Retail & Service-Help Bullies--Let's Stop It

My son John and daughter Christina are both cashiers at a large supermarket in Falmouth. Almost every day they work, I am in store for an interesting story when they arrive home.

Sometimes the stories are humorous-tales of eccentric customers who micro-manage the packing of their bags, underage teens trying to pass off fake ID for the purchase of liquor, you name it-the list is almost endless!

Of course, sometimes the stories are not so funny. It is common for customers to berate and bully the cashiers for mistakes, imagined or real. People having a tough day will often “take it out” on a defenseless service employee. We have all witnessed it in a retail situation, in a restaurant directed at a waitress, in an airport or other similar scenario. Perhaps we have been guilty of going too far with an employee who cannot fight back.

All of the elements are there for a bullying situation. The customer is always in the position of control solely because he or she is the desired person in the transaction-from the business point of view. After all, the customer is always right…right? The employee is the victim in many cases. He or she is trained to be polite and helpful. If a customer is complaining about a business policy, they are directing their venom at someone who neither created the policy nor is in a position to override it.

Now there are certainly plenty of cases where the customer has a legitimate beef. And also there are cases where the clerk is surly, a wiseass or worse. This blog is directed at the instances where the customer has clearly stepped “over the line”—but in particular, those cases where other customers witnessing such abhorrent behavior do…NOTHING.

I have been guilty of this-but following my daughter’s recent run-in with a customer who became unglued following her own mistake for which she blamed my daughter—I am now vowing to selectively step in whenever I see clerk-abuse!

Following these instances in the grocery store, my kids report that the next customer in line almost invariably consoles the cashier and displays support for the injustice they just witnessed.

Wouldn’t it be better if said customer came to the defense of the employee when it mattered most—when the abusive customer is in the middle of their tirade? An employee who talks back to a customer may be summarily fired-even if he/she is in the right. Another customer stepping in to defend the employee would be a welcome sight. Yes, it may be “none of your business”, but I’d like to think we’d all chase after the purse-snatcher who grabs Granny’s handbag. Wouldn’t we all take action here?

Let’s do it everywhere. Young employees who are in a defenseless position should not be subjected to verbal abuse by bullies who are used to getting away with it-BECAUSE THEY CAN.

We can make sure they don’t.

If you’d like my blog in your e-mail box, just let me know! Tim.moore@citcomm.com