Phone customers vs. "real" customers

[MaggieTheCat]

A recent thread on CS inspired this. The thread in question talks about people calling up retail stores to ask questions or get information, and cashiers or associates having to put their in-store customers or other duties on hold while they field the phone call.

The popular response to this seems to be anger or impatience toward the person calling and taking up the cashier's time, but I have to question why this is. Now, I'm not talking about a customer who calls up and gets all snarky and rude. I'm talking about someone who calls with a question that the associate can't answer right off the bat and needs to find the answer to, thus having to pause whatever they were doing before, and the associate getting upset about it. How is this any different than a customer actually walking up to an associate and asking the same question? Some people claim that the person on the phone isn't REALLY a customer because they're not in the store buying something. Well, if I go to a store looking for one item, ask an associate to help me find it, and it turns out they don't have it, I'm not really a customer then either, am I? (assuming I'm not buying something else.) But I still took up the associate's time all the same, and still potentially made other customers wait to get their own questions answered if the associate helped me before them.

Here's my own story. I had a dr. appointment last fall that I needed some information on. The hospital never sent me any info on it, so the day before the procedure, I called the department I was supposed to go to to get the information. The woman who answered the phone was very short, rude, and did not answer my questions. Instead she told me to come to the hospital in person to get the information. I did, and was then told that since I hadn't properly prepped for the procedure by fasting, which I didn't do because I hadn't gotten any info on the appointment in the first place, the appointment would have to be canceled and rescheduled. I later found out (because, yes, I called and complained to the department head) that the woman I initially talked to on the phone didn't take the time to find this information out because she had a lot of in-person customers/patients to deal with and she didn't want to take the time to look up what I needed to know.

That irritated me, a very great deal, for a number of reasons.

Again, I'm not defending customers who are rude or condescending. There's no excuse for that kind of behavior, on the phone or in person. And I also realize that my example is a little different since it involves a hospital instead of a retail store. But still...I'm curious as to what everyone's opinion on this matter are.

[Boozy]

Your story is a pretty rare occurrence. That's bad customer service all around.

Most of the stories I read on CS are referring to some variation of this scenario:

- It's a busy Saturday and the store is crawling with customers who managed to put their pants on to do their shopping in person.

- Someone too lazy to put their pants on calls the store and draws the salesperson away from these customers.

- Person on phone attempts to get salesperson to do their comparison shopping for them, physically check for items in stock, read them the ingredient labels of certain products, etc.

- Customers who are actually in the store and have attempted to do these things for themselves are needing assistance, but salesperson is too busy dealing with the lazy pants-less person on the phone.

- Bonus asshole points awarded to the person on the phone if they get snippy when the salesperson puts them on hold to deal with the customers who have come in person.

That is the kind of situation that warrants a nice long rant at CS.

[KitterCat]

Explain to me why people who are “too lazy to put on their pants” and come to a store are designated as lazy? If their asking a sales person for information on a product - such as price- wouldn’t you want to give them that info? Isn’t that after all part of retail - answering customers questions? Just because they bothered to make a phone call instead of coming into the store only seems to mean that the associate/salesperson can now ignore them instead of actually doing their job. And yes I understand there are exceptions to this, asking for a run down on the ingredients list is going to far, and being rude in general is just wrong, however if I’m planning on buying an item it would be nice to know if its actually in stock and how much it costs. Complaining that your busy because it’s a weekend only means that management has understaffed your store or its employees cant/aren’t willing to work. Something else we see frequently on CS.

Considering that a major wholesale club that I’m part of is over 2 hours away I’d be wasting my time and gas to go there only to find out they’re out of a product I want/need. So on occasion I have navigated through the field of buttons to push for a person to ask if something’s in stock. Sorry to the associate if it’s a weekend and their busy, but weekends are when I have off and time to go shopping.

What I find really strange is that it seems to be the opposite in fast food. If your in your car going through a drive through I’ve noticed both as an employee and customer that the people sitting on their duffs in a car are serviced much faster than the people coming in to order. And it doesn’t seem to matter if your ordering in or taking out.

