[(:Becca(:]

(Original post by faithxfaye)
I love KFC food. But I've always wondered do the staff even know what's in the special herbs and spices? What's the staff morale like? Is the food eating really ****?:P

The grunt workers don't get to find out what's in the food. I personally can't eat it after working there. Every shift made me die a little more on the inside. :P

[sarahwarahbarah]

(Original post by (:Becca(:)
The grunt workers don't get to find out what's in the food. I personally can't eat it after working there. Every shift made me die a little more on the inside. :P

I did two weeks work experience in a chocolate factory as part of a school initiative years ago. We could help ourselves to the 'imperfects', which were broken/ugly chocolates that were bagged and sold for £1 and I took full advantage. I can't really eat chocolate anymore

[word2yamother]

The way the self service area is laid out in my shop means that the staff have to stand behind the self service machines and watch as people do their shopping. From experience, I know that having a shop worker stood behind you watching your every move can be very annoying cos you think theyre treating you like a shoplifter.

So to avoid making customers uncomfortable I usually engage in 'nonsense' conversations with my fellow work mates but its seems I cant win. Customers will complain when im watching them and they will also complain when im giving them freedom by trying not to hover over their backs. And you wonder why we hate our jobs

[xx-Samantha-xx]

I did always make an effort to be polite with all my customers, though some days they really were annoying or were just rude.

I worked in the manchester Primark on customer services for almost 3 years through college which i did enjoy to a certain extent, though when you have customers thinking they know the rules better than you is does get quite annoying or trying to get away with returning things that you can't and saying they didn't know....its printed on the recipt (sp?) and is on signs on the customer service desk... just read it. I did find it fun being polite when the customers were getting really irate with me and the rules but i just kept smiling and saying sorry but thems the rules.

We'll not get started on the topic of asking where a particular item is in that store....yes i may work here but there are hundreds, if not thousands of items, that are constantly being re-arranged at least twice a week...i do not know where one thing is. I can direct you to the department but thats about it!

I do miss it sometimes because i did try and speak to my customers (to the dismay of my manager who wanted to just reduce the que size) but then i remember how annoyed i would be when i came home and not be able to focus on my college work at the time.

Is does annoy me when people give bad customer service though...like blatently talking to someone else when they are actually serving you!

[kka25]

(Original post by Ice Constricter)
You're providing a service to the customer. The onus is on the shop assistant to be polite to the customer. Of course if the customer is moody and giving you the silent treatment forcing a smile and trying to constantly make conversation would be over the top. If you get a customer like this, simply serve them and let them be on their way. Instead of implementing the "if they're rude to me I'll be rude back" eye for an eye philosphy You need to have a certain level of professionalism, and yes I know we are merely humans and can have off days every now and again but you need to try as much as possible to maintain a professional attitude.
So yes I can understand why a shop assistant would be rude to certain customers but still.
This is coming from an Asda shop floor assistant.

I completely agree.
And this is coming from a former cashier/shop floor assistant as well at a fast food restaurant

[(:Becca(:]

(Original post by sarahwarahbarah)
I did two weeks work experience in a chocolate factory as part of a school initiative years ago. We could help ourselves to the 'imperfects', which were broken/ugly chocolates that were bagged and sold for £1 and I took full advantage. I can't really eat chocolate anymore

But chocolate > fried chicken that's sad!

[Harrifer]

(Original post by internet tough guy)
Sometimes I do wonder why they put so much emphasis on you appearing happy and cheery in an interview, most people will invariably revert back to their normal state once they are put on a 5 hours shift at the tils.

5 hours is not a long shift, especially doing an easy job like in a supermarket.

[Foulish]

Yesterday I had a customer on the phone who thrust their receipt in front of my face, then slammed it down on the desk without saying a word. I ask how I can help, and he just pushes the receipt towards me, without even looking at me.

I asked him again what he wanted, he puts his phone down and starts shouting at me, calling me stupid, retarded and undeserving of a job. He also tried to get the other customers in the queue involved. This guy has just tried to show me up in front of 5 other people in the queue, and people expect me to be polite?

(Turns out he wanted 4 points on his Nectar card)

On another occasion a woman and her child came up to my till and the kid was misbehaving and saying she didn't want to go to school. she turned round to the kid and said - no word of a lie "If you don't go to school, you'll end up like him, behind a checkout your entire life". This woman must have been around my own age, give or take a couple of years.

[Schmokie Dragon]

I don't care how happy they are. I've been there, it can be pretty miserable work. What I hate is when they won't do their job properly. I don't expect smiles and simpering sweetness, but I expect comprehensive service from someone who is knowledgable about the store and the stock, and who will help me with any relevant problems or questions I may have. I don't want to be followed around, but a 'hi, can I help?' if I look lost/unsure is good service.

Strangely, I quite enjoy face-to-face customer service. I know not everyone does - hard work, low wages and all that - but I don't see why that is an excuse to slack and be rude. Politeness shouldn't be seen as a 'gift' that is given when in a good mood.

