The Dark Knight

First of all, let me just say that this was one of the best movies that I have seen in a while! I would see it again. I came out, left in awe and wanting more.

Secondly, there is so much symbolism and messages, without even trying to look for it. Basically self explanatory, for those who heard it and applied what the characters were saying to today's life.  I like analyzing movies and what's being said.  It makes things interesting. 

But for those of you who haven't watched it yet, I will say no more, for now. Maybe more, later?

the Outcome of Customer Satisfaction, overcome

*I started this post earlier, but I didn't finish it, and then something came up, so I just added it. 

I got to the point where I gave up and stopped caring.  I became really moody, and when it came down to customers, I stopped trying to make conversations with them.  I stopped being pleasant and went into robot mode and going through the motions: saying "next in line", scanning the items, and placing the receipt in the bag.  From those angry customers, I became bitter because I had to deal with them and their problem with the store because they can't get their way. I think people need to learn how to read.  Seriously. No Joke. 

We as employees try our hardest to place and keep our items on the shelves, in an orderly manner.  But it's hard; things get misplaced.  Why can't people understand that?

But yesterday (7/22/08) A lady came, purchasing flowers, but apparently she forgot her credit card, so we had to ring up the flowers carefully.  Anyways, she found that she had returns in her car and wanted to bring them back in, but she ended up not coming back into the store until around 7:00 pm.  When she came back in she had a bundle load, and as I was ringing her up, she asked me what my manager's name was because she wanted to tell him that I made her feel welcomed at Michaels, unlike the other one she encountered.  Plus, she said that I was very "patient" which is something that I've been asking God to guide me in finding.  And although God has answered this prayer already, she was like the final closing statement, telling me that, yes I have mastered patience, and this is your reward.

I overcame the huge doubts I had about people's actions.  Now, even though people continue to do the things we do, I live life a lot happier knowing that I have made a difference in someone's life for one day.

note: previous week = worse week ever. got yelled at by manager (b/c he though I wasn't being productive) & dealt with long lines and frustration b/c I was the only cashier working. (the quick version)

Customer Satisfaction (3)

So I've been working for sometime now, and I think I've learned how to manage the customer/worker interactions.  I've slowly realized that you should just please the customers. Customers are what makes the economy function, right? 

Continuing on with situations I've encountered:

Around the end of July and early June, I dealt with a lady who bought A CARTload of stuff.  As I scanned her items, she watched the screen.  I came across a sketch book.  It rang up 3 something.  So she inquired, "aren't those $1?"  I, who just stocked those yesterday, remembered that it wasn't that brand and told her it was another brand, and she told me that she found it for a dollar in the back.  So I simply told her, I'm sorry, it was misplaced.  So she didn't want it.  I continued to scan, and some foam stuff she had came up more expensive.  So, once again, she told me, those are a dollar (I a really pissed off tone).  As she said that, one of my managers was walking by, and was like, oh yeah, those are supposed to be a dollar, and told me to do a price override.  So I did.  As I was doing so, then she decided to ask my manager about the sketch book.  And my manager said, no that one isn't, it's another brand.  So the lady was like fine. 

I finish ringing her up, and tell her total. She hands me her her coupon and then hands me another one. Our new company policy is, only ONE  per customer, and we are now strictly enforcing it.  Since I can only take one coupon per customer, I tell her so, and she goes, I KNOW, I TOLD YOU THAT I WANTED ONE PURCHASE FOR THIS AND ONE FOR MY SON (who, was standing there, holding a toy, which I didn't even ring up because I didn't even see him).  But she didn't even tell me that EVER. So she gave me this really scary stare, and she had WAY too much make up on, so it looked even more deathly.  -_- oh gosh. I think that was the day I decided customers are officially cranky brats.  She left the store, extremely mad.

I believe this is now about three weeks ago, I dealt with a lady who couldn't understand our new company policy of one coupon per customer and how I could not do separate transactions, because she is still ONE customer.  Then, I gave the coupons a closer look, only to find that not only could she not use these two at once, but the the coupon was expired, but she was too worked up over the fact that she could no longer use 2 coupons.  So she got extremely furious, rose a fit, and stated, "do you know how much money I spend here?"

Now, my thoughts are, yeah and I'm assuming and "all that money" you spend here is with coupons, considering you're mad right now.  I mean, honestly, if you spent THAT MUCH money here, you wouldn't be mad at the fact that we can't give you the sale price offered DUE TO THE FACT that the ad price you have IS PAST DATED!  Secondly, if you sped that much money here, then rather than raising your tone, you could have said, "oh, okay, I'll come back when it's on sale."  OR just BOUGHT the item.

After saying that statement, she threw the stuff down on the counter, and said, "okay, I don't want any of it," and stormed out the door. 

Of course, my front end supervisor saw it, and asked me what happened and I told her.  And she said, good, we don't need people like that here.

