Wow, so this will be my first "look what I found" entry! While surfing the web for some inspiration for my next article(s), I stumbled upon a website called www.customerssuck.com. It is pretty much a site for retail employees to share their "customer nightmare" stories. Anyone who has worked in retail has had their fair share. I remember one guy poured a bag of wet laundry on my cashwrap and demanded reimbursement for all of it, because the shirt from our store (the only item from our store) bled on his clothes and tinted the entire load blue. To take it a step further he brought in the tag that was attached to the shirt detailing the unique dye-process would "run" and to wash with like colors (that was his proof our shirt was the culprit).
One of the posts I read described a situation when a customer started pulling on locked doors to gain entry into the store five minutes past closing time. He was very "rude" because his watch told him he still had time. The employee also said that there were other customers in the store finishing up their purchases. In the end the customer stormed away upset (probably never to return). I was shocked!! There are so many things wrong with that situation! To my knowledge it is illegal and a fire code violation to lock customers in the store. Also, the customers in the store were probably a little put off by the employee shouting through the glass door that the store was closed. Then the simple fact that that customer obviously knew the time, he probably knew what he wanted and would be out along with the other customers. I can not believe that a customer got turned away in those circumstances. I wonder if that employee has ever heard the expression "An unhappy customer will tell ten people, while a satisfied customer doesn't tell anyone". The numbers are against us...we literally can not afford to treat customers that way.
When I was a teenager just starting out getting jobs, my father told me to always be the first to arrive, and the last to leave. My first "real" job was with a retailer that actually had it in writing that they would be the first store open every day and the last store closed. Not allowing a customer in your store while your registers are still open is just plain unacceptable.
What happened to the guy with the load of laundry? Our customer service department advised us to obtain the prices of the clothing from the other retailers in the mall. When the grand total came to a whopping 15 bucks, we decided to call our customer service department again instead of really sending this guy over the edge. We were advised to issue him a $100 gift card (still probably a lot less than he paid for the clothes), and apologize for the damaged clothing. The customer wasn't thrilled that his "$300" in clothes was ruined and we only gave him $100 to shop with, but he left content. Two weeks later our customer service department received a letter thanking them for taking action in a situation that they really didn't have to. He stated that although he was initially not satisfied with our solution, he was able to buy clothes he was happy with, and was now a dedicated customer.
Call me strange , but I like upset or demanding customers. They are the easiest people to turn into shoppers for life!
One of the posts I read described a situation when a customer started pulling on locked doors to gain entry into the store five minutes past closing time. He was very "rude" because his watch told him he still had time. The employee also said that there were other customers in the store finishing up their purchases. In the end the customer stormed away upset (probably never to return). I was shocked!! There are so many things wrong with that situation! To my knowledge it is illegal and a fire code violation to lock customers in the store. Also, the customers in the store were probably a little put off by the employee shouting through the glass door that the store was closed. Then the simple fact that that customer obviously knew the time, he probably knew what he wanted and would be out along with the other customers. I can not believe that a customer got turned away in those circumstances. I wonder if that employee has ever heard the expression "An unhappy customer will tell ten people, while a satisfied customer doesn't tell anyone". The numbers are against us...we literally can not afford to treat customers that way.
When I was a teenager just starting out getting jobs, my father told me to always be the first to arrive, and the last to leave. My first "real" job was with a retailer that actually had it in writing that they would be the first store open every day and the last store closed. Not allowing a customer in your store while your registers are still open is just plain unacceptable.
What happened to the guy with the load of laundry? Our customer service department advised us to obtain the prices of the clothing from the other retailers in the mall. When the grand total came to a whopping 15 bucks, we decided to call our customer service department again instead of really sending this guy over the edge. We were advised to issue him a $100 gift card (still probably a lot less than he paid for the clothes), and apologize for the damaged clothing. The customer wasn't thrilled that his "$300" in clothes was ruined and we only gave him $100 to shop with, but he left content. Two weeks later our customer service department received a letter thanking them for taking action in a situation that they really didn't have to. He stated that although he was initially not satisfied with our solution, he was able to buy clothes he was happy with, and was now a dedicated customer.
Call me strange , but I like upset or demanding customers. They are the easiest people to turn into shoppers for life!
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