To those who work in retail...

[Courtesy Flush]

Here's an important lesson:

THE CUSTOMER IN THE STORE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE ONE ON THE PHONE!!!

I just got brushed off by a clerk, in favor of a phone call. This has happened to me too many times to mention, but this time I walked out of the store.

Why do people in retail put so much stock in the guy on the phone? The customer who's in the store is a REAL customer. He's there to spend money. The guy on the phone is calling around, and much less likely to spend money in your store.

Sorry. I had to vent :):):):):):):):):)

[andyhappy]

1. retail sucks

be kind to your retail prisoner...

[Ms_Mary]

2. What if I smiled nicely and said "I'll be right there"

and hurried up the phone call. I can't not answer my phone. Now, if you're talking extended or social conversations, I get you completely.

[Courtesy Flush]

4. Why not?

Why can't you NOT answer the phone? If you can ignore someone standing in front of you, you can ignore the guy on the phone.

[Ms_Mary]

12. I don't ignore ANYONE. I don't know what you expect.

I can't not answer my phone b/c then I'll piss off other customers. If I greet you, tell you I'll be right with you and hurry off the phone, I've done the best I can do. I'm really not sure what you expect. People get really upset if they can't reach a business by phone and I get a lot of calls from current and prospective customers. If I snubbed them, which is what I would be doing by not answering the phone, I'd lose their business. If I speak to you, am polite and quick, I'm not snubbing you! I treat my customers well.

When you go into a restaurant, do you expect the hostess to hang up on a to go order to wait on you immediately?

Like I said, if somebody's on a lengthy phone call or social call, that's a different matter. Otherwise, don't you see that people are just trying to their jobs?

[Courtesy Flush]

14. Don't take it personally

I wasn't commenting on what YOU do with customers. The clerk today never even hinted that she'd get to me. She just ignored me.

I've had people dump me in mid sentence without so much as saying "excuse me". Talking with me one second, and on the phone the next, and leave me hanging while devoting undivided attention to the caller.

[Ms_Mary]

20. Ignoring people sucks and that's not okay. I wasn't sure

after you said why couldn't I not answer the phone at all. You never fail to acknowledge a customer.

[lpbk2713]

3. Take a refresher course if needs be...........

on what the "Hold" key is for.

[Richardo]

5. At B&N, we have to help the person before answering the phone...

...which can also drive customers crazy 'cause the phone sometimes rings off the hook if there are a lot of people at the info desk. ("Can somebody PLEASE answer that phone?" "Yes, as soon as I help this customer standing right here.")

And it never fails: As soon as the phone rings someone will walk up to the desk for help. Gots to pick the 'in-store' customer. Oh well. The person on the phone is listening to taped greetings and musak anyway - so they're occupied.

In short, I agree with you, kdsusa. ;-)

[Feathered Fish]

6. Venting is important

I am in retail and I have a few rules about custies on the phone.

1) If I am dealing with a real, live customer - I will not answer the phone. There are other employees that can do that.

2) If I am dealing with someone on the phone, and a real customer comes in, I will politely ask the person on the phone to hold on a minute and go and talk to the real custie. If they require more assistance, I will let the caller know that I will call right back.

Often times, other employees will abandon the real customer for the phone, which is pretty stupid if you ask me. I actually had to bring this up at a staff meeting once.

Anyways, I feel your pain. Don't take no guff.

[Susang]

17. You are lucky you have those options where you work

If you worked where I do and refused to answer the phone, you'd be fired. End of story.

[DS1]

7. I'd blow off the phone 10 times out of 10 while working retail

if I had a line.

[Redneck Socialist]

8. As a former retail wage slave

I can attest that many places require that phones be answered promptly, often within a set number of rings. Clerks are held accountable for this.

The idea behind it is that the customer on the phone can't see that you are busy with someone else.

Ideally the clerk should have acknowledged you, answered the phone and if the person on the phone could not be dealt with promptly the clerk should have either transfered the call or put them on hold and gone back to you.

There is little excuse for rudeness but I ask that you have some sympathy for retail folks, it's a tough job.