The next day, THE EXACT SAME LADY came back, but she put on a visor and tried to hid her face.  The only reason why I noticed her was (1) she was buying the same stuff (2) she was wearing the same shirt. 

There are more stories, but I can't think of the rest of them at the moment.

Given Up

Jumbled thoughts race through my mind on everything I should be doing, but I give a blank stare. 

I no longer see a direct line to where I'm supposed to be headed, but instead Lost, Confused and the fact that I'm just over everything that is going on.

That's life.

Feeling something one moment, and moving on to something else the next.

Hopefully this feeling of "blah" will be over soon.

Customer Satisfaction (2)

Now, the beginning compilation of things I have encountered this summer.

• First Day On the Job: my supervisor is showing me how to work the cashier all that good stuff when first beginning a new job. A guy comes up to buy supplies and she needs to make change because she's out.  As she's explaining to me how that works, the guy goes, "can I have my change?" in a rude tone, of course.  (as if we forgot about him) -_- So my supervisor goes, "yes, one moment, I need to make change," (and as she turns down to make the change, she gives me this look like "goodness" -_-  And to top that off, he bought an obscure object, that doesn't even fit in a bag, but he wanted a bag for it.  So I gave him a bag, and as he walked out the door, he was mumbling something, and my supervisor was like, what? So he came back and complained about something, and she just apologized about our service not being to his satisfaction, and he's like, okay apology accepted, and stormed out of the store. 
• Second Day on the Job: I opened. So I come to the store, early enough so that I know I'll be able to open, only to realize, I forgot to ask/nobody told me how to get in when we open the store. Thankfully, one of my coworkers was outside the door and was already getting the door opened.  I made sure to find out how to get it, of course, and now, I know. After doing the necessary things before opening the store, such as vacuuming and such, I'm told to "open" the doors (you know, those automatic sliding door thingies), only to find that I'm too short to reach, and I tell my manager this, so opened the door for me. As this happened, I found out I was on the floor by myself, with NO front end supervisor...and whenever I needed to make a return, I needed to call a manager.  I was horrified, it being my second day and all, and to top that off,  I encountered this lady who wanted to return merchandise that had no tag on the bag. So I remembered my training from yesterday with my supervisor who said, it had to be in the original condition with tags intact; otherwise, we don't take it back. And then the lady asked me why couldn't I check it by the receipt? I didn't even know how to do that, so I told her, I don't know if I could do that, but let me call my manager up for you.  So she stood off to the side, and by the time my manager got up to the front, she was mad and started going off saying, "I'm on my lunch break, I came in for simple service, and you can't even give it to me, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah". As I continued to assist other customers, they started to give me the look of "oh my gosh, calm down woman."  So after a few moments of wasting her own time by yelling and explaining to my manager, my manager explains to her that this is my 2nd day on the job (yeah, like she cared), and that the bag that she brought in is not even sold in our store.  (which, of course made her even more angry, leaving her to go on about how all Michael's should be able to take back anything bought from another store...)  So then my manager figures, okay, comes over to me, ask me to insert the number on the receipt to see how much the item is worth. It rings up: $2.99, that made her furious, considering the fact that she payed $7.99 for it.  So now, I'm given the instructions to override this purchase to giver her back $7.99, but something funky happened and I had to void the transaction.  I ended up having to void the transaction 2 more times before we got it to work properly.  And when the lady was finally out of the store, all the customers who witnessed that was like, "take your time, I'm not here on my lunch break," which I found pretty funny.  But geez, what a way to start off my second day. At the end of the day I found my register short, which I think, somehow happened in the process of all those voided transactions, or something, but oh well, I survived my second day and lived to tell the tale.
• Third Day (I believe).  So this man comes in, early in the morning and asks me where to find sturdy foam board (he wanted to put a cake on it).  I didn't particularly know where everything was yet, so I asked my coworker, who brought him to the framing department, where the man found a really big board.  The problem, it has no barcode for me to scan, so I ask my coworker if he can go get it for me.  He tires, but we can't find it.  So it takes an extremely long time to get everything done.  In the meantime, while all of this is happening, my manager comes out and tires to help, but he ended up just making matters worse.  The man got mad and stated, "sir, we were doing fine, this gentleman and this young lady here were doing a great job and being very helpful, until you came long. You, my friend are just making things worse.  All you do is sit in your office back there and not do anything." *sigh* hurtful words. However, when we figured everything out, the man left, he wasn't too mad, but he had to hurry home to put his cake on it.  After he left, my manager said to me, "Jackie, I think you bring in all the bad customers." x____x

Customer Satisfaction (1)

So I had/have this phase where:

1. I go to work (at Michaels, the Arts and Crafts store)
2. I deal with people
3. I come home cranky

This is what I call the wonderful world of retail.

But that was my phase, where I hated people.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I still have my moments; but I can say that I am now calm. 

Now to start off this neglected blog posting, I will start off with that, and continue with the endless things that customers have done.  It never ceases to amaze me all the weird things you could ever possible imagine that would happen at the cash register...