It goes both ways, though. I don't mind unhappy customers - everyone has bad days - but the snappy, rude, obstinate and difficult ones wind me up, even when I'm another customer. Sometimes it's deserved. I've met some really rude shop assistants who got both barrels and deservedly so. When it's just a default 'I'm the customer, I can do what I want and treat you like ****' attitude I find it incredibly rude and unfair. There is no call for that kind of snobbery.

[rainbow_kisses]

(Original post by Schmokie Dragon)
I don't care how happy they are. I've been there, it can be pretty miserable work. What I hate is when they won't do their job properly. I don't expect smiles and simpering sweetness, but I expect comprehensive service from someone who is knowledgable about the store and the stock, and who will help me with any relevant problems or questions I may have. I don't want to be followed around, but a 'hi, can I help?' if I look lost/unsure is good service.

Strangely, I quite enjoy face-to-face customer service. I know not everyone does - hard work, low wages and all that - but I don't see why that is an excuse to slack and be rude. Politeness shouldn't be seen as a 'gift' that is given when in a good mood.

It goes both ways, though. I don't mind unhappy customers - everyone has bad days - but the snappy, rude, obstinate and difficult ones wind me up, even when I'm another customer. Sometimes it's deserved. I've met some really rude shop assistants who got both barrels and deservedly so. When it's just a default 'I'm the customer, I can do what I want and treat you like ****' attitude I find it incredibly rude and unfair. There is no call for that kind of snobbery.

You go to uni in bucks?

[Schmokie Dragon]

(Original post by rainbow_kisses)
You go to uni in bucks?

No. I live in Bucks, I went to uni in York.

[kka25]

(Original post by Foulish)
Yesterday I had a customer on the phone who thrust their receipt in front of my face, then slammed it down on the desk without saying a word. I ask how I can help, and he just pushes the receipt towards me, without even looking at me.

I asked him again what he wanted, he puts his phone down and starts shouting at me, calling me stupid, retarded and undeserving of a job. He also tried to get the other customers in the queue involved. This guy has just tried to show me up in front of 5 other people in the queue, and people expect me to be polite?

(Turns out he wanted 4 points on his Nectar card)

On another occasion a woman and her child came up to my till and the kid was misbehaving and saying she didn't want to go to school. she turned round to the kid and said - no word of a lie "If you don't go to school, you'll end up like him, behind a checkout your entire life". This woman must have been around my own age, give or take a couple of years.

[Carecup]

You have clearly never worked in retail.

To get a general idea of what a typical day involves check this link

http://notalwaysright.com/

[Iron Lady]

(Original post by Bonged.)
haha. If I was getting paid 6 quid an hour and getting taxed to death I wouldn't be enthusiastic either.

That is not the point.

[muse_of_fire]

I don't particularly care how enthusiastic shop workers are, but I do care about being ignored. The people who run the newsagents/post office in my village are particularly guilty of this. They're a family and they will leave you waiting to be served while they talk about the most inane things imaginable. After you've stood at the till for a few minutes, one of them will sauntered over and serve you, while still talking. I've been tempted before to just leave my goods on the till and walk out: I don't appreciate being treated like that, especially not in a place that's hideously overpriced. I've stopped buying anything from there now because of this.

[08rbut]

In Cambridge John Lewis, mt mother was looking for a button and one had fallen off her coat and she had none spare at home. So she asked one of the assistants,'Do you have any matching buttons to these?'(holding up her coat) and the assistant said 'No', without even looking, and then said 'why don't you buy a new coat?' quite rudely. Im sorry but my mother's not exactly going to spend another £300 on a new coat (my mother is a lawyer and says that if you have a good reputation, looking like you have a good one is vital to look successful), especially if she's not even sure that there isn't any spare buttons!

[The Rusty Spork]

I expect shop workers to be efficient and knowledgeable beyond that I don't want anything from them. If I ask a question I expect it to be answered straight away or taken to whoever can answer me and when being served I expect it to be done quickly and efficiently.

I really don't understand why some people want false, happy smily, false American style *******s.

[gingernat]

Don't know if this has been said already, but I worked at a supermarket for 6 months and sure, it's apparently fine for customers to complain about us if we're not smiling enough for them, but they can happily come up to our tills, make a snide comment and expect us to sit there and take it.

I had this many times but I just had to get on with my job otherwise, I''d have been fired in a second (was fortunate to get the job in the first place).
To people who haven't worked on a till, you'd often be surprised at the casual abuse till workers get.

I did the best I could helping people, yet so many were so unbelievably ungrateful it was a frankly horrible half a year for me! If anything, this is probably why some till workers seem annoyed, most the time it's the customers!

Please OP, take a minute before you post things without considering other people's view.

[_N_]

I firmly believe that every person should be made to work in retail for at least a year. All customers will then know how to act politely and in a proper manner

[ellakrystina]

I find that it's more the older (usually) women working in supermarkets or card shops that hate customers. They don't even look at you!