Wednesday, July 13, 2016

5 T H I N G S A B O U T R E T A I L

Hello! Welcome to my blog. Are you looking for anything special today? No? Ok, let me know if I can help you find anything. Great. Yes, I work in retail; yes, I say this dozens of times every shift; yes, it gets old. Working in retail is an interesting experience, and most either love it or they hate it, but regardless of how you feel, you’ve learned some very specific things about yourself AND the way the world works from your experience. Here’s my list of a few things I have learned from my retail working experience. (NOTE: this is not to offend anyone, just to give you a good laugh. If you ARE offended by any of this… maybe you should go take a look in the mirror, because you’re most likely the customer I am talking about.)

#1 There’s always at least one coupon queen, and she expects all sales associates to be MAGIC.
You know them as soon as they walk into the store. They head straight for the sale items, and expect to save so much that you’ve got to pay them at the end of their shopping excursion. For some reason this person thinks that you’ve got some kind of magical code to make all of their expired coupons and discounts work, and they immediately get irate when you try to explain to them that the coupon is two weeks old. My favorite is when they say “Well, you used to accept expired coupons.” Sorry, I don’t know what we USED to do, I just know what we do now, and that, my friend, is throw away expired coupons because we do not accept them. Or when they say “You’ve seen me in here a million times, don’t you have a coupon I can use?” When they show up to the store with nothing and still expect to get money off their purchase. No, because that would be against the rules, and I will not lose my job so you can save $2.60 on a shirt you probably don’t need. Bring your coupon next time, because I don’t make the rules, I just follow them.

#2 There is no need for an attitude.
Sometimes customers come in, and when I deliver my little “Welcome to the store…” speech, choose to ignore me. It’s not like I’m not being loud enough, they are just willfully ignoring me. Other times people come in and are very short, when really I’m just trying to be friendly. Here’s the thing, you don’t want my help, or you don’t want to be bothered while you’re shopping or you’re just looking? Fine- I totally get it, I hate when an associate hovers over me while I am shopping, but If it pains you to even say hello back when someone says it to you first, or you feel like the only way to get the message across that you’re just looking is to give the associate attitude, then you’re doing it wrong. I get paid to be nice to you, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be nice to you otherwise! This is the real kicker though, in reality, it is ALWAYS that rude person that ends up needing help in the end, either they need a different size or can’t reach the shirt they want and then have to ask for my help. THAT is the sweetest part, when they’ve got to ask for help after not giving me the time of day. But here’s a tip- I’ll be WAY more willing than I already am to help you, if you’re nice to me from the very start. So there’s a thing you should probably think about, grumpy pants.

#3 A lull in customers will allow you to discover new skills, you never knew you had.
No matter where you work, there will eventually be a time where there’s a lull in customers, and that is prime time for you and your coworkers. You’ll most likely learn that you can dance or sing. Well maybe you can’t, but you can try. And while your store isn’t busy is when you’ll figure it out. I mean you’ve heard all of the songs that play over and over and over again. You know them by heart now, and will most likely catch yourself singing them outside of work, and find yourself horrified. Maybe you’ll unintentionally make up a dance routine to the entire soundtrack of your store, or maybe you’ll start to make up things as you go, a little improv dance routine every now and again. This will also be the time when you find out which of your coworkers could make it to the America’s Got Talent finale and which would fall flat at auditions. This is the great thing about working in retail, you will have a chance to bond with your coworkers, and aside from fulfilling your associate duties, and you’ll be able to have fun too.

#4 You will have that customer service face down pat.
We aren’t all exactly happy go lucky and bubbly all the time. Well hello, we get paid to help customers, and who wants to deal with someone grumpy? Not me, so why would I make the people I am helping deal with someone grumpy? Even if I am not having the best day, it is super important to make the customer want to come back to your store, so you’ve got to charm the shit out of them. The only way you can do that, is sometimes to put on the ol’ customer service face and yes ma’am them to death (I mean except for the coupon queen, sorry, not sorry). You’ll be able to let anyone down in the nicest friendliest way possible though, when their coupon doesn’t work, or you don’t have the size they need. Along with this you will because a good problem solver, suggesting something else to try and making them forget about whatever they initially wanted, before having to call another store to see if they’ve got it.

#5 In reality helping people, is really worthwhile.
Working in retail is actually a very fulfilling job. Going above and beyond to make someone happy, or going out of your way to find something for someone, really is worth it. As much as I could complain about the silly things people do while I am at work, I really do enjoy helping people, because I know how much I’d appreciate it if someone did it for me. Here’s a secret, normally it isn’t even that much extra effort, but it still seems that way to the customer, and they appreciate it that much more. Being kind to someone and helping them is your job as a sales associate, and if you aren’t going to take it seriously, then why do it at all? Yes it’s always good to have a good laugh at the end of the day about the crazy people that come in and expect crazy unrealistic things from you, but it’s also worth it to think about whose day you could have maybe made just that little bit better by being nice to them and such while they were out shopping.
So that’s it for this week, I hope you’ve enjoyed, maybe laughed, maybe cried (hopefully not), maybe realized you need to be a bit nicer to certain people who just work at the stores that you shop at? I don’t know.  Hope you’ve enjoyed!

                                                                                                                                                                Cheers!! xoxo

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