So I'm a courtesy clerk, and most days I just go in and do my job until I can go home you know? But today.... well, I got yelled at by my co-manager. See, I was going to go get the broom and do a sweep right? But like, I guess I must've passed some customers on my way up the aisle without.... gasp.... saying hello! He pulls me aside and proceeds to give me a lengthly lecture on how that is NEVER OK NEVER EVER. Now this dude... he spends most of his time up in the throne room/manager's office upstairs, and I dunno what his problem is but whenever he sees me on the floor he always is rude/snotty and has something negative to say about whatever it is I'm doing. I just feel really frustrated because, well, most of the time I do make an effort to say hi to the customers. He just never pays attention to that. I know that being overly, stupidly friendly is part of my job but like, it just feels incredibly demeaning walking up an aisle full of customers busy shopping and facing the shelves and going... hi... hi... hi... hi.... and have the time guess what they don't hear...! or care...! or give me blank stares...! (the worst) I mean yeah, I was kinda spacing out at the time and looking at the floor (Happens) but like... other people can get away with not talking to customers and he doesn't yell at them. I feel like I work pretty hard (today I lifted three bags of trash bigger than me into the dumpster because the departments at my store don't like to take out their trash), but that goes mostly unrecognized. So yeah... I dunno what y'all think, im just kinda fed up with this bull****.
I feel like they're really going overboard with the "greet customers" thing. When I shop, unless I'm waiting for service (like in line for the bakery or something) I want to be left alone. It's gotten to the point where I try to make detours if I see an employee standing somewhere. It may not seem like a huge deal, but some customers (like me) are shy and some just don't want to be bothered and it's pretty stressful to have everyone greet you.
That sucks. Sorry to say but that's another of the many "perks" of being a courtesy clerk. Basically to the higher ups, your "low man/woman on the totem pole." If you EVEN suggest that outer depts take their own trash out, it's like the apocolypse on a grand scale. Why? Because a courtesy clerk told them to do their job. It happens at my job to, so you're not alone. An outer dept asks someone other than a courtesy clerk to empty their trash or clean their spill; busy? Ok, no problem
The dept asks a courtesy to clean their mess/trash; Busy? WTF?!?!?!? HOW DARE...! * starts ranting and raving and speaking in tongues.*
My suggestion: just be "cheerful" and don't let anything get to you. You should be fine. Focus on what's important first, THEN the other stuff.
OP, I know exactly how you feel. You're not alone on this one, trust me. The 3 A's pretty much never happen in their finely tuned format you see on CBTs or discuss in 3A training. I feel so fake and annoying having to say "Hi! How are you!" to people that don't need or want help, and feel worse about it when I can tell those people are thinking 'please go away' as they dish out a forced 'hi' or try to avoid eye contact. But guess what, the managers might be watching even if you can't see them. So I really try to turn around and greet everyone I can. This hit the nail on the head:
Anonymous wrote:
When I shop, unless I'm waiting for service (like in line for the bakery or something) I want to be left alone.
Isn't that how most shoppers are? When I go to the store, ESPECIALLY the grocery store, my goal is to get what I want and get out as quickly as possible. I don't expect anyone to greet me on an isle and I don't care to talk. Never needed a road map or a tour guide or what have you. Just in and out.
I'm pretty sure the guy talking on his cell phone, the guy with the earbuds, the woman yelling at her kids, and the people that can't speak English don't need to talk to me.
Also, Im kinda worried he's gonna fire me :( The only thing I hate more than working for Kroger is finding another job.
This! :p
Actually, I enjoy saying "hi" to folks in the store. If they need help, that's cool... I'd rather do that than be back in my department. Sorry the manager is such a tightass.
It's a lose/lose scenario when it comes to the Three A's.
You're either too friendly and spend too much time talking to/helping customers, which leads to your department head/member of management wanting to know, "where have you been!? Why isn't this done yet!? You need to hurry up and finish this up now before you leave, but no overtime!"
Or...
You're trying to get all that needs to be done, done, which leads to your department head/member of management wanting to know, "why aren't you engaging with the customers!? We're being graded on the Three A's, you know! Acknowledge every customer! Assist every customer! Appreciate every customer! Customer 1st!"
Then again, it's Kroger... every situation is pretty much a lose/lose one.
I'll tell you why this is. The company brought back the mystery shops as part of that acknowledge, assist, appreciate thing.
We're getting our asses handed to us each time on acknowledgement especially in the regular depts and my district manager and store manager are pissed.
the fact remains, like you said, a lot of people are freaked out by it and don't want to be engaged. they're on their phones, have beats head phones on, talking to whomever. it's less weird if you're female but if you're a normal guy working a grocery store and say hello to a woman they may be thinking "pervert" and guys may be thinking "dude, I'm straight" ...
at least on the report you get points for a head nod or a smile, you don't have to speak up which is good because i tried to speak to every customer i saw one day and i was hoarse inside of a couple hours. they think this is going to get osat to 80 by next year.
some of the stuff on the reports is annoying like baggers getting bad reports for being too focused on bagging. no I want them to be focused because some of them struggle with it and are slow.
I do get bothered when I jump in to bag that the cashier hasn't even said hello but that's not the same as what they're obsessing with these days which is not gonna happen when you pay what you pay and constrain labor to that degree.
