But occasionally you get those 'difficult' customers on the phone that end up keeping you on the line for a good ten minutes or longer because either they have a ton of questions or they feel the need to tell you their whole life story before actually stating while they called.
So it's always a bit of a Russian roulette answering the phone, especially if you're in the middle of a rush or trying to help another customer at the register.
Because it's easy to multi-task if the customer just has a quick question.
It's much harder to help two needy people at once.
And unfortunately I took the gamble and lost when a customer called.
As I was in the middle of trying to help a customer in the store who had come in for a training class....when we'd cancelled all our training classes over a month ago because our dog trainer left. And the customer should have been called and informed of this so that they could come in and get their money back. But the customer was claiming that they never received a call and so I'd gone off to try and find a record of their paperwork so I could figure out how to give them their money back.
But I wasn't able to find it.
And so I was going to head back and tell the customer that i couldn't find their information and request their phone number and additional details so I could have a different manager look it up on the morrow...when the phone rang.
And since it was the middle of a rush...my cashier was busy with customers and my petcare was also busy with tasks and I had the phone on me.
And not knowing how long it would take for me to finish helping the training customer, I took the chance to answer the phone because i was hoping that it would be a quick question.
-_- It wasn't a quick question.
It could have been but the dude on the other line was....difficult.
Like talking to a man who has to feel he's always correct and everyone else is wrong sort of interaction.
*exhales*
The conversation started off simple enough. He wanted to us to check a price in the store on an item to see if it was the same price as the one he'd found online as he didn't want to spend more money in the store if it was cheaper on our website.
To which I informed him that we will price match our online store as usually our online store has different prices/sales going on than our in store locations. So if he would bring in his phone and show us that the price was lower on our website we'd price match it in the store.
Easy simple solution.
But the dude wanted to know if we had the product in stock.
Said product being the 12 count filter cartridges of our store brand filters.
I know the brand well. Knew I was looking for the PF-L version. So I wandered over to the fish section to check real quick to see if we had it in stock.
We didn't. Not in the 12 count. We only had it in the 6 count.
Again. This should have been a good point to end the conversation. We didn't have the product he wanted. We only had the six count.
But he wasn't happy that we only had the six count because he wanted the 12 count because the 12 count was cheaper online than the six count. *exhales*
So he wanted to make sure that I was actually looking at the right product.
He was like "It's the one with the PF-L on the box" and I was like "Yes that is the location I am looking at and I don't have it on my shelf."
"But the website says you have a few left!"
Well...its probably an inventory discrepancy because I have none on the shelf.
Again, he didn't like me saying we didn't have any so he was like "Tell me the short sku. I want to see if it matches the online website so I know if you're looking at the same one."
By this point I'm annoyed. Because like dude I've told you at least six times now that I don't have the item on my shelf. And this phone call is taking more time than I wanted it to and considering I was in the middle of trying to help another customer, this wasn't a good thing.
It didn't help that when I told him the short sku....it didn't match the online sku. So the customer wanted me to track down that online sku in our store.
And I was like "That short sku isn't on my shelf. And the PF-L is the only 12 count large that I carry in that brand. It's possible that the short sku online is an old one as the packaging has changed recently and sometimes the skus change when a new package design comes out."
He didn't like that and proceeded to ask me if he could order it online or not.
Which if he ordered it for store pick up I would have to decline that pick as we still don't have the product on our shelves, but if he was able to order it for delivery to his home, he would be able to get his filter cartridges that way.
As our warehouse isn't connected to our store so if he orders it for delivery the warehouse would send it to him if they had it in stock.
The customer then voices concern of wanting to make sure that if he ordered the product online he would get it for the online price.
Which...yes dude. Whatever price is shown online would be the price you would pay to buy the filters. There's no way the website would know which store location is closest to the customer's location or the prices in those stores. *shakes head*
Like yes prices in stores vary between locations because different cities have different tax rates on products they sell and such. But online? Nope. If you order it online you get that price you see.
It was only then that the customer was finally satisfied and hung up.
Unfortunately though he took long enough on the phone that the customers I was trying to help with their dog training problem....walked out of the store. Before I could get their phone number or any further information from them.
So there isn't a way I can refund anything because I have no paperwork and no contact info....
So yah. Failed the training customer at that point.
But it left me feeling irritated at the guy on the phone for sure.
Like dude. You made a two minute conversation into a ten minute ordeal in the middle of a rush when you didn't need to.
I get wanting to make sure that we don't have the product in stock.
But there comes a time where it just goes into overkill. Like just believe the worker that we don't have it. *exhales*
-Sarnic Dirchi
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