are we being served BBC1...

[missjef]

i watched this program tonight, and i have to say the man on it did my head in, i work in a retail shop which is a big chain store, and frankly i have to say that a lot of the points he was making really aggravated me.
He went into around 30 different big shops and in one of them asked a poor shop girl who was on her own it seemed to find him a shirt and then complained that she had abandoned the till, what was she expected to do? it might not have been her fault, if the shop is short staffed surely its the managers fault, not the poor shop girl?
When im working i always try my best to help the customers and try find products for them, if they are wanting certain sizes sometimes i have to go in the back meaning i leave the till, how can i go in the back to help this customer im serving, and serve the next customer at the same time?

i have to say that some of the points he brought up were true, and yes some shops could do with better service. i just think that you cant be blaming poor saturday girls/boys for the store being short staffed.

Another point is that he seemed to make out that the customer is never wrong and never badly behaved. In the shops ive worked in, ive had to deal with some really really horrible vile people!! but shop workers just have to kind of deal with it, where as if we were rude to someone who came in we would get sacked probably!

sorry that this has turned into a rant, but i feel like somethings he was saying were very wrong about shop staff.

did anyone else feel the same?

[TEAK36]

Missjef, I think you are missing the point.The guy on the program was not blaming the shop girl, he was blaming the poor customer services of the store for putting this poor girl in this situation.
Unfortunately, many companies do not give their staff adequate training to enable them to supply good customer services, and customers will naturally blame whoever is serving them because they are a representative of the company.
I am the manager of a very busy customer services department and I fully understand that there are some very rude and difficult customers, but there are also many rude shop staff who simply do not care about what the customer wants.Decent customer services is one of the main reasons why companies lose business.If I get poor customer service, I will shop elsewhere.
The customer may not always be right, but you should do your best to make them feel that they are.

[missjef]

thankyou very much for your answer, i agree with you totally on if there is poor customer service then people will shop elsewhere.
i just didnt like his attitude or approach to it. i think i just also mainly didnt like the layout of the show either.

However i thought it was good that finally the lad got a new computer, although i thought it was disgusting that he only got it when they found out he was on a tv program - it shouldnt matter!!

[Backdrifter]

It's odd that in the years since "customer services" departments were founded, it's the one aspect of services in this country that seems to have gone downhill. Almost every time I have cause to complain about an aspect of a service, the response I've received has made a bad joke of the term "customer service."

When we moved house 5 years ago - and this is not an exaggeration - every single service provider and utilities provider screwed up in some way. EVERY ONE OF THEM. And what made that worse was the poor responses we received when we flagged up the mistakes. The services we've sporadically used since then have yielded similar results.

TEAK, I'd be very interested to get your opinion on something. Having had these multiple bad experiences, I have become convinced that customer services staff are trained to never apologise for the mistake. Gradually, it dawned on us that in all these instances, no-one was ever saying "sorry" - you could practically SEE them swerving to avoid it. Presumably so they can't be quoted as apologising should legal proceedings ensue. Whatever the reason, it's hair-tearingly enraging and simply increases my anger towards the company.

It is true that some customers, whether it be in shops or elsewhere, can be staggeringly rude, ignorant, or plain stupid. And, unfortunately, the service provider has to remain calm and polite in the face of this, which is grossly unfair. Also, I'm very wary of TV programmes - they are frequently edited to provide a distorted impression to serve the programme's agenda (although I didn't see this one).

[TEAK36]

Backdrifter, One of the first things I teach my staff is that it is very important to apologise.To not apologise for poor service is inexcusable, and ultimately costs the company money.I dont think good customer service has decreased over the years, I think it is more to do with customers being more willing to complain nowadays.15 years I would have been very reluctant to complain about things, but now I have no problem complaining if feel it is justified.Also, we live in a society where customers want more and more for less and less, and are generally less tolerant of companies making mistakes.
Of course you still have certain people who simply love to complain about the smallest things because they think they can get something for nothing.I deal with this type of person every day, sometimes they get what they want, sometimes they dont.