🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 30 Aug 1998 16:48:01 GMT, Don'tspamonme-jase@dwave.net (the
prodigal lunatic) wrote:

>Did I help everyone when I could?  You bet...  I answered
>a hell of a lot of phone calls.  But precedence comes to
>the person who made the investment to drive to the store.

  I very much understand your point about understaffing, and about the
need to place a certain priority on the people in front of you. But
there's a difference between the position you're putting forward, and
that put forth in the post I replied to. That poster dogged people who
called in for being "lazy" and basically not worthy of his attention.
My gripe was mostly with his holier-than-thou attitude (which is
totally out of place in a customer service business). You at least
have the correct attitude. I have no problem with giving priority to
the customer standing in front of you, but that doesn't entitle a
salesperson to adopt the contemptuous attitude of the original poster.

>As posted before, what do you expect for $6 an hour?  The problem with
>Best Buy is that anyone who knows what you're asking them to know
>can go somewhere else and make much more.

  Again, I have no real problem with a lack of technical knowledge
when the salesperson is honest enough to admit it. But nothing pisses
me off like salespeople who cop an attitude and spout BS when they
don't know what they're talking about. You're completely right that
for $6 an hour, you're not gonna get techies. But you should at least
get salespeople honest enough to admit when they don't know. Honesty
shouldn't be in high-paying jobs only. Yes, it will mean they'll take
some  flak from customers who are pissed at not getting answers, but
frankly, after a while, most people start to realize that salespeople
at corner-cutting retail stores like Best Buy aren't a good source of
product info. As you say, for $6 an hour, I wouldn't expect technical
competence, because those people will have found better jobs.

>It depends on what you're asking for....   Best Buy should spend
>as much time on the phone with you answering questions as they 
>can...  but there's got to be a balance.  At some point it's 
>your responsibility to come down and see for yourself.  

  I wasn't really referring to the phone customer here. My point was
mostly about in-store sales, and efforts to get accurate information
about a product. I agree with your point about balancing the needs of
customers, but I don't know that I'd couch it in terms of
"responsibility" either. At some point, it probably is in the
customer's interest to go down to the store, but it's not something
that you do to make yourself worthy of being helped by the
salespeople. A customer doesn't need to earn customer service --
he/she is entitled to it because they're a customer. I realize you
probably weren't implying this, but it could be inferred from your
post, and I wanted to make sure I'm clear on this.

>Now, even so, an employee should never be rude, or hostile.
>Nothing excuses that.  Report it to a manager when it happens.

  I agree fully.

>But cut 'em a little slack.  Most of the people in blue shirts are
>pawns, just like most of us.  They have no more control over
>bare shelves and staffing levels than your or I do.

  I do cut them a lot of slack, having worked in the same kind of
corner-cutting customer service business you're talking about. I don't
expect technical genius or even experience, and I don't expect
superhuman talents for answering the phones. But I do expect honesty
and a willingness to admit ignorance rather than attempting to BS
about it. And I most certainly do expect them not to have the snotty,
contemptuous attitude of the poster I replied to. That has no place in
retail (or in any kind of service occupation at all, for that matter).

>The people really to blame are wearing ties, and don't
>walk the floors of the store.  THEY order merchandise,
>and set staffing levels, and set return policies.  THEY'RE
>the ones to complain about...

  Yup. It's only a pity that they're safe from the people they honk
off... Again, I can see from your post that we share the same general
attitude about the matter. Did you see the inane, profanity-spattered
post I replied to? I think we can both agree that that kind of
attitude has no place in any customer service occupation, and won't
generally get you anywhere in life...

Frank Garcia
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