For those of you who don't know me personally, I have been working at a grocery store for almost four years. There are so many things that I love about it: my management, my co-workers, and the pay's pretty good too. The one thing that makes me irritated when I leave work is absolutely the customers I have dealt with in that day. Having all this experience has taught me many lessons that I believe other people would benefit from.
1. You will understand why your "jokes" aren't funny.
To my co-workers... you understand. To everyone else, let me give you some examples of "jokes" that customers tell that is not funny and is not original. Things occasionally don't ring up while I am cashing people out. This does not mean that the item is free. If we gave away free items every time there was a discrepancy in price or something not ringing up, we would lose a lot of money.
My personal favorite "joke" is when I try to ID someone (because it is part of store policy and I am trying not to lose my job) and they come back with a remark like "Oh you look like you're 12" or "Are you even old enough to work here let alone sell alcohol?" By saying these kinds of things you are just annoying me and preventing yourself from leaving sooner.
2. You won't take it out on the people working when it's busy.
You waited until the day before Thanksgiving to buy your turkey and all of your other things for Thanksgiving? So did everyone else. I can't do anything about the store being busy so speaking for people who work in customer service... don't take it out on us because we are more than likely stressing about how busy we are in general.
3. You are ok with waiting your turn.
Maybe not that ok with waiting. But you understand that things can be crazy from time to time and the person working may have a lot of different responsibilities resting on their shoulders. You are ok with them taking the extra couple minutes that they need to finish a task before helping you because you have been there.
4. You know what not to say and how not to act.
You can look back and remember what certain things that people did that tended to annoy you and then don't do it when the roles are reversed. This goes back to the Golden Rule: "Do to others what you want them to do to you"
I genuinely think that everyone needs to work in customer service in some way or another. You will truly sympathize and understand what workers are going through and you can make their life a little bit better by not doing the things that would annoy you.
