Retail employee helps elderly couple find formal wear for 20 minutes, gets scolded by his boss for spending too much time with one customer: 'I sold around $150 in 1 transaction.'

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An old man tries on a new outfit in the department store's changing room after receiving guidance from a customer service representative.

An old event I had forgotten about from my days in retail back in 2016

I sold a suit today to an awesome elderly couple who were getting ready for a grandson's wedding. I talked to them. I hunted up what they wanted. I like helping real people. The guy looked sharp in that suit. The lady mentioned that they had been all over the mall and I was the first person to offer to help them. I walked them to the register and they both shook my hand. The lady said she felt like she's been shopping for real for the first time in a long time. I sold around $150 in that one tra
khold002 I had a company like this, even though they advertised specialized services to the customers...but we were told 5 minutes or less. Ridiculous, and totally contradictory.
pinkprius That's a situation where I would straight up tell the customer that. Why care. That's how I do it at work. I would like this but I am paid to do that.
kinglucent When I was in retail, I loved the customers that my peers resented. Old people coming in with tech support questions? Babe, as long as you want to learn, I'll spend all day helping you get your passwords in order. In a 15-minutes-or-less sales environment, I have no problem taking time to ensure my customers are excited about their products.
doodler 1977 that also ensures repeat business from those customers, good word-of-mouth, etc.
kinglucent Exactly. I think reputation is more important than raw sales numbers. But I understand that selling to more people is still more customers than two old people who upgrade once a decade and might tell a friend about a good experience.
Outburst78 Had a similar situation happen to me when I worked for a software store many moons ago. I got shopped and got the highest score ever at the time for the company. The store manager and district manager said I did a great job, pat on the back, yada yada. No bonus and it didn't lead to a raise on my review a few months later, though the review was stellar.
Six months later the district manager is working in the store. I greet a customer who has a small child. Asked the customer if I could help, they said they were fine. The child was looking at the boxes (it was a game store in the mall) and knocked one on the floor by accident. I got down on one knee, picked up the box and handed it to the kid. I asked him if he likes games and he said yes. The customer seemed appreciative that I acknowledged their child, and though they didn't buy anything they
Later that day I get pulled in the office to sign a write up. The district manager had already left at this point and didn't indicate that I had done anything wrong. One of the assistant managers tells me that the district manager "observed me sitting on the floor with a child." I explained the situation but they said this was from the district manager, they weren't going to dispute this on my behalf. So I signed it since I didn't want to get fired that day. After that I went from a 25 hour a we
Swordsman_000 OP I used to work as a merchandiser for a major soda brand. They wanted us to rotate product, but they also wanted us in and out of our stores quickly. I got in trouble for spending four hours tearing down, rotating, and rebuilding an entire store in the middle of nowhere Louisiana. The store loved me. Thought I was awesome. The amount of out of date and damaged product I pulled justified my time there. My boss spent 10 minutes yelling football analogies at me as punishment. You ca
Cultural-Answer-321 Been there seen this many times. Company: "Why are our profits falling?" Employee: "Our customer services_ks." Customer: "Your customer service sks." Company: "No. It's the customers' fault!" Not. Even. Joking. That is EXACTLY how companies think.
SanibelMan My ex used to sell suits at JCPenney when we were in college. (2002-2006ish) She was good at her job, as were her co-workers. The main push then was signing customers up for the credit card, but if there were issues with the amount of time spent with each customer, I don't remember hearing about it.
Swordsman_000 OP The story above happened at a Burlington, but I did sell suits at a Dillard's for a while. That job was mostly cold calling people about our sales. Everyone knew the sale would be better in two weeks, so those I talked to were like; "cool. See you when you decrease the price further." Never. Ever work for Burlington. I was a receiving supervisor. I quit when I caught a janitor stealing and the store manager hinted that they might blame it on me. I should have quit before.
Their model was to insist that receiving work a shipment in 4 hours, and that I call in 10-20 nonexistent employees to make it happen. Mind you, I couldn't hire people. They wanted 20 people willing to be there before 5am to swarm a load and get it on the shelves. They had 5-6 people who knew if they took their time they could work a full shift. I was supposed to motivate my crew to work against their own interests.
nerin85 I work at Safeway but originally Albertsons. I used to give superb customer service and form personal relationships with the regulars making the shopping experience better. Nowadays labor is so barebones | barely even acknowledge the customer beyond the simple answering of questions and a greeting. I used to have hundreds of repeat customers that spent bank at the store. Talking to a corpo manager, I was told we have to do a bunch of stupid sh to compete with the other numerous competito

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