I’m a NT(ish) shop assistant and following Sjöjungfru’s experience at the greengrocers I would like to share with you the instructions my company gave me for making a “perfect transaction”:
1. Smile and make eye contact
2. Initiate a friendly verbal greeting such as “hello”, “how are you?” etc
3. Ask the customer if “there is anything else you would like in the store today?”
4. Offer the customer a ‘perfect partner’ (these are items such as reduced price children’s DVDs, CDs and confectionary items)
5. Bag the goods as you scan them
6. At the end of the transaction say “Goodbye and thank you”
:roll: So many customers have said that this kind of regulated exchange sounds so false; I just smile (again) and say that it is the company policy. It is cruel to offer confectionary items to people who might be on a diet or have diabetes – but obviously those at head office have not thought of that.
Shop assistants where I work have no choice – our performance is checked regularly by so called ‘mystery shoppers’. So if you ever get asked dumb questions at the checkout, or offered goods that you’re just not interested in I’m really, really sorry. You know, I’m really, really sorry, the nit wits at head office are making us do it.
Hi Cybermintz, glad you posted this so I can understand that unwelcome chumminess at the cash register might be unwanted by BOTH parties... :lol: My own tolerance of other people's friendliness is so variable; if I'm in a good mood, I can handle it very well, occasionally even welcome it, but usually not. Most days I just want to pay for my stuff & get out! :evil: A new employee greeted me quite aggressively one time in my local bookstore, doing that can-I-help-you-find-anything spiel and practically blocking my path, and I became so agitated that I had to leave! I really HATE feeling trapped in unwanted conversations, and that's just how some of this management-mandated friendliness makes me feel. Poor employees, they probably hate it too, esp. when they see how badly it goes over. :?
Just curious, do these questions ever actually result in additional sales? That is, after all, the goal, isn't it? SOMEONE has convinced the folks upstairs that this increase their sales. So, does it?
It depends if the item offered is good value for money. If I'm offering children's DVDs at £4.99 each that were released five years ago I would expect to make only one or two sales per four hour shift. If I'm told to offer confectionary items, like half price boxes of chocolates, it would be usual to sell about twenty or more units per four hour shift.
So yes, offering additional items does generate additional sales where the item offered is good value for money.
What I don't think the folks upstairs realise is how much offering these additional items slows down the queue time. I would estimate that at least a quarter of customers express their annoyance at being asked, sometimes by giving one of those 'huffy' sighs, rolling their eyes or saying "no thank you" in a snappy kind of way.
A new employee greeted me quite aggressively one time in my local bookstore, doing that can-I-help-you-find-anything spiel and practically blocking my path, and I became so agitated that I had to leave!
So sorry you had that bad experience couldbecousin. A good sales person should know when a customer is 'searching' for something, or when they are just enjoying browsing.
Sorry for the necrobump, but this is a huge pet peeve of mine.
I love clothes, but can't stand being harassed by salespeople. Until a year ago I lived in NYC. Occasionally I'd get greeted with a fake, perky "hi, can I help you find anything". It was offputting, but not too horrible.
Then I moved to upstate NY.. every store is a chain, staffed with employees who stand around and greet people. I can't buy a pretty smelling bar of soap without being hounded by six high school age employees.
Typical scenario:
I want to buy pretty smelling girly things:
SalespersonA: *fake *** smile, onboxious eye contact* "Hi welcome to Girly Smelly Store! Just to let you know we're having a two for one sale on anti microbial hand soaps, they come in bathroom and purse sizes..."
me: "Thanks, just browsing" (code for: stop talking to me. please)
I walk three feet and:
SalespersonB: "Hi welcome to Girly Smelly Store! Has anyone helped you yet?"
me: "Yes"
SalespersonB: "Well I just wanted to let you know about our new fragrance, Freesia Blood Mango Orchid. Have you worn any of our fragrances before? They're all hypoallergenic and..."
me: "Thanks, I'm not interested"
SalespersonB: "Well let me know if I can help you find anything!"
I turn a corner and:
SalespersonC: "Can I help you find anything."
me: "No thanks." *turns away slightly*
Two seconds later:
SalespersonD: "Hello! I wanted to let you know about our buy 2 get 1 free special on exfoliating creams. They're right over here, we have samples available and they were recently featured in Elle as a great value"
Just **** shoot me now. Y hallo thar online shopping.
So in short, thank you **** extroverted chain store head honchos for standing in the way of my American obligation to purchase lots of crap.
Does anyone else hate this? I've mentioned how offputting I find it and people look at me like I have two heads.
These methods do work, because what they do is hijack small talk. Small talk is not conversation. It does not engage the higher faculties in any meaningful way. Instead, it relies on the monkey mind. Thus, it can be hijacked for profit.
