A Black Girl Ranting

tips to being a great customer

I work in retail. I only enjoy it because of my coworkers and because I get money. There are some days when I get nice and sweet customers and it makes my day go by smoother and just makes me feel good overall. But of course there are those entitled customers at retail stores like H&M, which is where I'm at, almost always white. This is just facts.

To make a long story short, I got so angry at this customer while on register, after I was done I started to cry. I was so annoyed and wanted to hurt her so badly. Apparently I had an attitude and haven't been trained properly, and she kept insisting I had an attitude the entire time I was ringing her up with such a nasty tone. Mind you I had no attitude and my manger said so. My tone didn't say attitude, it said tired.

That being said here are some tips to being not a good, but great customer. And while this may be common sense to some of y'all, remember: common sense ain't that common.

1. Don't throw clothes over the racks and shops or leave it on the floor. Put it back on the hanger.
Seriously. Not only is it inconsiderate to other customers, it shows you have no home training. It's not hard to put clothes you picked up back on a hanger and in the correct spot. And if you can't remember, give it to a worker POLITELY and tell them exactly this: "I picked this up and can't exactly remember where I got it from. I want to hand it to you so I don't place it in the wrong spot." Trust me, our day will get better because of it.

2. When trying on clothes in a fitting room, bring back everything on a hanger.
It makes it easier for us get everything back on the floor as well as make the functions in the fitting room go by so much smoother and faster.

3. Don't complain about long lines.
I know this can be hard to do but trust me when I say we try to ring up people as fast as possible to get the line moving. We are very much aware of the long line, you complaining about it doesn't make us work faster. It just makes us very anxious or sometimes just annoyed because it's obvious you can't see how hard we are trying to keep the line moving. Some workers are nice enough to apologize for the wait, others are not so please don't expect it.

4. Ask us how are day is and actually mean it, please and thanks.
A reminder that we HAVE to say "Hello, how are you?" when we are on register. We're told this the day we get trained on register. There are some people who mean it and some people who don't because some days we just are over the bullshit. So please take no offense when it's said in a certain tone. Sometimes we need someone to ask us how our day is going. It may take us by surprise, but we are more than willing to answer.

5. You are NOT always right.
Yeah that whole customer is always right thing? Don't use it as an excuse to be an asshole. You don't know how things work no matter how long you've been shopping there. Being the customer and being the worker are two completely different things. Believe it or not, you don't know jack about store policies and what is done to handle certain situations. So stop acting like you do.

6. Lastly, just show us respect.
At the end of the day, we're normal people just like you. It doesn't matter if we're basically working for you, we still deserve respect. We are the ones ringing you up, and getting your clothes. You give us attitude and show disrespect, don't be surprised when you find a worker that'll do the exact same thing back. If you wouldn't like it, why do it to someone else?

These are six tips that I found the most important while working in retail for almost a year. They're not that hard to follow. If you have any tips or any bad experiences, share them below!