People with no manners.

[SweetJo]

Does this happen in other people's shops or is it just in mine - I will be talking to a customer and another one will come into the shop and ask me something - no waiting until I've finished serving the first customer. They don't even say "excuse me". Some just poke their head round the door and loudly ask how much something is.

Today I had a couple with two children. One maybe 5, the other about 7. Despite there being a queue in the shop and me talking to other people, the parents allowed the children, on numerous occasions to talk over me and other customers by asking how much things were and telling me what they wanted. I had to keep asking them to wait a minute, I was serving someone else. I couldn't believe the parents didn't say anything!

I felt awful to the customers I was trying to serve, and also a bad to the kids who I had to keep telling to wait. How do you deal with those situations? I don't want to offend customers by telling them to teach their children some manners!

 

[fairdealworld]

Yes I encounter this problem regularly in my shop and often from people who are otherwise really nice. Many people have a lack of perception of how very ill-mannered and difficult they are being and unfortunately many people think their children are very cute and clever when they interrupt and badger people - then they wonder why these cute and clever children get bad reports from school - sigh!

One tip: don't respond to people and particularly not children, either by speaking or by making eye contact, who are interrupting you. Basically they are attention seeking and particularly in the case of children by telling them to wait you are actually responding to them and giving them the attention they crave. This in turn 'trains' them to carry on interrupting you. You probably feel that you owe the children some response but actually you don't, if they asked you something politely after standing in the queue or simply when there was no queue and you were obviously free to respond that is different as long as it is not a deliberately silly question. For example I find that some children who are well over the age of being able to read a price ticket will still try to get you to tell them how much the item is, partly attention seeking and partly just can't be bothered. I tell them gently but firmly that there is a price ticket on each item.

By now you probably think I'm absolutely horrid but actually I'm an ex-teacher and an ex-educational psychologist, I'll spend ages talking to children (and adults) who are genuinely interested in something in the shop but I don't encourage those - on principle - who are ill-mannered or whose conversation more resembles that of a parrot than a human being.

 

[SweetJo]

I don't think you're horrid at all, what you say makes sense

I do ignore the teenagers who do it because I know fine well they just want the attention and think they look cool in front of their mates. A lot of them also ask the price of things even though they are clearly labelled. It drives me mad! I often think to myself "can you not read?!" but in fact some of them can't. I never knew there were so many ways to say "Spearmint"!
It's quite worrying the number of young people who come in my shop and ask for the red lolly. There are 4 types of red lollies. When I ask them what flavour, say "the traffic light one?" they repeat "the red one" and point at a shelving unit with 25 jars of lollies. It's annoying but also quite sad.

 

[herewegoagain.]

Yes, this happens from time to time, it is very rude, I normally just say, please bear with me while I serve this customer, have a look around and I will be with you as soon as possible - browsing time ! LOL - if they don not have a 'second to live' and cant wait, well that is up to them !

 

[fisicx]

You are not alone: http://notalwaysright.com/

 

[HGSecurity]

If someone butts into a conversation like that with me, I just say 'I'm terribly sorry, I didn't hear what you were saying, I was talking myself' and carry on talking to the other person/customer. If they persist, they get ignored.

 

[SweetJo]

You are not alone: http://notalwaysright.com/

Thank you!! I am going to have hours of fun on there

 

[Mayor]

You are not alone: http://notalwaysright.com/

I have just found a new way to pass that dull half hour before we close...

 

[Deleted member 162294]

One tip: don't respond to people and particularly not children, either by speaking or by making eye contact, who are interrupting you. Basically they are attention seeking and particularly in the case of children by telling them to wait you are actually responding to them and giving them the attention they crave. This in turn 'trains' them to carry on interrupting you

I can't see this working out in reality.

Kid: Hey
You: [ignore]
Kid: HEY!
You: [ignore]
Kid: HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY!
You: ...... what?

 

[deniser]

But on the other hand, as a customer, it is sometimes a little irritating if someone is being really slow in either serving or being served and you just want to ask a very quick question. I have stood patiently in a queue for 10 minutes or more while someone faffs at the till to ask something like "what time do you close"?

I personally prefer a bit of multi tasking - if I am serving someone slowly because there is a lot to wrap up I do keep an eye on my other customers who are hovering to see if they need to ask something in the meantime. The customer being served doesn't mind and it often starts conversation between customers and creates a good atmosphere.

 

[digital way]

Our chip shop allows you to walk in and shout out a chinese meal if you want one as they take a while to prepare. What they hate is someone waiting in the queue, arriving at the till and then ordering a chinese meal. This gives me the excuse to waltz in every Thurs evening and ignore all and sundry in the shop and shout out my Chinese meal like I own the place

 

[Chris34]

You need to be careful when ignoring customers, you do not know the size of their potential order. So while you are chatting happily with little granny at the counter while she is making up her mind whether to spend £4 or £5 and ignoring the parents with the kids you might watch the parents and the kids walk out the door and miss out on a £50+ sale.

Happened to me last week, I was on a very rare holiday in Cornwall. Popped in a pub carvery place to ask what food they serve in the evenings with the idea of going back there later that day for a potential table booking for 4 adults. Was blatantly ignored while they made coffees at the the expresso machine in the back of the pub/bistro, didn't mind at first but after 5 mins we decided to walk and take our custom elsewhere. If they just gave any hint like 'be with you in a minute mate' or even eye contact and a smile it would have been enough to make me wait but no nothing. No skin off my nose, plenty of other eateries to go to.

Ignore customers at your peril. Learn to mulitask IMO as Deniser says.



