As of recently, I was hired and took a Customer Service Associate position at Lowe's. Which at first, I thought was just really a glorified cashier. As it turns out, we do a lot more than just ring customers out with their purchases.
As a customer service associate, we ring customers out, we handle customer complaints, requests, problems, inquiries, we handle the phones, we find, print, and call about customer's order that were special ordered, or an internet order, or just ordered. We do a lot, and sometimes it gets very busy and crazy.
What I really want to write about concerning my job was how to me it seems that people have just lost their ability to be pleasant, nice, and gracious to the people they are buying products from. I had so many customers be rude to me today, that it got me wondering, (and using Full House phrases), "Why are we so rude?" I know that I don't have a very important job, but I am still a person that should be treated with respect when helping you at Lowes. I try to treat everyone that comes in contact with me with respect, care, patience, and sometimes some of you really test that. I always try to be bubbly, nice, and as helpful as I can, but I can't make the associates bring your items up any faster, and I can't make my manager come over any faster for an override, and so I don't think that you should take your frustration out on us.
Working at this job can be wonderfully rewarding, some customers are very nice and thankful for the help they receive from my section, but others are not willing to put their issues aside and work with us. It just amazes me how rude some people are to me, and I just cannot imagine being that rude to people that I come in contact with while shopping. I know that I am not a saint, and I am not always 100% happy and perky at work, but I strive to be like that for the customer's sake, and it wouldn't hurt if the customers tried to be like that too.
This is a tough topic, because there are many viewpoints on it, but I think we all need to slowdown sometimes and relax and think about who we are talking to, and how we can make it a better situation. I want to help you when you come into Lowe's, but it's very hard to do my job well when you are yelling at me, or getting upset with me over things that I cannot control.
So the next time you are cashing out at customer service or even just a regular register, take a minute and remember that no matter what job we have we are all people and deserve to be treated with respect, kindness, and dignity.
As a customer service associate, we ring customers out, we handle customer complaints, requests, problems, inquiries, we handle the phones, we find, print, and call about customer's order that were special ordered, or an internet order, or just ordered. We do a lot, and sometimes it gets very busy and crazy.
What I really want to write about concerning my job was how to me it seems that people have just lost their ability to be pleasant, nice, and gracious to the people they are buying products from. I had so many customers be rude to me today, that it got me wondering, (and using Full House phrases), "Why are we so rude?" I know that I don't have a very important job, but I am still a person that should be treated with respect when helping you at Lowes. I try to treat everyone that comes in contact with me with respect, care, patience, and sometimes some of you really test that. I always try to be bubbly, nice, and as helpful as I can, but I can't make the associates bring your items up any faster, and I can't make my manager come over any faster for an override, and so I don't think that you should take your frustration out on us.
Working at this job can be wonderfully rewarding, some customers are very nice and thankful for the help they receive from my section, but others are not willing to put their issues aside and work with us. It just amazes me how rude some people are to me, and I just cannot imagine being that rude to people that I come in contact with while shopping. I know that I am not a saint, and I am not always 100% happy and perky at work, but I strive to be like that for the customer's sake, and it wouldn't hurt if the customers tried to be like that too.
This is a tough topic, because there are many viewpoints on it, but I think we all need to slowdown sometimes and relax and think about who we are talking to, and how we can make it a better situation. I want to help you when you come into Lowe's, but it's very hard to do my job well when you are yelling at me, or getting upset with me over things that I cannot control.
So the next time you are cashing out at customer service or even just a regular register, take a minute and remember that no matter what job we have we are all people and deserve to be treated with respect, kindness, and dignity.
Hey! I am not saying that people should be rude, but in my classes we have been discussing how best to deal with patrons when they approach the reference desk. I learned that a study found that the librarians who somewhat mimicked the attitude of the patrons when dealign with them got better results than the person who did not. Now I am not saying if they are swearing at you to start swearing at them, but if they are not very talkative, try and keep the talking relatively low. (at least according to the survey). I think you should try and conduct an experiment to see if this works.
ReplyDeleteThat is really interesting, I will actually try this and see how it works and let you know! I think that subconsciously I already do this with some people, but I am going to try it with everyone and see how it works! Thanks!
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