Wordless Wednesday

To Upsell Or Not To Upsell

On a day recently while running errands, I found myself standing in line to pay a bill when I overheard a conversation between a customer and the employee behind the counter. As the customer approached the counter, before taking a seat, she mentioned she was there to make a partial payment on her overdue bill. Key words: overdue and partial payment. The employee behind the counter, without missing a beat, proceeds to then give the spiel of all the additional products that the customer could add to her [already overdue] account. After the customer politely declined, the employee continued without ceasing until the customer got upset and walked away. Of course, not until she received her receipt - until then, the customer was trapped having to listen, unable to fend off the attempts of the upsell. Needless to say it made me a little agitated as well. When it was my turn to make my payment, I stopped the employee mid-sentence and squashed the spiel. 

I understand that part of the job of an employee is to upsell all the products they offer, but when is it okay to upsell to someone who has an account that they already can't afford? I find that to be in bad taste.

What's your opinion?

Where's The Customer Service?

Long gone are the days when retail stores took pride in providing quality customer service.

Are retailers so confident in the products they sell these days that they feel they can take advantage of their employees and provide poor service to their customers?

I'm becoming more and more frustrated and dissatisfied that I am more familiar with the products in my favorite stores than its employees, who are usually thrown into a job with little to no training. Whenever I am searching for an item, I never ask for help from an employee because I have found that 9 out of 10 times they are inadequately trained and will say they do not have the item, only to find it myself shortly thereafter. I am either relentlessly hounded with the latest store promotions or completely ignored - there is rarely an in-between. In the instances where I do find a helpful employee, I know I will never see them in the store again; employee turnover is constant. These are some of the reasons I have left a store empty-handed. I have no problem setting items down and walking away from a purchase due to poor customer service.

The blame rests on the store owners and its managers, not its employees. Many companies (high and low end) and the managers they hire can be greedy, ruthless tyrants. Little is offered to employees ie: decent pay and hours, health insurance, benefits, incentives or praise. Ingrained in each employee is the mentality that they are a dime-a-dozen. If they don't meet predetermined sales goals, credit card /email sign-ups and aren't "flexible" in every aspect of the job ie: availability, cross training and menial tasks, they are met with a reduction of hours or termination. It's no wonder why productivity and quality of service is so low.

Retailers, shame on you! You need to treat all employees with respect and forgo game playing. Encourage customer feedback rather than biased management feedback to avoid favoritism, and to determine which employees customers respond well to.  They need to quickly filter out bad employees and be even quicker to motivate the good ones. Don't set unrealistic goals for employees. I would love to shop at a store where the employees are friendly and helpful, know their product, remember my name or face, and I them. I would personally spend more of my hard earned money in a store that truly cares for their staff and customers.

For those honest, helpful, tireless employees who work in retail... keep your head up and work hard. Know that although your store may not appreciate you, others do. Thank you. 

What's your opinion on customer service (or lack thereof) in retail stores? Share a time and/or store where you've received great customer service.