Since my store went psycho about the 3 A's, our score has moved up maybe 4 or 5%. Which demonstrates to me that 95-96% of the customers could care less about acknowledgement.
Now if an employee is just plain being rude and refusing to help customers, that's understandable they would be subject to discipline. But on, say Sunday after church, people are already angry about not being able to move through the isles, they're rushing to go around others... the last thing they need is someone stopping them along the way for some small talk.
Does the manager care? Nope. "Talk, talk, talk.... and work, work, work!"
Since my store went psycho about the 3 A's, our score has moved up maybe 4 or 5%. Which demonstrates to me that 95-96% of the customers could care less about acknowledgement.
Now if an employee is just plain being rude and refusing to help customers, that's understandable they would be subject to discipline. But on, say Sunday after church, people are already angry about not being able to move through the isles, they're rushing to go around others... the last thing they need is someone stopping them along the way for some small talk.
Does the manager care? Nope. "Talk, talk, talk.... and work, work, work!"
Yep, they showed us our break down of osat and for customer service, we're at 70%. Great, but for prices we're at 30% and fresh is like 50%. I think overall is like 40%. This is for produce and most of the other service departments are similar. We're service blitzing for the first ten minutes of the hour between 11 and 6. Now, we've also started to miss sales and shrink has gone up a touch. Eating up 80 minutes a day for this crap! I suspect we will simply service blitz and try to get the customer service up to 80% and then they'll try to push that to their bosses. It will be interesting to see what happens when they don't get the overall to 80%.
I've been selective t where I apply for jobs, but its just become almost too much.
I agree. They are going overboard especially all the 3 a's bullcrap.i can admit I barely speak to the customers because whenever I do the a-holes never speak back and even on some the customers surveys they said all they wanna do is get in and get out. Not hold a 10 minute coversation. I tried informing th customers on the surveys and some will snatch the receipt and say they dont care about the survey.
As a customer, i feel weirded out, If every employee I pass pops in front of me, with a joker grin, and does the whole 'HI!! WELCOME TO( insert name )HAVE YOU FOUND EVERY THING TODAY!!?? HOW ARE YOU!?! WANNA SEE MY KINDNEY ??!!"
brrrrr!
yeah, the cashier should do a hi and stuff, but not EVEYBODY., unless i make, and hold eye contact.
Kroger wants us to hand out balloons, and say 'we all float ", It gets so creepy
And you will too... In fact, THEY ALLLLL FLOAT, THEY ALLLLL FLOAT! THEY--
Haha!! Seriously!! We had one guy come in from another store to help out and he was OVERLY friendly to the customers. I know it's stuff we're supposed to do but seriously??? Come on!!
As a customer, i feel weirded out, If every employee I pass pops in front of me, with a joker grin, and does the whole 'HI!! WELCOME TO( insert name )HAVE YOU FOUND EVERY THING TODAY!!?? HOW ARE YOU!?! WANNA SEE MY KINDNEY ??!!"
brrrrr!
yeah, the cashier should do a hi and stuff, but not EVEYBODY., unless i make, and hold eye contact.
Kroger wants us to hand out balloons, and say 'we all float ", It gets so creepy
Reminds me of that avocado video we had to watch before the Mystery Shopper debacle. That guy knew WAY the hell too much about avocados and seemed FAR too friendly. It was like he was going to follow you out to your car screaming at you something unintelligible about why you didn't want to buy an avocado. Or you'd wake up in the morning, open the front door to get your morning paper, and he would be standing, in full Kroger uniform, on your front lawn holding fruit and grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
The avocado guy must've joined Kroger before the early 2000s if he was from my local. If you came after that then you have no reason at all to be that happy about working at this gulag.
The avocado guy must've joined Kroger before the early 2000s if he was from my local. If you came after that then you have no reason at all to be that happy about working at this gulag.
Despite all the crap that I have tried to forget while working there at ' my ' Kroger, I can't get the video out of my head. I can't necessarily replay it frame-for-frame but I remember it. *sigh* Anyway, my point is that I think they may have hired an actor to do that video. Kroger would never let an employee stand there for multiple takes, when that alleged ' produce employee ' could be stocking bananas or finding bad strawberries or whatever. Plus I am pretty sure that Kroger has a ' test ' store that they use to film promos in and other such items. And nobody goes in there unless that is going on. Sort of like that 1990s game show "Supermarket Sweep." A full supermarket set but you knew that almost all the food in there was either plastic or donated. And you never saw a produce section.
As a customer, i feel weirded out, If every employee I pass pops in front of me, with a joker grin, and does the whole 'HI!! WELCOME TO( insert name )HAVE YOU FOUND EVERY THING TODAY!!?? HOW ARE YOU!?! WANNA SEE MY KINDNEY ??!!"
brrrrr!
yeah, the cashier should do a hi and stuff, but not EVEYBODY., unless i make, and hold eye contact.
Kroger wants us to hand out balloons, and say 'we all float ", It gets so creepy
There's that important common sense thing that Kroger doesn't use... the EYE CONTACT!!!!! If they're not looking, they're not wanting. Leave them alone and let them grab their bread and cereal and cottage cheese and whatever and get the heck out of the store where they WANT to be, HOME, not standing there talking about nothing to random strangers.
