Customer Service

I’ve been doing ‘recreational’ shopping this week – not because I need anything in particular, but just because I’m trying to improve my outlook. I wouldn’t say it’s been a stand-up success.

Actually, I’m looking for jeans – which is probably my mistake. (My sister once said she’d rather give birth than go to the dentist – and that sort of captures my feelings about buying either jeans or underwear – at least I’m not foolish enough to attempt the latter.) I probably should have fortified myself somehow for the task, instead of using the task to fortify me from other travails. Be that as it may, I’ve had a chance to observe ‘customer service’ (and I put that in quotes for a reason) and am dismayed.

Now I’m not exactly fit and trim, but I’m not the fat lady at the circus either. I wear rather mundane sizes in the double digits – not unlike a huge percentage of the female population in this country who actually have enough money to shop for clothing. I don’t have to have special sizes, or tent fabric. I don’t generally shop in specialty stores for the well-endowed. But today I actually had a salesperson tell me they don’t have anything my size in their store. Sort of a “Julia Roberts – Pretty Woman – Nasty-Salesgirl-on-Rodeo-Drive moment.” At Dress Barn, of all places. Doesn’t “Dress Barn” evoke images of substantial size? Not the case, I was informed. I’d never been in a “Dress Barn” before, preferring Nordstrom’s or Macy’s or Coldwater Creek. I was ‘slumming’ at Dress Barn, I thought. Never again. It is interesting to note that there were NO other customers in the store, probably because everyone else in the mall was my size or bigger. (But now I’m just being mean.)

On the other hand, the young woman at Eddie Bauer was very helpful. I have to remind myself that the glass isn’t always half empty. There IS some light in the world.

But more often than not I seem to encounter apathy, disinterest, delays, confusion, and downright incompetence in the people I interact with in stores, aside from the outright rude. (And my husband wonders why I don’t just ‘ask someone’ when I can’t find what I am looking for...) I had formal and extensive customer service training when I started my first full-time job years ago. It included such topics as not keeping people waiting, being courteous, using appropriate vocabulary, being knowledgeable and reliable, and giving people ‘the straight scoop.’ The-customer-is-always-right sort of thing. I guess we don’t bother with training any longer.

But even without training – why wouldn’t people just automatically treat others as they would like to be treated themselves?