[AdminAssistant]

If their asking a sales person for information on a product - such as price- wouldn’t you want to give them that info? Isn’t that after all part of retail - answering customers questions?

I can only speak for my experience. I worked for TJ Maxx, a nationwide discount retailer. We did not have a store database of merchandise that I, working at the service desk, had easy access to. If someone called and asked if we had a black turtleneck sweater and wanted the price, I would have to call an associate to search for one and bring it to me, taking them away from assisting in-store customers and diverting my attention from ringing people up and doing returns/exchanges. It was a huge pain in the ass, to be sure.

[the_std]

Phone customers are important, but in-store customers must always take priority. Most good customer service reps can juggle both at once and try to keep them happy, but sometimes the people on the phone are just gonna have to wait, because of one simple fact - there is no way that they can possibly spend money at that exact moment, which is a possibility with the customer in the store. Yeah, it's good customer service to help phone customers do their research and good customer service could likely lead to the phone customer purchasing the item in store or through said company's website, and that's why most customer service reps to try to give them equal attention. Fact of the matter is that they just can't always be as important as the person in front of you. Sometimes there is just too damn much to do and you don't have enough hours in the day or hands to spare.

[KitterCat]

If someone called and asked if we had a black turtleneck sweater and wanted the price, I would have to call an associate to search for one and bring it to me, taking them away from assisting in-store customers and diverting my attention from ringing people up and doing returns/exchanges. It was a huge pain in the ass, to be sure.

But it’d be a pain in the ass even if the customer came into the store and asked as well. You’d still have to use an associate to help the customer find the merchandise. Surly your not going to tell me you’d never come across people in store who needed someone to guide them to an item? Heck working at Wal-Mart a person could come across this everyday. If someone else has figured out how to use a piece of technology that’s easily available to ask a question instead of having to stand in front of you in person what’s the problem?

As MaggieTC put it “I'm talking about someone who calls with a question that the associate can't answer right off the bat and needs to find the answer to, thus having to pause whatever they were doing before, and the associate getting upset about it. How is this any different than a customer actually walking up to an associate and asking the same question?” As far as I can tell there is no difference other than one puts a person directly in front of you who you cant ignore and the other one can be hung up on.

[the_std]

As far as I can tell there is no difference other than one puts a person directly in front of you who you cant ignore and the other one can be hung up on.

but sometimes the people on the phone are just gonna have to wait, because of one simple fact - there is no way that they can possibly spend money at that exact moment, which is a possibility with the customer in the store

Your answer is right there, in the post before yours.

[telecom_goddess]

What would solve a lot of this is having a good web page up where you can search for items you want, and a bonus if it could track whether it's in stock or not. And a bigger bonus if you could hold that item online until you get to the store. I know some stores have this capability, but if they all did it it would save a lot of time and effort.

[jackfaire]

Explain to me why people who are “too lazy to put on their pants” and come to a store are designated as lazy? If their asking a sales person for information on a product - such as price- wouldn’t you want to give them that info? Isn’t that after all part of retail - answering customers questions?

It becomes comparison shopping though when they want you to go every brand and tell you the price of each and every brand and be their personal shopper then bring the item up to the front then hold it for them so they can send someone into buy it for them.

Getting a price check on an item good.

Wanting a person to act as your own personal shopper when they have a bunch of other customers wanting a simple question bad.

It is lazy when you want someone to do all the work for you.

[Cats]

Phone calls with more than a simple easy to answer question do annoy me. I am used to helping customers, it is my job. But it is a LOT easier and faster to help someone in front of me, who can SEE the product, see what it contains, look at comparables, and look at the prices on their own. If they have further questions, they can ask right then and there. Doesn't take very long. Comparing is easier when the product is right in front of you for reference.

Now compare it to a customer on the phone asking item specifics: Not only do I have to GET to the phone (which is behind the registers, I'm 3rd shift and the overnight crew is only behind the counter when ringing up a sale), I have to give a very long greeting, listen to their detailed request, put them on hold, look for the item and all the information they require, go BACK to the phone, give said info, and then half the time they have more questions, and then repeat. This takes up a LOT more time than the customer who is in the store. Both situations happen often enough to know the amount of time it takes to do either, and what a substantial difference it is. I do have other store functions to do (one of which is stocking the store, kind of important for making sales) and OTHER customers to help.

