Ok so like everyone else I have a few pet peeves in my life, especially my work life. Some of these are just plain stupid and annoying, others are just plain infuriating, but all of them are over petty little things that really have little to no consequence to my well being, except perhaps my mental state of health.
Take for instance, people who just have to push on the glass of the door even though there is a perfectly good handle to push on. Or better yet the people that use their whole forearm to pry open the door, leaving behind not just a greasy hand print, but a large greasy arm print as well. Are you afraid of germs? Does the fact that the windows and doors are cleaned daily persuade you to push on glass and not the handle that everyone is supposed to use? Is it seriously to hard to push where you're supposed to? Luckily at the store I work at the front doors are backwards from the norm. They push open to the inside and can only be pulled open from the inside. Law actually states this is illegal, but what does my company care? It always cracks me up when someone goes to push the door open (the one clearly marked PULL) with their hand or arm at full speed and ends up running into an effectual wall. Payback's a pisser ain't it? Now here's a paper towel clean up your arm print!
That's another thing, people can't read. Or at least they only read what they want to read. It always amazes me that a person will get a sale flyer with a HUGE date range on it and come into the store three or four days before the sale starts expecting to get those prices. Or the people that don't pay attention to the expiration dates on coupons. They're the same people that get pissed their coupon expired TWO YEARS AGO because they didn't see the date range on it. I wish I could magically learn and forget skills at will, how handy would that be?
Another pet peeve of mine is people that don't listen. This ranges a bit in context but it's just as annoying as people who don't read. "I'm telling you that those two electronic devices will not communicate the way that you want them too", "well I'm gonna have them installed by a professional, so I'm gonna get them anyways, he'll make it work". WTF do you think I am? I just volunteer here, I don't get paid to pass along my knowledge. Of course a couple days later whatever item that person bought gets returned and invariably nobody ever told him that it wouldn't work with what he wanted. Another form of not listening happens at checkout. We have to ask if the person has a membership with our company and most of the time they do, we scan their card and go about our business. Every other day or so however, I get a person who replies to my inquiry with "No thank". I wasn't offering moron, I was asking. Apparently I mean so little to you that you don't have to listen to me. It would be one thing if it was a credit card, but it's not, it's simple free membership that makes our job easier, your record keeping easier, and actually saves you money. But oh well, you don't want one, even though I was going to save you some money today with it.
Of course customers aren't the only people who get on my nerves, other employees do the same. How hard is it to break down a box once you've put away it's contents? You already have a knife on you just cut the tape and fold it up as you're walking to the back to toss it in the back room. And how about people who just can't seem to learn how to work a simple point of sale program? It never changes, asks the same info every single time, and is designed so a monkey could use it, yet there are always people who could work for the company for well over a year or even two and never learn how to do a basic transaction. It's true I've seen it with my own eyes, and if one of those people has to call me away from a potentially huge sale one more time just so I can hit F6 like the screen prompted I might just loose it.
So there you have it, a couple of the pet peeves that make my blood boil.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Saturday, July 7, 2007
A Bit on Customer Service
Yesterday's Sea Ray conversation was pretty long, so I think I'll try and keep today's post a little bit shorter. One of the things that struck me today was the difference in attitude of customers. We get everybody from the super nice to vile dregs of society, and today it seemed like a see-saw battle from one type to the next. I had one old man stop me on my way to the back for lunch, I ended up letting someone else eat before me while I talked electronics but the poor guy felt really bad for interrupting my lunch. He turned out to be really nice and even apologetic. Luckily for him it's my job to put the customer first and I had no problem putting aside lunch for half an hour, especially to someone as kind as him. But not everyone is as nice as this man, the very second, no it was actually before I even finished with that man I had some lady demanding my attention and being quite rude about it as well. Unluckily for her I don't deal with assholes well and pawned her off on our least experienced associate. Customer service is great and all, but I think it should be a two way street, don't get pissed at me that there's 30 people in the store, only 5 associates, 4 of which are on the floor the other in the back. I'm sorry but we just can't be with everyone all the time. At times like this it's sort of a triage service, or worse yet, first come first serve.