Chris.

 

[fairdealworld]

I'd say in return, ignore little old ladies (and little old gentlemen), at your peril. I have a lot of such customers and I have a chair right beside the door to encourage them to come in knowing they can take the weight off their feet for a minute or two. The 'little old lady' brigade tend to shop little but often and also tend to be very strong on loyalty. £4 or £5 two or three or more times a week, most every week of the year, adds up much better than a £50 sale to someone impatient and with badly managed children who you probably won't see again because they are on holiday or find a larger store where their kids can run around and scream and shout even louder.

Yes of course shopkeepers must multi-task. In fact at a breakfast business meeting yesterday re: apprenticeships, I was explaining just why working in a shop - particularly in specialist shops - is so demanding because of the need to constantly chop and change between tasks and to have the capacity to assess the need to change task and act on it. But there is a distinct difference between annoying the customer who is actually spending money in favour of those who merely might (but most probably won't in my experience).

The situation described where staff busied themselves with making coffee while ignoring someone waiting at the counter is not the same sort of situation as that described by the OP. I've left cafes myself under similar circumstances where people could have made eye contact or said 'sorry, be with you as soon as possible'. I have regular customers just wanting to buy one thing who finding themselves waiting behind someone making a lengthy purchase will simply put the right money down on the counter while holding up their item for me or a member of staff to see and give a smile which means 'I don't need a receipt' and we smile or wave back and that's it. If a customer at the till has just spotted something else and is pondering, well obviously I'll make eye contact with those behind or quickly answer a question which is asked because the person concerned can see that I've got a moment in which to answer. Ditto while you wrap up. BUT attending to those without manners at a point when you really need to concentrate, and particularly when a less experienced member of staff really needs to concentrate, is the sort of thing which leads to incorrectly entered sales, problems in the use of the card machine, incorrect change giving and so forth. This not only annoys the customer whose turn it is to be served but takes longer to sort out than if you'd refused to be distracted in the first place.

Attending to the wrong person at the wrong moment also creates the ideal situation for distraction thefts, not only of stock, but the snatching of cash from the till. The distracting child may simply be badly brought up but children (and adults too of course) are often used by thieves to distract the person at the till at a critical moment. Our local police force endlessly warns against this issue but many shopkeepers don't believe it because it hasn't happened to them - yet.

 

[scm5436]

An annoying situation is when people just seem to come in for a chat - they'll buy some cheapo item and then proceed to just talk for ages. Even when there's another customer waiting patiently behind them, and even though I'm not really saying anything to encourage the continuation of the conversation (just "yeah", "uh-huh", "mm" and so on).

What's a good technique for politely making them shut up and leave...? I mean I don't mind chatting to customers when they're the only one in the shop, but if there's other people standing in line...

 

[SillyJokes]

fairdealworld, the children's friend. lol.

Honestly what is the matter with you all, can't you work out how to be polite and multi task without forum debate about it?

 

[scm5436]

fairdealworld, the children's friend. lol.

Honestly what is the matter with you all, can't you work out how to be polite and multi task without forum debate about it?

I'm an internet trader - I don't usually need to be polite! The computer stole my social skills.. now I have a shop as well and I actually have to talk to customers...

 

[Mayor]

Honestly what is the matter with you all, can't you work out how to be polite and multi task without forum debate about it?

Don't be so ridiculous - polite AND multi-task ? Without SMILIES ???? Nooooooo...

 

[Steve Sellers]

I always interrupt in such conversations but it's normally taking the mick if the opportunity arises. Like a guy in Tesco earlier who appeared to break the self service machine....I couldn't resist it....anyway I will get my coat!

 

[SweetJo]

An annoying situation is when people just seem to come in for a chat - they'll buy some cheapo item and then proceed to just talk for ages. Even when there's another customer waiting patiently behind them, and even though I'm not really saying anything to encourage the continuation of the conversation (just "yeah", "uh-huh", "mm" and so on).

What's a good technique for politely making them shut up and leave...? I mean I don't mind chatting to customers when they're the only one in the shop, but if there's other people standing in line...

I've had that problem too. I like chatting to customers, that's one of the nice things about independent shops like ours. But it's awkward isn't it! I hate offending people. I tend to say "excuse me two seconds" to the chatterbox, then smile at the customer waiting behind and ask them what I can help them with. The chatterbox will either get the hint, or more often than not start talking to the other customer too :redface:

 

[Deleted member 162294]

I've had that problem too. I like chatting to customers, that's one of the nice things about independent shops like ours. But it's awkward isn't it! I hate offending people. I tend to say "excuse me two seconds" to the chatterbox, then smile at the customer waiting behind and ask them what I can help them with. The chatterbox will either get the hint, or more often than not start talking to the other customer too :redface:

How about:

[wait for the end of a sentence then]
oh... let me just stop you there for a second, I'll just need a moment to ring this up for the gentlemen/lady behind you []

 

[scm5436]

How about:

[wait for the end of a sentence then]
oh... let me just stop you there for a second, I'll just need a moment to ring this up for the gentlemen/lady behind you []

Yeah, the problem is that due to the nature of our shop it's never someone waiting to pay for something, it'll be someone wanting to ask lots of questions and try something out and they probably won't want the 'pressure' of someone else hanging around waiting for them to finish. Probably better for us to wait for the 1st customer to pause then look over at the 2nd customer and say "I'll just be a moment or two" and hope the first one gets the hint... But I did have 4 people (one a couple) in the shop at the same time (a record!) once and I was multitasking between them, and yes they did all start chatting with each other!