here or are offended by my comments, but I feel like I should let you know where this happened.  It was the Petsmart at Coconut Point.  I was talking to a couple of people at dog park about this the other day and they said they had a bad experience with a cashier there also.  Don’t people care about their jobs anymore, especially with the lack of available jobs out there.

  My wife is planning on writing a letter to the manager to let them know what happened, but hasn’t had the chance to do so yet.  I hope you  think about this the next time you’re at work, and just remember it takes about as much effort to be nice to a customer as it takes to be rude.  You’ll leave at the end of the day feeling a lot better helping a customer than just not caring.  You may even get a raise or promotion.  I worked in restaurants for a long time as a server and a bartender, and I noticed that a little bit goes a long way.  Whether you’re being nice or being rude,  it doesn’t take much to make an impression on someone.  If I had a few customers ask to talk to a manager and had positive things to say about me, I would get better shifts, have a lunch or dinner bought for me, or just go home feeling better about my day.

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