5 Steps to get the Best Customer Service

When you go to purchase something, you deserve to be treated right. When I’m working, if you follow these five steps, you’ll be sure to get the highest quality service from me.

1. Say exactly what you want.

The best way to get what you want is to tell me what you want of me. Explain your situation, and be sure that that I understand the situation. If you need something completed within a certain time, be sure that I understand that and am able to have it done by that time limit. Keep an open lane for communication. Even though you probably think I’m working a shitty job (kind of true), I’m still trying to do my best and will try my best to make you happy.

2. If the result isn’t exactly how you wanted, say so.

If your unhappy with the end result, your not going to want to shop at that store again. I want you to shop at the store again, therefore I want you to be happy. The only way I can fix your problem is if I know there is something wrong

3. Be patient

I know you feel that your problem is the most important, but I have 3 other customers that I have to deal with who are also begging me of their attention. I’m only one person, and its impossible for me to to be in two places at once. The patient ones are the ones who will get discounts and things for free.

4. Remain Calm

The angry ones are the people who might get good service, but will not get great quality. I’ll explain. I might go out of my way to make sure the product that you receive is the best possible. If you are genuinely unkind to me and treat me in a manner that is disrespectful, I’ll be sure to be nice to you upfront, but be cursing you behind your back and probably not put in the extra effort to make sure everything comes out perfect. But thats only if you are really not nice

5. Reward (and Punish) accordingly

If I spend an extra long amount of time with you making sure that you are happy with your purchase, it would be beneficial to you to reward me. Next time that you come in, I’ll be sure to make extra sure you are still happy. If I genuinely messed up with your order, I should also be punished. Call over a manager either way and make sure they know about the quality of service I’ve provided.  I enjoy being rewarded by your thank yous, but that is not going to help me when I’m looking for referrals for my next job.

That in my opinion is the best way to get the best service out of me. It probably differs depending on the store and the person, but I am not working to piss people off, I want people leaving the store happy. Be sure to be polite and understanding of the way things go on. Many things are out of my control and I am just the messenger.

Tip Jar

I was on register today. On register, we get to have some fun joking around with customers, especially when Benji is working. Benji is probably the funniest person I know, which leads to a lot of laughing behind the register.

Today, Benji says to a customer, “Don’t you think it would be nice if I put up a tip jar in front of my register?”

To which the customer smartly replied, “I’d be fine with it, the only problem is that it would be empty.”

Sometimes I love my job.

Rewarded Employees

I like to read a good blog once in a while, which is why I read my own blog. But every once in a while, I stumble onto something that is really high quality. I was reading this story: Starbucks and it truly applies to my next story.

The reward system works against the employee in the cooperate setting. Even if I provide great service to all of my customers, its still very easy to become “punished”. The best reward you get at my job is to become “highlighted”. It basically means that you didnt fuck up too much when ringing people out. Because of technology these days, they track every purchase that you ring out. When something appears wrong, such as the coupon you rang out should not have rang through, but you put it in anyways because you felt bad that it expired yesterday, you get reprimanded. Since I’ve been working, I’ve been highlighted twice, and what has happened to me? Nothing. It’s basically getting a pat on the back for not losing the company too much money.

There is one other way to get feedback. Every 30 minutes or so, a phone number will print out on the bottom of the customers receipt. They’re supposed to call the number to enter into a chance to win $2,500. What they don’t know, is that if they don’t award top scores under each category, we get reprimanded.

I agree that we should strive to provide excellent service, but how many people are going to be enthralled to buy groceries, or pharmaceuticals, or groceries?

Anyways, because this past month we didn’t recieve “top scores” all the employees are supposed to sign a sheet posted in the back room claiming we’re going to “work our hardest” to bring the numbers up. The sheet is in a prominent area in the break room, and I very prominently applied my John Handcock. The thing is that I’m the only one who has signed the sheet.

Does that mean that I’m the only one who has to work my hardest?

The best way to reward an employee in a cooperate environment is to ask for the branch manager, or ask to leave a message for the branch manager, and tell them about the great service that employee is doing (but don’t mention that he gave you that product for free).

How to Use a Computer

Step 1. The main interaction you have with most modern computers is with a mouse.  A mouse is displayed on screen via the cursor (the arrow thing).  When you move the mouse, the cursor is supposed to move in the same corresponding direction.  With a touch screen, the mouse is basically your finger, and when you press an area on the screen, the cursor will move to that corresponding area.

Step 2.  Click on things randomly.

Part of the job of working in the photo department is helping customers use the computers.  The computers are used to make prints from digital camera cards and CDs.  The keyword in my job description is helping.  The year is 2007, and I have decidedly lost faith in the American public.  There are people out in America who still don’t know how to use computers.  Computers have been mainstream for well over 10 years, yet there are those whom are hopeless when it comes to pointing and clicking.  I had to spend a good hour to an hour and a half teaching a woman how to use the computer.

Let it be known that we’re not dealing with a regular computer, these are specially designed Kodak Kiosks which are supposed to be easy enough for a five year old to use.

The funny thing is that even though I’ve been working in the photo department for over two months, I just kind of BS that I know how the machine works and hope I press the right buttons…

Which Ninja Turtle are You?

The store I work at is open every day of the year (not 24 hours a day), so it was conveniently open on the 4th of July, and I was conveniently assigned to work the night shift. The only problem with having a convenience store open on a holiday is that it is dead quiet… there was a time where for an hour straight the store was completely empty. As a cashier that leaves me with a lot to do.

Since there was nothing to do, all the employees decided to do the next most productive thing we could think of. We purchased candies from the candy isle and proceeded to ignore the candy and just get them for the edible tattoos. Now considering (most) of us are past the maturity level of a kindergartener, it was an interesting experience seeing grown men place Teanage Mutant Ninja Turtle tattoos all over interesting (to say the least) body parts.

In case you were wondering, I was Leonardo.