Sunday, February 1, 2009

does good service mean I think you are a thief?

We had an upset customer. We have a rule where we are to go to every customer, no exceptions and ask them if we can help them. We take things to dressing rooms or to the counter to free up the customer's hands. This person tooks M's customer service as an accusation of theft and told me that M must think that all black people are thieves and that this isn't the 70s anymore and that white people should respect people like her. That her money is just as good and that we shouldn't make assumptions based on skin color. Poor M went into the back room and had herself a good cry.
Now to be fair, we do hover over all customers because our store has an alarming amount of theft for the company. I explained to her that we treat every customer with our full attention because store policy is to be there to help you with anything. It is not meant as an insult. She told me that our store was not nearly as nice as those in New York. She told me that our quality is going down and went on about how in New York she wasn't treated with suspician.
This goes on for over 40 minutes. When I was done with her she bought $250 worth of stuff and had calmed down enough that she even gave back the customer service number saying that she wasn't going to call corporate on us. I honestly hope she never returns but I am pretty proud of myself.
There is a very large chance that this lady (with a big hole in the butt of her pants I might add) just wanted a discount on her purchase. We don't give discounts. Period.
On an extra note, as she was leaving she told another worker that she had no right working in a big girls clothing store because her presence alone made the big girls feel bad. This worker is a size 3 and extremely beautiful. Not due to dieting but due to being deathly sick most of her life. This last bit of info is none of the customers business. The worker is one of the smartest and hardest working that the store had evered hired. Her size has nothing to do with her ability to do the job and should never come into play.

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