It wasn't just this one case the whole day seemed to be like that, and the moment I step away from helping a customer to look up something, or to bring some of his stuff to the counter it's suddenly open season to grab me and try and make me give my undivided attention to someone else. Some even manage to get quite pissed that I was helping someone else. How would they like if their sales person just up and left them hanging for 20 minutes while they tried to sell stuff to someone else. We don't even get commission! To illustrate this here's a story from a little later in the day after most of my help had left. It was me and one other person in the store. I ended up having to spool a fishing reel for a gentleman that I had been helping for quite some time. In the middle of the process the customer stops me and points to a lady standing behind me. "Are you the only one in the store? I've been wandering around for 20 minutes saying hello!". Well that can't be right, I've only been down here doing this for 5 minutes, and where was my coworker? He was busy over in electronics with another customer, in plain view. I was quite ready to just blow the lady off for being rude, but luckily for her the customer my coworker was with heard her plea for assistance and let him go help her, my customer probably would have too, but there was no way she was going to let one of us go to help someone else once she had our attention, which she made quite clear a few minutes later.
I guess the point of this is that I just don't understand where some people come from. As a company and especially in the store I work at, customers come first, and customer service is the name of the game. Without them we'd be out of business and we really do bend over backward and then some to help most people. But the instant you become and asshole to me for doing the best I can and helping someone else that was there before you, I no longer care much about your experience and I'm much less likely to try my hardest to help you out. In fact I could be come a complete dick and pretty much make you never want to shop with my company again. I won't do that unless it's truly warranted which is extremely rare. But honestly the status quo of "Treat others as you would like to be treated" is obviously dead in an alarming number of people. If people would just think about that a little then maybe the service they demanded so intensely would be of a higher caliber, but that's just my 2 cents. And until you piss me off I'll do everything in my power to help you out as best as I can.
It wasn't just this one case the whole day seemed to be like that, and the moment I step away from helping a customer to look up something, or to bring some of his stuff to the counter it's suddenly open season to grab me and try and make me give my undivided attention to someone else. Some even manage to get quite pissed that I was helping someone else. How would they like if their sales person just up and left them hanging for 20 minutes while they tried to sell stuff to someone else. We don't even get commission! To illustrate this here's a story from a little later in the day after most of my help had left. It was me and one other person in the store. I ended up having to spool a fishing reel for a gentleman that I had been helping for quite some time. In the middle of the process the customer stops me and points to a lady standing behind me. "Are you the only one in the store? I've been wandering around for 20 minutes saying hello!". Well that can't be right, I've only been down here doing this for 5 minutes, and where was my coworker? He was busy over in electronics with another customer, in plain view. I was quite ready to just blow the lady off for being rude, but luckily for her the customer my coworker was with heard her plea for assistance and let him go help her, my customer probably would have too, but there was no way she was going to let one of us go to help someone else once she had our attention, which she made quite clear a few minutes later.
I guess the point of this is that I just don't understand where some people come from. As a company and especially in the store I work at, customers come first, and customer service is the name of the game. Without them we'd be out of business and we really do bend over backward and then some to help most people. But the instant you become and asshole to me for doing the best I can and helping someone else that was there before you, I no longer care much about your experience and I'm much less likely to try my hardest to help you out. In fact I could be come a complete dick and pretty much make you never want to shop with my company again. I won't do that unless it's truly warranted which is extremely rare. But honestly the status quo of "Treat others as you would like to be treated" is obviously dead in an alarming number of people. If people would just think about that a little then maybe the service they demanded so intensely would be of a higher caliber, but that's just my 2 cents. And until you piss me off I'll do everything in my power to help you out as best as I can.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Sea Ray Owners
Here's something that may not be a problem in some other parts of the country, but here in Tampa Bay, Florida, we have a huge problem with Sea Ray owners. Not only do Sea Ray owners own nearly half the boats in the bay, but at least 90% of them have absolutely no clue about anything nautical. This can make them a very annoying lot.
Sea Ray is huge. They're the top selling powerboat company in the country, possibly due to the fact that Marine Max, the largest boat brokerage in the country, sells them like they're going out of style. To Sea Ray's advantage, they design fairly nice boats and even give fairly good customer service, the company isn't bad at all. So what could be the problem you ask? It's their customers. I have never met a more truthfully stereotyped segment of a population than Sea Ray owners. To complicate matters though there are about 4 types of owners, 3 of which suck royally. The other is that last 10% that for some reason know a little something about boats yet somehow still ended up with a Sea Slug, I mean Ray...
