Dear Customer, You are Not Always Right!

Very early on in my career working in customer service, I was taught that the customer is always right! It took me a few years to realize just how far from the truth that was.
Let’s recap 10+ years of working in retail and customer service, devoting almost every day to pleasing other people.

I’ve had some pretty awesome people come my way. Customers with loving words, tears of joy in their eyes, flowers, chocolate, and even homemade apple cake.
I’ve also met a lot of smiles and compliments. I’ve even turned quite a lot of frowns upside down over the years. Sometimes it takes just a little, sometimes a whole lot.

Not to sound too cocky, but I’m good at my job. I know that. I’m not perfect, and I do make mistakes, as the human I am. But I do know that I do my best to try to give excellent customer service each and every day.

But there’s one type of customer that has me wanting to stop working with customer service altogether.

It’s YOU!
YOU who’s never worked directly with people or with customer service, so you have no idea what it feels like to interact with people as your job, so you walk all over us and expect us to meet your every need.

YOU who looks down on me because I don’t have a job that requires a degree (although I might very well have one for all you know) as if all my years in the business, all my training, all the hours, and all the hard work isn’t worth a damn thing.

YOU who think it’s okay to talk to me as if you own me. As if we have to do whatever you demand, no matter what your rights or the rules are.

YOU who think you can come in two seconds before closing time and demand that we stay over to help you, because your time is valuable, and ours apparently is not.

YOU who think it is okay to yell and be rude just because you are a customer.

YOU who keep saying things like “it’s just a retail job”, “she’s just a saleswoman” or ask us “so, when are you going to get a real job?”

YOU don’t have the right to undermine the talent of people who do the jobs that make your everyday life easier. The people that help you out are not yours to trample on like a dirty rug. So many of us do our job with pride, just as much as a lawyer or an accountant does theirs. And most importantly, we are no less human than the people with higher ducation, or the ones with millions in the bank.

We’re all humans who are living our lives, and we all deserve to be treated with respect.

So, to anyone out there who in any way recognized themselves as the YOU that I just described, please try to do better. Please try to not be the obnoxious person who makes talented workers want to quit their jobs.
And above all, just please, think before you speak. Try to picture how you would feel if someone said the words you are about to say.

There, I’ve vented my frustration and anger, instead of taking it out on someone who wouldn’t have deserved it.

Now, what can I do for you today?

Tag Along Tuesday 1 ● All-Nighter, Random Flirting and Tønsberg

Why I Don’t Have a TV!

Whenever I tell people that I don’t have a TV, I generally get one of two reactions.

1 ● Me neither!

2 ● You don’t have a TV???? But what do you do instead? (All said with disbelief and a shocked expression)

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Here are some of the reasons why I don’t have a TV:

Having a TV is extremely distracting and it ruins my creativity!

When I get into the zone of my creativity, I don’t get easily distracted, but it’s that time before I sit down to work that’s crucial. Those are the moments where I could easily get distracted and end up sitting in front of a screen and watch reruns of Cold Case until I fall asleep on the couch and absolutely no work has been done.

I love books more! 

Don’t get me wrong, I will devour a good movie or a show from time to time, but that’s when I choose to do it. I don’t want to zap between fiction and then MAYBE stumble upon something interesting. I want to be in control of the entertainment that I consume, and I just happen to like books more!

I have my Mac!

If I ever feel like binge-watching all the episodes of Rick & Morty, see a documentary or discover a new movie, then I have my laptop and I have Netflix and YouTube. That’s pretty much all I need whenever the urge to watch something comes over me.

I like to go on movie dates!

My way of discovering new movies is usually to take myself out on a spontaneous movie date! If I’ve been out writing most of the day and I feel like treating myself to something special, I will go online, book a ticket to some random movie and go watch it. I love those movie dates, and I’ve fallen in love with several movies because of them. And I’ve ended up reading the books that the movies have been based on and loved them even more!

My time is extremely valuable!

This is the most important one, so let me repeat myself:

MY TIME IS EXTREMELY VALUABLE!

And so is yours!

Today I watched one of Casey Neistat’s latest vlogs and he read a piece that Ryan Holiday wrote and it really hit home with me:

“Time is our most irreplaceable asset—we cannot buy more of it. We cannot get a second of it back. We can only hope to waste as little as possible. Yet somehow we treat it as most renewable of all resources.”

You can read Ryan Holiday’s full post here!

