Confessions of a Sales Assistant: The Battle Against Automatism

Although it pains me to say it, I have been working in the retail industry for long enough now that I am no longer quite as incredulous at the level of contempt that the British public holds for sales assistants. There was a time, for instance, when the blatant discourtesy displayed by certain customers induced amazement as much as it did irritation - is she really discussing her private parts over the phone whilst handing me money for her daughter's birthday card? As time passed, this amazement gradually subsided and the irritation came to the fore - believe me, lady, I'd rather spend as little time taking your money from you as you'd like to take giving it to me, but I can only do so as fast as the cash register allows me to. Bitch. Nevertheless, as even more time passed, I found that I had become so accustomed to the occasional rude or disdainful customer that I could no longer even muster the energy to feel irritated by their behaviour. Meh. Now that I think about it, I suppose I had become institutionalised, for want of a better word. I had become the mindless automaton that those customers believed that I was all along. And yet today, in one fell swoop, one such customer changed everything.

Small Talk and Customer Service

For the most part, I consider myself to be a fairly good sales assistant; at least from the customer's point of view. That is, of course, assuming that this hypothetical customer is anything like myself, which, admittedly, is rather doubtful seeing as if he was then he'd be much more likely to shop online thereby cutting out the whole bloody "customer service" experience altogether. Nevertheless, for the sake of argument, we shall just have to pretend that although this imaginary customer is like myself, he doesn't have access to the internet and thus, regrettably, has no choice but to do his shopping in shops. But that's okay because although I will smile and say hello, which is more than can be expected from half of the sales assistants I've come across, I won't hassle him, which, coincidentally, is more than can be expected from the other half of the sales assistants I've come across. To me, this is good customer service; friendly but not overbearing. Having said that, I am the first to admit that I could afford to be slightly more conversational with customers and so I have made a concerted effort in recent weeks to improve my small talk, no matter how painful the process.