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Post Info TOPIC: How do you deal with angry customers at the front end?
Everyone

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How do you deal with angry customers at the front end?
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The ones who make a scene and loudly insult you in front of everyone?

I've found that no matter what I say, they use that and throw it right back in my face. If I say "I'm sorry" they give me another insult.



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Anonymous

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Smile and call the mgr.  That's it!!!!



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Veteran Member

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Anonymous wrote:

Smile and call the mgr.  That's it!!!!


 This is what you should do, but I can never let it go that easy. I can't seem to help myself from talking crap about them to the next customer or giving a little attitude back to the angry customer. We're human. It's hard just to be demeaned and not stand up for yourself at all



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Anonymous

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Get a water gun, fill it with water make sure it does not leak. Actually get 2 water guns different color. Fill one with water the other with piss. Squirt them with the water and  if they continue to be rude squirt them with the piss.



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Mr Frontenac

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Well, a few weeks ago, I was on U-scan. It was busy and there was a bunch of customers asking me for help and to fetch cigarettes for them. Then there was this couple who were on a regular lane with a cashier and they asked me "are those other self checkouts working?" and I said yes they're working. See, at our store there's more than one U-scan "bank" but the others are behind the registers, and you occasionally have to tell customers that they're open.

Normally, I do that, but this one time, I was too busy for that. So as soon as I said yes, this couple starts going off on me because I didn't inform them there were other self checkouts they could use instead of them standing there waiting in line for a couple minutes. They continued to yell to everyone around them, "he was just standing there laughing while we were waiting in line..."

Yeah, no... I was helping other customers and I definitely wasn't laughing... I didn't even know they were in line at my U-scan, cause I was busy. I wanted to punch them in the face, but I kept my cool and said nothing to them. I avoided eye contact with them as they walked out the store.



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Anonymous

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Luckily, I haven't had a REALLY rude customer in awhile.

I've had moderately rude to nice customers. That or I just don't care to notice a customer's indignant behavior anymore.


How I typically handle them is that I brush off the initial desire to punch them in the face, smile, tilt my head sideways, and speak with a slight infliction to my voice. It makes them feel belittled when they try to get me mad but are failing. If the situation gets bad enough and I can't defuse the situation, my managers are typically good at coming to the scene without me calling them.

Now we enter the realm of the hypothetical.

I never make it a point fight with customers but I wouldn't just sit there and let them belittle me. If the situation called for it, I would defend myself or at least retort in a manner that didn't imply cowardice. My managers know that I will do my job but am not afraid to get fired if I don't do things 100% by the book.

Kroger would have you stand there and take customer abuse no matter what; If they fire me in the future for merely standing up to a rude customer, so be it.

Example, this one kid probably around 20 years old, wanted my name to report to corporate because I initially told him quite politely that I could not reduce the price of a Christmas tree myself a week before the holiday. When he started getting testy with me, I looked him dead in his eyes, pointed to my name tag, and told him to "do it." Nothing came of it.


I'm a firm believer of standing up for yourself when the situation calls for it. 



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Anonymous

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Mr Frontenac wrote:

Well, a few weeks ago, I was on U-scan. It was busy and there was a bunch of customers asking me for help and to fetch cigarettes for them. Then there was this couple who were on a regular lane with a cashier and they asked me "are those other self checkouts working?" and I said yes they're working. See, at our store there's more than one U-scan "bank" but the others are behind the registers, and you occasionally have to tell customers that they're open.

Normally, I do that, but this one time, I was too busy for that. So as soon as I said yes, this couple starts going off on me because I didn't inform them there were other self checkouts they could use instead of them standing there waiting in line for a couple minutes. They continued to yell to everyone around them, "he was just standing there laughing while we were waiting in line..."

Yeah, no... I was helping other customers and I definitely wasn't laughing... I didn't even know they were in line at my U-scan, cause I was busy. I wanted to punch them in the face, but I kept my cool and said nothing to them. I avoided eye contact with them as they walked out the store.


 You are lucky to get the customers to use the self checkouts. At my store you tell them the self check outs are open they stand in the same line looking dumb. If you even tell then another register  is open they stand there looking dumb.



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Guru

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Smile politely, ask if they want to speak with a manager, then gossip about them using the "Stupid Customer Voice" the rest of the day :)

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Anonymous

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Pick your battles. Most of them aren't worth it, nothing you say will penetrate the force-field of entitlement and ignorance surrounding them. Although I only do seldom relief checking so I don't gotta deal with the front end my whole day. 

Now dealing with angry customers in my own department is a WHOLE other story lol. I'm not so tolerant of stupid people telling me how to do my job or complaining about stuff that's beyond my control.



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Anonymous

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I start singing "Invisible Touch" by Genesis to them. Usually calms them right down. If it doesn't, I assume they're Peter Gabriel era Genesis fans.



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