[Ms_Mary]

21. I agree with this

"Ideally the clerk should have acknowledged you, answered the phone and if the person on the phone could not be dealt with promptly the clerk should have either transfered the call or put them on hold and gone back to you."

[ohiosmith]

9. and more important than the magazine you're reading, the inventory you

are counting, the other staff you are talking with, the price gun you are playing with, the makeup you are applying, and all the other things you do to avoid doing what you are paid to do, serve the customer.

[skygazer]

10. Understand your pain but

please don't blame the clerk. It may be management policy. Where I work, the higher ups in corporate (you know, the people who have never actually worked in a store in their lives and just make up the rules that the rest of us have to follow) have a policy in place that says that we must answer the phone by the third ring.

There is a whole "phone etiquette" thing we are supposed to follow and they actually make secret shopper type phone calls to us to make sure we're following those directions. If we don't answer or if we respond wrong, the store is penalized, as is the person who answered the phone.

Technically, we're supposed to have a customer service person to answer the phone. Realistically, that person is often in the checkstand because corporate only allows us a certain number of checkers and it's never enough.

It all sucks and you're absolutely right to be thoroughly annoyed. If you get annoyed enough, complain to the manager or even the corporate headquarters by all means because those morans have no clue what it's actually like out in the real world.

[Caoimhe]

11. I don't get why

:shrug:

I don't get why clerks have to be answering the phone anyway. Why doesn't their fat manager in the one-way glass office up those stairs answer the phone once in a while when he can see they are busy. I feel so sorry for overworked store clerks and checkers.

[Ms_Mary]

22. Well, in a small business like mine, there may only be one person there.

[Menshevik]

18. Three rings or else!

Do you work at Office Depot?? ;) That was the policy when I worked there, and they constantly yelled at us for not answering the phone in 3 rings....god, how I hated that place.

[skygazer]

19. Safeway

And it's completely unrealistic. It really bugs me that the people who come up with all the hoops we're supposed to jump through have no doubt never worked a day in their life in a retail environment.

That said, I don't mind my job. 98% of my customers are nice people, I like the people I work with and the work itself is okay. I figure, I'm getting paid to deal with people so I try to deal with them the way I'd like to be dealt with.

[EC]

13. Sorry, but Home Office Management

feels the phone caller is more important...the object is to get them IN THE STORE and since you were already in the store, the phone is priority. Also, there are penalties for not answering the phone and many stores do not allow a customer to be put on hold, unless you are looking for something for the phone caller. This is a problem with understaffed stores mostly.

[Susang]

15. Rock meet hard place

Hard place, meet rock.

That's what it's like being in retail during the holidays. The guy on the phone is often a paying customer, just like you. Phone orders make up about 70% of our business. Sometimes the stress of the phones ringing and the customers waiting makes things a little rough.

Most of the people I work with try very hard to accomodate all of the customers, phone and in-store. Unfortunately, no matter what they do and how hard they try, somebody ends up pissed off and angry and we get get yelled at.

Thank god I'm in e-commerce, so my customer contact is mostly via email and phone calls. Some of the abuse I've taken from even from that has been unreal. Still, it beats the restaurant biz, which is what I did for $$ before I came to this. :-)

[FeelinGarfunkelly]

16. to those who work in retail, I salute you

I worked at wal-mart my senior year of h.s., from august to august.. including Xmas. I have never been so very depressed. I'm the kind of girl who is so very sarcastic and can usually take things with good humor.. but I don't know how many nights I drove home in tears... you really see the worst in customers as soon as thanksgiving is over. Ugh. I guess we can learn by making mistakes (some of us can... W can't) and now I'm working my way thru college as a clerk in a gas station. only disgruntled people i deal with are complaining about gas prices.

i salute you, brave retail workers.

[Mabeline]

23. Speaking soley as someone

who worked retail...usually it's a first come first served thing. If I'm on the phone or on my way to answer a phone call (usually a page) and someone stops me, I'd explain nicely that I had been called to the phone and they were next. Worst thing is when you got four or five standing waiting and they ALL think they're next. A lot of people are bad for thinking they are the only one who matters.

**Not aiming this at you kdsusa, Had a flashback...LOL!

Sorry you had a bad experience though, rude CS people are, IMO, worse than rude costomers.