Are companies training their employees to respect customers and their purchases? Sometimes I wonder.
I had a weird experience at a regional family/employee owned grocery store that made me cringe. I had to ask myself if the cashiers at these stores are trained to be aware of how they handle the food that makes its way down the belt and eventually into the customers’ bags.
Here’s what happened and, I need to warn you, there is an “EWWWWW” factor involved in this story.
I was purchasing a bunch of parsley that was not properly marked by the produce department before it was stocked on the shelf. In defense of the cashier, flat leaf parsley is often mistaken for cilantro which has a very distinctive fragrance.
Even though I told the cashier it was parsley, she needed to convince herself. Rather than break off a piece of the parsley to smell it and verify that it was not cilantro, she proceeded to bury her entire face into the bundle I was purchasing. She did this twice.
This is gross.
We are in the middle of flu and cold season and even if we weren’t, this is still gross.
Didn’t anyone train her to respect the customer and their purchases? This cashier’s behavior is akin to the wait staff employee who spills coffee into my saucer when she refills my cup, the cashier at the craft store who sees that the product I am purchasing is damaged but doesn’t draw my attention to it, or the employee who sneezes while making my pizza and doesn’t wash his hands before finishing the task.
As a consumer, all I ask is that you treat me and what I am buying respectfully.
As a consultant in the field of market research and customer service, all I ask is that you train your staff on being aware of how respect of the customer and their purchases impacts customer satisfaction.
Oh, and just so you know, I won’t be going back to that grocery store any time soon.