Was on my break when a customer just out of the blue opened the door to ask me some stupid question about why "no one was working in the beer aisle." I told him that this was an employee only area and that he had to talk to the Uscan attendant. Do you have issues with customers trying to access your break rooms?
The break room at my store is out of sight to customers but I've had customers open the produce doors and walk right in to ask me a question. It bothers me but I realize that they probably have something important they're looking for and just want to make sure so I help them anyway. But a lot of times there are other people to ask and they will still knock on the door and walk in and look around... Sometimes makes me think if they're scoping the place out.
I've had customers open the door to the dairy cooler, and some actually enter the cooler. There was also this one time a customer walked all the way into receiving because he wanted more of the Skinner pasta that was on the Mega. It is annoying and I have told customers that it is an employees only area, but I don't even bother anymore. It's not like they listen or even care
I've had customers open the door to the dairy cooler, and some actually enter the cooler. There was also this one time a customer walked all the way into receiving because he wanted more of the Skinner pasta that was on the Mega. It is annoying and I have told customers that it is an employees only area, but I don't even bother anymore. It's not like they listen or even care
Next time say, "Sir (Ma'am), do you always make it a habit of going into areas that are clearly employees only?"
Legally customers can not be in employee areas. It is trespassing. As they do not have the safety requirements to be back there. If they get injured they could be charged with tress passing. Lead them back to the floor and give them the customer service. If they are repetitious about it: then be customer service polite and direct them away. At my prior store if a customer becomes unruly towards me I can literally say: "I'm a customer same as you. Legally I am not bound to help you. I can defend my self if need be."
our break room is tucked away upstairs, so customers have no reason to enter.
Mine is like that as well. And at one point I would have thought no customers would have been allowed up there. But I don't know what the hell has been going on lately. As they have turned the conference room into a family picture taking event at times. Even had high school cheerleaders and so forth up there when we had that Bag Off day.
And I believe even once they had some college students or something up there too in the conference room for something. So yea it's all kinds of all access at our store. Kind of freaky really. What is crazy is they have more of a beef if a customer throws away a sample cup behind the counter and try and go in the back dock looking for someone. But it's free range in the break room it seems.
Also kind of wigs me out sometimes. Even if nobody is a knife wielding weirdo or anything. It's just kind of strange coming on shift and going to my locker and never knowing which unauthorized person I'm going to run into next up there. It'd be great to just have a zone SOLELY for the employees only where you don't have to deal with somebody's fussy kids or "so this is where the employees hang out at huh?" kind of questioning. It's a touch creepy to be honest at times.
At our store, break room is in the back right next to managers offices n pricing office. So custys have zero excuse to be in that area as you can clearly see it is for employees only. I've caught one custy once just chilling back there, I challenged him and asked him whether he was an employee or a vendor. He didn't answer me, so I asked him to accompany me to the floor, he didn't want to budge. Went to the office (and the custy tried following me in, to which i shut the door in his face and locked it) n paged for MOD and LP to the back office immediately for customer assistance (easy way of saying to them "hey there is a customer back here, get your butts here now and deal with this")
I've accidentally once challenged one of our undercover LPs who told me he appreciates it when he is stopped / challenged by an employee when spot checking any of our stores as that can turn into an on the spot silent audit of you as an employee following company security procedure very quickly. It's common sense really, though. If someone isn't supposed to be there, then you as an employee have every right to ask them to leave / escort them out / escalate it up the command chain.
Now comes the fun part of trying to see if we can keep custys out of our backroom after we put employee bathrooms in back near the break room. Now that'll be fun.
My last store was built so stupid, there was only one set of restrooms for the whole store. This meant that customers would randomly walk in the back hallway and even through the breakroom to use the restroom. That was one thing that always weirded me out so much.
My last store was built so stupid, there was only one set of restrooms for the whole store. This meant that customers would randomly walk in the back hallway and even through the breakroom to use the restroom. That was one thing that always weirded me out so much.
Oy Vey. That is just begging for trouble. At our old story thankfully the break room was downstairs and tucked away in the back. However, it was in between dairy and frozen. And when you came in to check your schedule, and customers would see you going that way. You would have to deal with quite a few before you could even reach the break room. Most especially in the ice cream section. I don't know how many times I've had to help/deflect customers on my way to see what the next week would bring.
But yea honestly, I think sometimes they need an area where the employee could scan their badge or something. And no customer can just be wandering through there. As I get what you are saying UC151. But these days you don't know what kind of something a person is on. And I'd hate to be the employee that escalated anything and ended up with my own box cutter in my gut or something, from dealing with somebody on a high or a trip or whatever. Safety first by separating the public and private spaces period and keeping it that way. Would seem ideal enough in my opinion.
Exactly BakerChick, I am one for just simply seeing if they'll follow me out, but if not, alert those above me immediately and let them deal with it while isolating myself from the customer in case they are a danger to me or something. Hence why I shut the door on the custy as I didn't want them in a close quarters space with me that they could easily get a weapon or something or do something crazy. I just remember "Identify, isolate, inform" since I am not management, as a custy could simply ignore me, so it's better that the alert is out immediately rather then then later just in case.
-- Edited by UC151 on Thursday 7th of September 2017 01:03:11 AM
