Does anyone find it rude when counter staff talk to each other while serving customers?

Question

I worked for a bank once whose branch managers would issue warnings to counter staff who were caught chatting to each other while serving customers. I see it all the time - mostly in supermarkets.

Answer 1

yes i do

Answer 2

You should try working in a supermarket- its hell on earth! Customers expect excellent customer service but don't want to be excellent customers. Customers are rude, obnoxious and demanding. Staff are poorly trained, poorly supported and poorly paid and then have to be abused by the customer as well because customers think its their right!!! After working in a large supermarket for 8 months i have the utmost respect for what the staff have to put up with- what i found rudewere customers who grunt when you are being polite and nice and even ruder those who make phone calls whilst you are serving them- and every little inconvenience is somehow the poor girls fault who is serving- even when its not. Its one of the crappiest jobs on the planet and its little wonder staff have no interest in the customer. Everybody should have a go at being that side of the counter to see what it feels like- they would sure have more respect for sales staff then.

Answer 3

Lots of us can do more than one thing at a time. For example, driving stick while on your cell phone and eating all at the same time. It is not rude for the employee to talk to the staff if your service is still good, if their job is being done the correct way, and they are not wasting your time. Most customers just don't want to hear the drama in the work place, this can make that establishment look bad, like the place is not run right. So personally, It is not rude if it does not affect you!

Answer 4

You are right this is incredibly rude and insulting to the customer who has queued to be served. In the U.K. this is more the case than not as the people that are working in these environments are normally the people that do not feel that they should be working in the first place. It is just another sign that the general etiquette rules for interacting with others are nowadays being ignored. It is such a shame.

Answer 5

I do, especially when they blatantly ignore you, even though they know you are there waiting, until they have finished chatting. I also find they make more mistakes because they're not concentrating. Not long ago I was in a shop where the woman serving me was so busy chatting to the woman on the next till that she overcharged me, until I put her right. Then I got home and found that she had left the security tags on (it was baby clothes) so I had to go back to the shop to get them removed.

Answer 6

I work at a local grocery store/pharmacy and yes i do talk to other people that work there. But not when i am serving a customer. I try to be as fast and curteous as posible to each person i serve. *i have to do about 3-4 things at once, videos, lottery, cigs,film ect* Now when someone's on a cell phone and i'm trying to help them...thats rude.

Answer 7

Yes and when they start talking to a different customer when they are helping you I think that is quite rude and should not be allowed to do either of those things because it gets on peoples nerves especially when they are on a time schedule I mean it is like hello you are helping me you can talk to that person later I mean I am like OK come on I need to get going I think it is VERY rude and needs to stop!! = )

Answer 8

It kinda depends on how much they are chatting and what about but generally i get really annoyed about it. I once brought a stack of magazines from a newsagents and the girl that served me was chatting to another girl whilst totalling up my mags and got the price completely wrong, I just said as politely as i could "perhaps you could try totalling them up again and this time just concentrate on that rather than your conversation" She did although she looked at me as if i was something she trod it!

Answer 9

I find it rude but if they are fairly young such as teenagers I can understand so that would not worry me.What really annoys me are those that dont smile or anything when they are serving you,I dont mean the ones that are just having a bad day but those that are like it all the time.

Answer 10

I dont find it rude, but I do increase my involuntary musle reponse. I start anticipating more chance of a mistake being made, and how I will react. When I finish the transaction and everything works out as it does when those serving me do not chat. I am happy that they are enjoying their job a little bit more. lol :)

Answer 11

tgbc obviously thinks they are a cut above everyone else, esp. using such words as she/he/it!!!! no one deserves to be called `it' and if they were to address me as an `it' they would be left high and dry at the checkout!!

A quick laugh and get on with what they are doing is no big deal really, is it? Its hardly the end of the world. I can tell you that having worked in shops that sometimes these people get very little pleasure out of dealing with joe public/their manager and hierarchy. Issuing warnings is a bit heavy handed if they 90% of the time just get on with the job. I am not trivalising what ur saying, just trying to let u see things from that persons point of view. The retail sector is not as easy as everyone seems to think that it is.