Customer Service Complaints: Clueless Customers

Our job, as sales assistants, is to help customers find what they want…and to highlight things that would compliment that product in a manner in which they feel compelled to buy more than they were shopping for.

This is pretty simple to understand, for customers and retail employees alike.

There is nothing worse however, than getting a customer who has no freaking idea what it is they are shopping for BUT instead of telling you they are browsing, require your assistance finding that unknown entity to fill the void that they have in their soul.

I mean, most of the time they have a basic idea of what they want and by basic idea, I mean BASIC. They can tell me they want pants or a shirt but beyond that, there is no more information that they can impart.

“Hey, how are you?”

“Oh, good, I’m just looking for a shirt.”

“Awesome. What sort of shirt?”

“Oh, nothing too crazy. Just a shirt.”

It is at this point that I start to get angry and run insults through my mind.

“Yep…so a shirt. Do you mean a business shirt, or something a bit more casual?”

“Oh, something I can wear out.”

It is at this point I want to slap them in the face and point out that as I don’t know them, I don’t understand what they would wear out.

I then grab one of our more “urban” shirts.

“Something like this?”

“No! I don’t want a work shirt.”

“Yep, this isn’t one. It’s just a more tailored shirt…for going out.”

“No…it’s too dressy.”

It is at this point that I picture something dropping from the ceiling and knocking them, or me out so that the experience can just end.

“Ok. So you want something more casual?”

“Yeah. I just want a nice, casual shirt.”

At this point I want them to spontaneously combust. How the hell am I meant to figure out what they perceive to be nice with such vague responses?

“Ok. Something with a check, stripes, plain? Something bright, dull, textured?”

“It doesn’t matter…just something nice.”

It is at this point I want to scream, punch them and tell them to come back when they have more of an opinion about what it is they want before wasting their time and mine.

I then will normally walk over to the closest shirt that fits their very brief criteria.

“How about this one?”

The most annoying thing is that nine times out of ten, they just buy it, as they clearly don’t care. I know I should be thankful for a relatively easy to please customer, but it shits me. Why can’t people have more of an opinion?

Lord knows I have plenty of them.