Have you ever noticed that when someone has an axe to grind their language changes? I’ve just read a post on FB by a woman who wanted to buy some shoes in a large supermarket but wanted to try them on. Her complaint was that there was no chair provided for those wishing to try on shoes. However, in her post she lambasts the supermarket assistant who had, in fact, helped her by going into the canteen to get a chair for her to use while she tried on the shoes. Now, I’d have thought that the assistant was really helpful in doing that and had shown initiative, especially as her first suggestion that the customer take the shoes to the coffee shop to sit and try on had been dismissed. Well, not at all!! The customer says the assistant “stormed off to the canteen” and when she came back with the chair “slammed it down”. Why couldn’t she have said “she went to get a chair from the canteen and placed it on the floor”? Apparently she also said “You can sit on that, love.” Okay, perhaps she could have called her “madam” but in the part of Essex where the incident happened people still call each other “love” and it’s hardly a hanging offence, is it?
What’s happening here is that the poor shop assistant is paying for the customer’s frustration with the store for not providing a chair. Instead of asking for a manager she uses the assistant as her whipping boy. Not only that, she’s plastered it all over FB with the name of the branch and the company has replied to the effect that the assistant in question will be disciplined.
Now, after a lifetime of working in a service industry – and believe me nobody complains like a British holidaymaker! – I will complain if I experience bad service. But, when we complain we must always make sure that it’s to the right person and not use our own frustrations and/or anger against someone who doesn’t write the company’s policy and when all’s said and done, is simply trying to earn a living. A manager gets paid megabucks to deal with problems arising from company policy; a simple assistant doesn’t.
Some good may yet come out of this: the supermarket may now provide a chair in its footwear departments countrywide. And let’s hope that the store and/or department manager recognises that the assistant was doing her best and was, in fact, being as helpful as she could in the circumstances.
And perhaps the customer needs to review the way she speaks to shop assistants.