The first type seems to be the most common, at least in marine retail anyways. This kind of owner has just spent at least 150k on his new boat in the last couple of years. He's got money, he's got a boat, but he has no idea how anything on it works. He expects to turn the key and go. When something breaks onboard he immediately heads to his local supply shop and grabs the nearest employee, no matter what they may be doing at the time. Coming back from lunch, helping someone order a part, demonstrating electronics, talking on the phone, entertaining the presisdent, they don't care, they've got a problem and they want help now! The first thing they say must come in the Sea Ray owners manual (if these people can even read that is) and it must be written something like this:
"Brazenly walk up to someone and puff out your chest saying, 'I've got a __ year Sea Ray, model ______' here you pause while the person should act impressed at your superb choice of vessels. After they regain their composure, say 'I need a _____ for my boat' and then the person you're talking to should immediately and magically produce the part from thin air so that you may be on your way. If they don't have it, yell at them and storm out of the store."
I swear to God himself that I get approached by someone with almost this exact template of speech every day I work. Truth of the matter is, I don't care that you have a Sea Ray, in fact I, and the people I work with, look down on you because you and every other person with one tries to sound important for having a mediocre boat, you're not, you bought a boat with no class and it reflects in you. Secondly I don't have a magic program that tells me the exact part you need to replace. Boats don't work like cars, For one there are THOUSANDS of manufacturers, many of whom make several models. They don't even use the exact same parts for every single boat in that production line. It's simply impossible to write a database that intense, the records wouldn't even be there if someone tried. Next off, you can't have your part immediately all the time. Like I said before, there are just too many parts to keep it all in stock, be it in a warehouse, much less a retail store. In fact even almighty Sea Ray can't keep all their parts in THEIR warehouse all the time. Normally I can get just about anything in two working days if it's in my warehouse, two weeks if it's from the manufacturer. I don't know when overnight or two day shipping became too slow, but that's a rant for another day. Lastly on this first type of Sea Ray owner, feel free to get pissed off and storm out of the store, you'll be back and since you didn't order your part, it still won't be here and you'll have to wait even longer. Or you could get it from Sea Ray, who will probably charge you even more than we will and quite possibly will take longer to get.
Whew that was a bit of a rant... on to the next type of Sea Ray owner... The asshole.
This type may actually outnumber the first type as many of them are actually assholes reciting what they were taught to say by Sea Ray. This isn't limited to just the storefront though, now we're on the water. This is the asshat who is too old to have a jet ski, yet still wants to break all the rules. These people fly through no wake zones obliviously. They get pissed at anything that slows them down or yells at them. They have no regard for safety of others, and their shit doesn't stink. I actually had a customer come into the store to buy a megaphone with a police type siren just to scare a consistent perpetrator of the no wake zone. Out of curiosity another associate asked him what kind of boat the person was in. Of course, a Sea Ray. Now chock that one up to coincidence, one example can't be held for everyone, and of course the people I work with and myself are a little biased. Luckily to save this argument, another customer came in and started asking questions about why the guy was using the siren in the store. This person came in long after we inquired about the type of boat the culprit was in. His question to the customer with the bullhorn when told the reason for the purchase. "Let me guess, it's a Sea Ray?" Even other customers are aware of their reputation. I hate these people, they're dangerous and spiteful to boot.
Next up on the list of owners, we have the newbie. Newbie doesn't exactly mean they're completely new to boating, which most Sea Ray owners are, but they don't care about learning ANYTHING about their boats EVER. They ask wonderful questions like, What does a bilge pump do and do I need it? (the correct answer to anybody asking this question who has owned a boat for more than a month is always 'It's not important and no you don't need it') Of course they're fun to sell stuff to, you just tell them they need it and they'll buy it, and probably even hire one of your friends to install it. These people aren't so bad as they can be helped and should be helped if at all possible, every now and then you get one that actually starts to show an interest. Unfortunately, most never do and to them having a boat they use twice a year is a status symbol. At one marina here I counted 6 different 35+ foot Sea Rays in a row, of which not a single one had moved in over 6 months, that's just sad to me, even boats I don't like deserve to be used. I can't imagine how they treat their wives.
The last type of owners are the remaining 10% who are normal boaters. They use their boats, and they actually know how to use them. They've learned at least something about the different systems on the boat as well. And truthfully most of them are looking to get something different from a Sea Ray, even Sea Ray owners don't like reputation they have outside of their owners' community.
