Employers must teach workers more than how to ring in a sale

The Boston Herald

 BEVERLY BECKHAM

It isn't news anymore, because it isn't new. It's a fact of life. Bad service is standard. Good service is rare. And it's getting rarer every day.

You walk into a store in search of a particular item and you see salespeople, but they're talking to one another. They ignore you. You wander from rack to rack - it's obvious you're looking for something - but no one comes near you. The salespeople continue to talk.

So you leave. You go to another store. But it's the same there. Salespeople standing around neglecting customers.

You're standing in the check-out line at the supermarket, and the young person ringing in your order is talking to the other young person packing your bags. She takes your money, all the while continuing her conversation with the bagger, and hands you your receipt. She never even looks at you.

You pull into the full-service lane at a gas station and wait for the attendant, who is reading a magazine. He saunters to your car, asks how much gas you want, puts the hose in the tank, goes back inside and resumes reading. He doesn't clean your windows. He doesn't check your oil. He never even asks if you'd like these things done.

A few weeks ago, I drove to a mall in search of a blazer. I went to one of those big discount stores first, where I didn't expect any service; that's not why you shop there. But incredibly that's where I got the only service I would get anywhere. In the dressing room, the attendant said, "You don't have to put those back. I will." And she smiled. And was nice.

In a smaller one of those off-price outlets, two salespeople sorted clothes as I picked through blazers, found one that I liked and carried it around in search of something to match. Neither of them said, "May I help you?" Neither of them even acknowledged that I was there.

So I left - empty handed. And walked to store No. 3. There the salespeople were behind a counter talking. I looked at them as I walked past. They didn't look at me.

I poked through clothes. Held up shirts. Stood before a mirror. They never approached. I left and tried outlet No. 4.

It was the same thing there, and at No. 5, a store I'd never been in before.

I returned home without buying a thing.

If even one person had made a suggestion, had offered to help, had done her job, I would have bought something. But no one did and a sale was lost. Countless sales are lost every day this way.

Gov. William Weld maintains that people aren't spending as much as they could and should be because Massachusetts' blue laws prevent stores from opening Sunday mornings and some holidays. But people would be spending a lot more if, during the 6 1/2 days when the stores are open, they were offered some basic service.

If salespeople (or sales associates, as many are now called) were trained to stop talking to each other and start talking to customers - "Do you need me to get anything? Would you like this in a different size?" said in a dressing room would eliminate a customer's having to get dressed and undressed again - if salespeople were trained to sell, people would feel a little more obligated to at least think about buying.

Salespeople need to start paying attention to customers. And they need to be taught how. It's obvious they're not unfriendly. They're just untrained. And they're not reluctant to work. They're there. They're working. They just haven't been taught what it is they're supposed to do.

It's really a reflection of the times. People who have grown up yelling "hamburger, fries and Coke" out a car window think that good service is nothing more than getting what they ordered. But it isn't. Good service, at its minimum, is "Would you like ketchup with that?" Plus salt, napkins and a straw in the bag.

Employers must wake up and teach the people they employ more than how to work a cash register. They need to teach them how to provide service, how to put the customer first, how to smile.

Right now they're throwing money away, paying people to watch business walk out the door, never mind out of the state.