Although I'm not directly on the front lines everyday, I do work in the retail world. My part is dealing with billing and angry customers, and problem solving for the stores. I know and understand what good customer service is all about. I treat my customers the exact same way I would want to be treated if our positions were reversed. So when I went to a local bead store on this past Friday night (Nov. 1st), I was stunned at how I was treated.
I had decided at the last minute to go to this store to interview the employees for my current school paper, an informational article, for Eng 433 (creative nonfiction for publication). We need four "live" sources, and I was looking for new ideas and angles to pursue. I walked into the store around 6pm and there were two or three customers in there browsing. There were three employees doing their work stuff and asking if customers needed any help. I was greeted, questioned about looking for something, and then left to browse. I wanted to shop (yes, there was an ulterior motive for going, but it was all in the name of research. Yeah, I'll stick with that.) for a bit to see if they were swamped busy and wouldn't be able to answer my questions before I even asked. I was not about to take them away from their customers. After a few of the other customers left, I went to the counter and asked the two employees there if they would like to answer some questions about chain/scale maille and how its use in the jewelry and fashion world have changed and evolved. They both said ok, but that I really wanted to talk with the other employee who is their chain maille expert. I said that would be great and wandered over to the other side of the store to assess how busy this employee was. She was helping a customer who had a very particular issue for around 45 mins. This is important, because most of it was him telling her about his plans (IN A VERY LOUD VOICE SO EVERYONE COULD HEAR) and not really shopping related at all.
After the employee was done with that customer, she went back to working on pricing and putting stuff away. One of the other employees came over and pointed me out and said that I was looking for someone to answer a few questions about chain maille for a paper. Employee number three said sure, and I went on to explain my class, my project, and so forth. The whole interview took around 20 mins and I thanked her and made my way to the check-out counter (all in the name of research, of course). While checking out, the employee asked if I found everything I needed (yes) and if I got my questions answered (yes, thank you for your help). The other employee came over, leaned across the counter and hissed (yes, she hissed) at me, "you are NOT to use the name of the store in your article!!" I know I blinked a few times because one, I was scared of her, and two, I couldn't understand or figure out what difference it made if I used the name of the store. I wasn't about to get into an argument with her, so I said I wouldn't. Plain and simple, no back-talk, sass, questions why not, or anything of the sort. Immediate and complete agreement. That wasn't good enough for little-miss-angry-control-freak and she hissed it at me again. This pissed me off because one, I'm not stone deaf and I heard her the first time, and two I was dropping a considerable sum of cash and I was dumb-struck at how she was treating a PAYING CUSTOMER. Cold, hard, cash was being exchanged while she went on this tirade.
She went on to harangue me while she walked through the store in a very LOUD voice about how unprofessional I was in not making an appointment to interview employees or to clear this. I'm assuming she meant clearing this with the owner of the store. Ok, I will agree that I probably should have cleared this with the owner, but honestly it is a SCHOOL PAPER. It won't be published. And, if she would have handled this differently, I would have recommended this store for people to buy their stuff at. Now, I won't. I explained to hissy-fit employee that it was again, a SCHOOL PAPER, but she wasn't having any of it. She was angry, aggressive, and so upset that she was doing laps in the aisles yelling at me. The poor employee checking me out was so embarrassed that she couldn't even look me in the eye. I left as soon as I could just to shut hissy-fit up. She continued in that tirade as I was walking out the door.
As I look back on the whole episode, I take the responsibility that I didn't call ahead. But I made sure the employees were not busy, not helping other customers, and I only took 20 mins. Mr. let-me-tell-you-my-entire-life-story-and-plans took over an hour between two employees. I know this because I was in there for a good two hours. So if they could help him for that long, why was my little 20 minute interview such a big deal?
My husband offered an answer that I will use in my paper. The angry employee does not see chain/scale maille as a viable art form. And, when she realized that I wasn't going to interview her, she got pissed. Even though she referred me to the third employee, she was pissed off because I didn't talk with her AND she doesn't like chain/scale maille. And this is what I've run up against from time to time from people who don't think weaving metal rings is WORTHY of being called art, or serious jewelry or fashion. It was right there in front of me and I didn't see it. Maybe I should have talked to her and gotten a different point of view. I was so taken aback by her erratic behavior that all I could do was leave. I wanted to get out of there because she was such a b*tch to me. And, I fumed for a good part of the one hour and five minute drive home because that is not the way you treat paying customers. She could have POLITELY asked me to not use the name of the store, or, even better, asked for my contact information so the owner could contact me and clear everything up. POLITELY. Not the aggressive, angry witch that she was to me.
So I won't use the name of the store in the paper. However, she said NOTHING about the source list.
And that my friends, is chain maille winning.
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