And we need to factor in what is already said....you are much closer to a sale when a person in physically in the store than the one on the phone. In this world, profit is the name of the game. Ask people who work for comission for a living; they'll tell you that while you cannot ignore a potential customer, you focus more attention on the sale you are closest to closing first.

Now, just because many (not ALL) phone customers annoy me, does that mean I assist them any less than those in front of me? Of course not, but if it comes down to one in front of me and one on the phone, the phone person needs to wait a little bit longer. I'm not a personal phone shopper; if you want to know if we carry x product or if an item you're looking for is back in stock, okay fine. But if you're asking for what kinds of fish oil we have and the sizes and prices over the phone, I'm not going to be thrilled. A customer who is in the store can be lead there and see most of that info themselves.

Is it fair to the phone customer? Maybe not. But without my company making adequate profit from the in-store customers, that's one small step closer to me being job and paycheck less in the long run.

[Dreamstalker]

- Person on phone attempts to get salesperson to do their comparison shopping for them, physically check for items in stock, read them the ingredient labels of certain products, etc.

I'd get that at both retail jobs I held. The bookstore wasn't too bad as I wasn't the only one around, a lot of my coworkers funneled customers seeking sci-fi titles to me. The seekers could at least tell me other books they/the gift recipient had read so I was able to work off of that. Most of the time they would offer to come in person so I could offer more detailed help.

The game store--GACK. Being the only employee in the store most times didn't help. The regulars just checking on an order/item were cool with me having to put the phone down for a minute and help someone else, but the ones who wanted me to "give me a good book" or sort through every gaming miniature on the shelf looking for a specific packaging design/mini/stat card printing...

The game store's inventory system was also unreliable for some items (especially loose D&D miniatures as those were all under one item code). It was impossible to "just look on the shelf", you had to take down each peg and look at the baggies. Considering that the inventory count for those generally stayed around 500, and we were taking new ones in trade all the time...

[DrFaroohk]

People used to call the c-store I worked at all the time, usually during the busiest moments, to ask a lot of dumb questions. I have no problem with quick ones, like "do you sell orajel?" but then when it becomes "do you know how much orajel is at the other store? how much is it there? is that a good price? what's the weight on the tube? what's the dosage size? what color package is it in?" then its taking up too much time. At this point, the paying customer who is physically in my presence takes priority over the phone guy.

And the person who was answering the phone was also running the register, so its tying up unneccessary resources. If the person had come in with their question, they could have addressed it to someone out on the floor who was actually supposed to deal with that stuff.

[smileyeagle1021]

There is also a level of suckiness in how often people are calling to ask questions that are just as easily found on the website. I'll be honest, this bothers me with some of the people I relay for... I have no problem with deaf people being able to communicate, but when I know for a fact that it is quicker to look something up online than calling without the impediment of going through a middle person, then not only are you being inconsiderate to the store employee who now has to help you over all their other customers because you can't figure out the website, but you're being stupid to boot because you're wasting your own time too.
In my job I get a lot of people who will have us call places that I wouldn't call, I'd do it online, just because they like the novelty of doing it through relay.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

At the games store where I'm at we usually only have two employees working, maybe three on a very busy day (outside of the holiday season). Saturdays are always busy and even with two people working, there's usually little time to answer the phone.

I've always given in store customers priority over phone customers but I do try to answer the phone regularly no matter the circumstance. It's not always possible but I know my customers appreciate my efforts.

There's another store of ours in the area that almost NEVER answers when I call them. This makes it harder for me because oftentimes I will be calling to confirm if an item is there because my system will tell me that location may have one. It sucks to call and call and call and never get an answer. Think about how customers feel getting stonewalled like that?

[ladyneeva]

Maybe if the employees weren't too lazy to put on their pants and go to work on Saturday (or weren't too hung over to FIND their pants), Saturday wouldn't be so bad.

Whats that you say? I'm making an entirely baseless and insulting comment about people I have absolutely NO personal knowledge of? I simply can't imagine why anyone would ever do such a thing!