Working in retail and customer service can be fun at times, but at others, it’s hell on earth. It can be fun to help people on the sales floor and achieve your goals, but then again that is a lot of work to do.
Last Minute Shoppers
It could literally be 5 minutes until close when you have a whole family come to the store and shop. They literally just waltz in the store as if it just opened. This could push you back from going home and closing your registers.
Cleaning the Store
You have to literally clean up after people. Some customers don’t care about how they leave a certain section. You could be almost finished with your designated station to clean and you have someone just mess it up without a thought to pick it up.
Ringing up customers
Sometimes things don’t ring up the right price and other times customers don’t read the sale price and advertisement correctly. So, when they complain about a price being incorrect, you either have to go to where they seen the advertised price, change the price, or call a manager. Either way, it takes up time that you could be using with an easier customer.
Working Holidays
Yep, that’s right. You have to work holidays. Long hours and little breaks. Most companies block the holidays out so employees are not able to call out to spend holiday time with their family.
Hour Cut
If you are a part time worker and the holiday season is over, so are most of your hours. Retail is based off of sales and profits. The employers are not going to pay people to just stand around when there are no customers in the store to help.
“The customer is always right”
This is definitely not true because most times, they’re wrong and may misunderstand something. That misunderstanding can be taken in a negative way and upset the customer, making you the “bad guy.”
Returns
You have returns everyday, but you can’t take them all back. The worst thing is when a customer returns something without a receipt. There is no way to tell how much they actually paid without the receipt. They will be given the lowest sale price, which makes the customer upset.
Overall, working in retail and customer service is tough at times. You have to be a very patient, understanding and friendly person a to work in retail. Everyone isn’t cut out for this field. Remember when applying to retail jobs, know the ups and downs.
HCXO!