Customer Service @ the Cash Register is Dead

You know, I spent three or four years working for the largest retailer in the world. I and the people I worked with hated most of the customers, but at least we put on a fake smile and did whatever we needed to do to get you out of the store as fast as possible.

Here is the list of things that I not only did, but was trained to do the first day I started working as a cashier and was called out in front of my peers if I wasn't doing it properly.

1) Standard locations of UPC's: Lower backs of packages or on the bottom.

I watch in amazement as these people today don't even know the first place to look. They have to stop and look at every product before they try to scan it.

2) How to bag products without damaging others and to assist in the stacking of filled bags in a cart.

If another cashier puts three small items into individual bags instead of taking one extra second to make them fit properly, or tries to shove 23 boxes randomly into a bag, then I am going to scream.

3) How to MOVE like you have a purpose.

When I worked there, we got a bonus for being the fastest cashier of the month. They based this on rings per minute. I don't think I ever won, but I certainly tried every day. I was close to the top every month. I rang people up as fast as I possibly could. Today, you are lucky if you can get someone that can scan products faster than you at the Self-Checkout.

4) Open more lanes when there are too many people in line.

Wal-Mart used to have signs on all of their cash registers. It said something like, "When there are more than three people in any line, we will open a new register." You won't see these anymore. They took them down years ago. We would call up people from the sales floor to help check people out. I even saw managers get on a register when it was necessary. Now, you can stand in the only open line behind ten other people, while a gaggle of other employees stand around a little desk twelve feet away from you.

5) Find a customer to check out.

When you didn't have someone in your line, you were expected to go get someone else from another line to check them out. Or, at the least, go stand out by the main aisle and make sure when a customer is ready to check out they can see you. Admittedly, this does happen from time to time, but not often. Most often, they are standing behind their registers or even at other registers chatting with other cashiers.

6) When you have a customer in front of you, they are the only person that exists in your world.

The next time a cashier that is ringing up my purchase is spending their time talking to the cashier at the next register about the party they were at last night, who so-and-so is dating, or when their next break is, instead of exchanging pleasantries with me, I don't know exactly how I am going to respond, but someone is going to cry before I leave the store. It might be me, but someone is crying.

7) How to hand people their change and count it back.

You put the coins in their hand FIRST, and THEN you hand the bills to them. No one likes to balance 77 cents on top of a stack of paper.

And this is how you count back change to ensure the honesty of everyone involved with the transaction:

The total is $12.23
I give you a $20 bill
Your register tells you that the change is $7.77
You take the $7.77 out of the cash drawer
As you hand the coins to me, you say, "Your total is $12.23. 77 cents makes 13."
As you hand me the bills ONE AT A TIME, (the 5, then the 1, then the last 1) you count and say, "that makes 18, 19, and 20."

This reassures the customer that you A) know what dollar amount the bill received for payment was and B) that you are sure that you have given the correct amount of change.

I don't know what the point of today's post was, other than I had at least some pride in my work, regardless of where I was employed or what my responsibilities were. The people that work there today seem beat down and hopeless all of the time. In the break room, we were too, but out front, I at least tried not to make it look too bad.

I wanted that customer to leave with a good experience. I was, after all, the last person that a vast majority of customers were going to interact with at the store. How I conducted myself, and how I made them feel about the experience was the only thing most customers would remember when the left the store, and I certainly didn't want to be thought of as a lazy dumb ass.

-A.W.C.