Tallulah - don't worry about the customers saying you were rude, because I'm sure that you were not. The customers were just angry because the store did not have what they wanted on that particular day. I think that the customers that do this must have had parents that gave into their temper tantrums when they were little kids - this means that when they grow up and they can't get what they want they get angry insteed of just accepting that sometimes they can't get what they want. That's my theory about their bad behaviour.
If your store has Instore Ordering with Instore Collection, you could offer to have one sent down for them. They like that. It makes them feel cared for. I think that people like attention from shop assistants because it makes them feel important. It's kind of pathetic. There are some regular customers that I really like and I do care about their wellbeing, but as for the rest I think no more of them than if they were units on a production line.
Akeimi81 describes how fake smiles and false niceness is a part of retail. With most people it works. I feel bad for doing it because I believe it is deceptive; yet it meets their need to feel important and it makes my job easier.
If it gets really annoying, I sometimes just say nothing and start starring at a point behind them.
In fast food restaurants, they ask you "For here or to go?"
I always say 'for here' because that's why I came inside duh. If it was to go, I'd go through drive through. But wait, some people go inside to order because they don't want to wait in the long line of cars so they go instead and order and take the food out to their car so I can't blame them for asking it.
No matter what the experience in the store - or even on the phone - at the end of the transaction I always wish the salesperson/clerk/waitperson to "Have a QUICK day! (or evening)". That almost always stops them cold. Sometimes they will tell me that they just came on shift, or how many hours they have left. But they usually smile either way!
Three years ago I put a package of Depends protective underwear on the checkout counter and the woman behind it picked it up and said "And what are these?" in a rude voice. I should ave just said "What do you think?" instead of "I'm getting them for someone."
Three years ago I put a package of Depends protective underwear on the checkout counter and the woman behind it picked it up and said "And what are these?" in a rude voice. I should ave just said "What do you think?" instead of "I'm getting them for someone."
I would have given her my best Serious Aspie Look and declared, "Dinner!" before walking away, but I like to startle rude people. xD
The stupid questions at the checkout have been part of why I've become so interested in Sainsbury's supermarket stores. It seems that Sainsbury's for a while encouraged their staff to chat with customers but not now.
Being someone who would love a partner, but finds it difficult to get one, I really appreciated the interaction and found it made my day brighter. Even if I did find it a bit personal at times when they asked what I was doing tonight.
Many times the interaction at the checkout went as far as flirting. This probably includes this evening when I went to Sainsbury's, where the checkout girl was watching me and giving me nice looks even when I was at the back of a long queue, and as the queue moved. Gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.
I feel bad for the salespeople. I recently worked at a store that not only made your greet people obnoxiously, follow them around and bother them, and try to add things on to every stupid sale, they actually had a rule that you were only allowed to ask customers "open-ended" questions -- "Are you finding everything okay?" or "Have you found everything you were looking for?" as well as other nonintrusive questions were forbidden. I pointed out to them that this would require me to ask a customer, "What kind of cart would you like me to get you?" instead of "Would you like me to bring you a cart?" when their hands were full, and other such completely nonsensical questions, but it didn't seem to phase them. >_<
Personally, I ignored the rule and my sales were better, but a lot of people got in trouble or even lost their jobs because they wouldn't do that. I doubt most people want to bother customers, but when getting a raise or keeping your job depends mostly on following even the most insane of company policies, you don't have a whole lot of choice.
That's awful. People would much rather answer yes/no questions than explanation questions, because it takes less time and thought. Apparently managers are so rock-headed they don't notice.
Another inconvenient thing about nagging on customers and asking them a million questions is that it hinders their time. If a customer were being asked about getting all the items she wanted on her cart, she wouldn't waste time talking to a store worker about it, she would simply go through the store and get the items she wants to put in her cart.
It also hinders the performance of the worker. Normally a customer won't need help from a worker unless they asked one for it. The customer will also get what she needed from the worker faster if the worker was straightforward and did the errand as quickly as possible, instead of asking irrelevant questions, that way the errand will get done faster and more work can be done during the shift.
My friend John doesn't have any kind of autism or asperger's although neither of us is sure why he's on disability.
When we go into stores that have them like Walmart and Meijers before the greeter can get started and definately before they get done greeting us he kind of partially yells out the name of the item we are looking for ("Cottonballs!" etc) so they will just stop themselves from all of that and say and point where it is.
He also likes to say what they are supposed to say but before they get a chance like as we are leaving a store or restaurant he will say first "Thank you and come again!" to them and that seems to confuse or startle some of them. We both think this is funny.
Droopy
Is it possible to buy groceries online?