And there you have it, my preliminary take on Sea Ray owners. I'm sure at some point I'll go into more detail about some aspects of them, like the one that tried to return hundreds of dollars worth of stuff he'd had for 4 years, and also at triple what he paid for it. Not to mention it's normally Sea Ray owners that come into the store 2 minutes to close just to look around for 45 minutes. But those are stories for another time, until then keep safe and enjoy the water!
Sea Ray is huge. They're the top selling powerboat company in the country, possibly due to the fact that Marine Max, the largest boat brokerage in the country, sells them like they're going out of style. To Sea Ray's advantage, they design fairly nice boats and even give fairly good customer service, the company isn't bad at all. So what could be the problem you ask? It's their customers. I have never met a more truthfully stereotyped segment of a population than Sea Ray owners. To complicate matters though there are about 4 types of owners, 3 of which suck royally. The other is that last 10% that for some reason know a little something about boats yet somehow still ended up with a Sea Slug, I mean Ray...
The first type seems to be the most common, at least in marine retail anyways. This kind of owner has just spent at least 150k on his new boat in the last couple of years. He's got money, he's got a boat, but he has no idea how anything on it works. He expects to turn the key and go. When something breaks onboard he immediately heads to his local supply shop and grabs the nearest employee, no matter what they may be doing at the time. Coming back from lunch, helping someone order a part, demonstrating electronics, talking on the phone, entertaining the presisdent, they don't care, they've got a problem and they want help now! The first thing they say must come in the Sea Ray owners manual (if these people can even read that is) and it must be written something like this:
"Brazenly walk up to someone and puff out your chest saying, 'I've got a __ year Sea Ray, model ______' here you pause while the person should act impressed at your superb choice of vessels. After they regain their composure, say 'I need a _____ for my boat' and then the person you're talking to should immediately and magically produce the part from thin air so that you may be on your way. If they don't have it, yell at them and storm out of the store."
I swear to God himself that I get approached by someone with almost this exact template of speech every day I work. Truth of the matter is, I don't care that you have a Sea Ray, in fact I, and the people I work with, look down on you because you and every other person with one tries to sound important for having a mediocre boat, you're not, you bought a boat with no class and it reflects in you. Secondly I don't have a magic program that tells me the exact part you need to replace. Boats don't work like cars, For one there are THOUSANDS of manufacturers, many of whom make several models. They don't even use the exact same parts for every single boat in that production line. It's simply impossible to write a database that intense, the records wouldn't even be there if someone tried. Next off, you can't have your part immediately all the time. Like I said before, there are just too many parts to keep it all in stock, be it in a warehouse, much less a retail store. In fact even almighty Sea Ray can't keep all their parts in THEIR warehouse all the time. Normally I can get just about anything in two working days if it's in my warehouse, two weeks if it's from the manufacturer. I don't know when overnight or two day shipping became too slow, but that's a rant for another day. Lastly on this first type of Sea Ray owner, feel free to get pissed off and storm out of the store, you'll be back and since you didn't order your part, it still won't be here and you'll have to wait even longer. Or you could get it from Sea Ray, who will probably charge you even more than we will and quite possibly will take longer to get.
Whew that was a bit of a rant... on to the next type of Sea Ray owner... The asshole.
This type may actually outnumber the first type as many of them are actually assholes reciting what they were taught to say by Sea Ray. This isn't limited to just the storefront though, now we're on the water. This is the asshat who is too old to have a jet ski, yet still wants to break all the rules. These people fly through no wake zones obliviously. They get pissed at anything that slows them down or yells at them. They have no regard for safety of others, and their shit doesn't stink. I actually had a customer come into the store to buy a megaphone with a police type siren just to scare a consistent perpetrator of the no wake zone. Out of curiosity another associate asked him what kind of boat the person was in. Of course, a Sea Ray. Now chock that one up to coincidence, one example can't be held for everyone, and of course the people I work with and myself are a little biased. Luckily to save this argument, another customer came in and started asking questions about why the guy was using the siren in the store. This person came in long after we inquired about the type of boat the culprit was in. His question to the customer with the bullhorn when told the reason for the purchase. "Let me guess, it's a Sea Ray?" Even other customers are aware of their reputation. I hate these people, they're dangerous and spiteful to boot.
