Monday 9 December 2013

Is The Customer Always Right?


In the early days of my blog, I wrote a post about being a good customer, which I called my customer code

I was reminded of this recently as I sat enjoying a latte in a local branch of Costa, positioned quite close to the counter, where I could hear customers placing their orders.

One lady approached the assistant at the till, almost thrust a baguette at her, simultaneously ordering a drink in very gruff tones, then snapped back sharply when asked the question, “Is that to eat in?”

Now obviously, I don’t know what kind of day this woman had been having, but whatever may have occurred, there was no need to take it out on an assistant who was a) trying to be helpful and b) nothing to do with her day up to that point.

Think of something to put a smile on your face
Immediately following this, I popped into Boots, where a man (I refuse to use the term gentleman in this instance) was publicly berating a member of the pharmacy department, who was actually trying to give him advice about the medication that he was taking, only to be met with the retort, “It’s none of your business, what I do with my medication!” This was accompanied by numerous expletives that I am too polite to record here.

I’m always put out if a shop assistant is brusque or rude towards me, saying something if necessary or even withdrawing my custom, but by the same token I think that we, as customers, should also be polite and approachable.

At the end of the day, customers or shop assistants, we are all just people and should at least attempt to be civil to one another, especially during what is now supposed to be the ‘season of goodwill’.

So please, let’s all be pleasant to one another when shopping, so that we can all have an enjoyable shopping experience.

Follow me on Twitter @shoppersjoy

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