- If a customer wants a discount badly enough, s/he can get it. A lady came in and said haughtily, “I always get 10% senior citizen discount.” The store didn’t have a senior citizen discount, and I explained this, but I gave her a discount anyway to keep her from complaining more. My store also gave $5 discount for every $300 spent, after the database updated (i.e., the next day). A guy came in and rang up for $400 but didn’t pay. Then said “I want to go look at some other stuff.” I had to void the transaction in order to ring up other customers. When he came back, wanted to see his $5 discount on the system register. He raised his voice with me a couple of times, and I worked out a way to discount him $5. He checked the receipt for it.
- Managers will usually give in if the customer is insistent enough and if they can find a fault with the transaction. A lady came in and insisted that a particular kind of merchandise ($3.99) was $1.99. My temper got the better of me and I finally said, “Ma’am, please, this is $3.99, not $1.99.” She promptly reported me for “not being nice to her” and got her way with the manager.
- Customers expect a friendly face. My face has folds beside each mouth corner, and I look like I’m frowning even if I’m not. I had to expend a lot of energy showing a lot of teeth and speaking to customers; otherwise, they picked up on my expression and got an attitude.
- Cashiers have a lot of power. Be nice to them. A cashier has control over item discounts, tax-free sales (or not), discounts to your entire order, whether they’ll insist on seeing a coupon or just take your reference to it, whether you can use your coupon more than once (people try), and the personal information you submit for your loyalty account.
- Clerks get freebies. In my particular store, we sold perishable items. If an item was looking less than gorgeous, we would remove it from stock and usually throw it away. Clerks were free to take these items home. I got quite a few.
Published by Princess Manners
Word queen, seasoned tech writer and MFA candidate, reader, cat 🐈 mom, and wife to a pilot.
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