Next up on the list of owners, we have the newbie. Newbie doesn't exactly mean they're completely new to boating, which most Sea Ray owners are, but they don't care about learning ANYTHING about their boats EVER. They ask wonderful questions like, What does a bilge pump do and do I need it? (the correct answer to anybody asking this question who has owned a boat for more than a month is always 'It's not important and no you don't need it') Of course they're fun to sell stuff to, you just tell them they need it and they'll buy it, and probably even hire one of your friends to install it. These people aren't so bad as they can be helped and should be helped if at all possible, every now and then you get one that actually starts to show an interest. Unfortunately, most never do and to them having a boat they use twice a year is a status symbol. At one marina here I counted 6 different 35+ foot Sea Rays in a row, of which not a single one had moved in over 6 months, that's just sad to me, even boats I don't like deserve to be used. I can't imagine how they treat their wives.
The last type of owners are the remaining 10% who are normal boaters. They use their boats, and they actually know how to use them. They've learned at least something about the different systems on the boat as well. And truthfully most of them are looking to get something different from a Sea Ray, even Sea Ray owners don't like reputation they have outside of their owners' community.
And there you have it, my preliminary take on Sea Ray owners. I'm sure at some point I'll go into more detail about some aspects of them, like the one that tried to return hundreds of dollars worth of stuff he'd had for 4 years, and also at triple what he paid for it. Not to mention it's normally Sea Ray owners that come into the store 2 minutes to close just to look around for 45 minutes. But those are stories for another time, until then keep safe and enjoy the water!
Friday, June 29, 2007
Smelly Customers
When it came to me to create this blog one afternoon I was brainstorming ideas to write about and it then it struck me. Struck me quite literally, in the nose to be exact. What in the world was that smell?! I turned around to see a middle aged customer in a sweat soaked sleeveless shirt, holding god only knows what part of his boat. He turned to me and started asking me some questions, but all I could do was concentrate on not breathing. As I fought against my gag reflex, my anger levels started to rise. Who in their right mind, besides perhaps twelve year olds who don't know better, goes out in public smelling like cabbage that's been sitting in the sun for a week? And the real question is, who doesn't wear any deodorant when they know they're going to working on their boat all day in the hot summer Florida sun? What the hell is wrong with you! Did you grow up with hippies? Do you like making people puke as you pass by?
People continually amaze me with their lack of compassion, their inconsiderateness, their arrogance, and their sheer stupidity. Of course without them I couldn't write this blog or laugh at the amazingly stupid customers I tend to get on a day to day basis. Oh and it's not normally the dock workers or the mechanics that come in smelling that bad, it's always some poor sap who decided that today was a good day to do some boat work. They know ahead of time what they'll be doing all day, they know they'll need to go to the store, they know they really don't know what they're doing. Maybe smelling bad is seen as a badge of honor, a sort of manly macho thing to do? I don't know, I just don't get it. Luckily I have a can of Lysol and some air freshener at the register so next time I get stuck there with one of these putrid people I can maybe give myself some relief. If shirt and shoes are required to enter, so should deodorant!
People continually amaze me with their lack of compassion, their inconsiderateness, their arrogance, and their sheer stupidity. Of course without them I couldn't write this blog or laugh at the amazingly stupid customers I tend to get on a day to day basis. Oh and it's not normally the dock workers or the mechanics that come in smelling that bad, it's always some poor sap who decided that today was a good day to do some boat work. They know ahead of time what they'll be doing all day, they know they'll need to go to the store, they know they really don't know what they're doing. Maybe smelling bad is seen as a badge of honor, a sort of manly macho thing to do? I don't know, I just don't get it. Luckily I have a can of Lysol and some air freshener at the register so next time I get stuck there with one of these putrid people I can maybe give myself some relief. If shirt and shoes are required to enter, so should deodorant!
Introductions
I work in the rather insane world of marine retail. In many ways it isn't unlike most other forms of retail, yet it does have quite a few oddities that make it unique. Through this blog I plan to unveil what your average sales associate at a major retail marine supplier has to endure on a daily basis. Fortunately, I can take a small step back and illustrate how ludicrously hilarious and how ridiculous our job can be. So I hope you'll get a good laugh, or maybe even an eye-opener from my ramblings.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
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