Or you can watch  Casey Neistat reading it here:

This is something that I find to be so true! I devote an extreme amount of time to doing the things that I love, to create and to build the life that I want to have. I don’t have time to waste, and not having a TV at home helps me to not be tempted to just slouch on my couch while the hours go by. I don’t even want to think about the amount of time that I wasted in front of it back in the days. Hours and hours that I will never get back. Hours and hours where I could’ve been creating.

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So those are some of the reasons why I’ve chosen to not have a TV at home. 

Let me know if you have one at home!? And if you do, do you find yourself spending more time in front of it than you like? 

 

 

 

Don’t bite our heads off, please…

Over the years I’ve worked in quite a few different places within retail. Most days I love being around people. They give me so much food for thought. Even though I’ve had the pleasure to work with electronics (I love me some gadgets) and books (well you know how I feel about those), I have to say that working with glasses has so far been the one that I’ve enjoyed the most. I think the biggest reason for that is that my job is to actually help people that needs it. It’s not about selling a lot of things that people don’t need, It’s about helping them to actually see! I love it!

But this post was not supposed to be a gush of my love for the optical industry. It’s a plea to a few of you customers out there.

For the customer that yells at us when we ask when you’re born. For the ones who fumes and curses when they have to wait a few minutes to get help. For those who slam their fists on the counter when their product didn’t arrive on time. Those who curse and scream and threatens.

I get it! You have certain expectations, so do I. But sometimes it feels like the expectations that are set for serviceminded people in retail can be beyond ridiculous. Want to know a secret? We’re only humans, just like you.

We have our off days. We try our best to not let it show, but sometimes our best just doesn’t do the trick. Sometimes we falter in the areas that we normally succeed in. It’s life after all.

We get sick. So when you have to stand in line because there’s only one person working in the store, don’t forget that the person standing there could’ve already been working hours overtime trying to do the work usually done by two or more.

We are here to help you. Yes, that much I’m guessing you already knew. That however, does not mean that you can bully and boss us around. We genuinely want to help, and to give you the best experience possible, but we also expect to be treated like an equal. We put a lot of work and training into what we do, even though it is “just retail”.

The customer isn’t always right. I’m sorry to burst that bubble, but someone had to.

I’ve had customers screaming in my face when I tried (calmly) to tell them the rules of warranties and tax refunds. Rules that I could point out and show them, and still they yelled at me and told me I needed to learn to do my job better, just because I couldn’t give them the answer they wanted. I’ve had customers that said such cruel things to me (completely unprovoked) that I ended up crying afterwards. I’ve also had customers that felt it was okay to stare at my body instead of making eye contact while I was talking to them. I’ve gotten sexist jokes thrown my way more times than I can count.

Working in retail and with people can be overwhelming at times. And constantly being surrounded by strangers that demand your full attention can be hard.

So when you feel frustrated; Talk to us. Ask us your questions. Listen to the answers you’ll receive. Don’t bully, and don’t be rude.

Please, do not bite our heads off. Most likely, we are just trying to help.

To end this post on a more positive note; I want to mention how grateful I am to have received so many smiles, kind words, baked goods, flowers and hugs from customers over the years. Those are the moments that I choose to hold on to. I’ve learned so much about business, psychology, human behaviour, kindness, gratitude, and heard so many amazing stories from wonderful people. People I probably wouldn’t have crossed paths with if it weren’t for my years being out on the floor in the business of retail.

It’s been a very interesting journey, and one that I’m still enjoying very much!

Be nice to one another. I guess that’s the message I’m trying to get through here.

Lots of love,

Christina ❤️

 

It’s Changing!

Our lives are constantly changing, even though it may not seem like it all of the time. It might seem like everything is just the same, day after day. But even though you feel like you’re going through the motion in the same ship everyday, there’s so much going on underneath the surface that you’re not paying attention to. 

All those little things that just passes by as unimportant could easily add up to end up as some of the most important events of your life. 

Some changes are bigger though, and impossible to miss! I’m going through one of those changes right now. 

I’ve been working for Brilleland for little over a year now, and a while back I was approached by another chain of stores and they wanted to set up a meeting with me. The meeting happened and in a time where people struggle to get jobs I was lucky enough to be offered a new one. I’m very grateful! After thinking it over and going a bit back and forth I decided to take the offer. 

So yesterday I had my last day at Brilleland and on Monday I’m moving on to a new chain, new store and new colleagues. It’s very exciting and also a bit scary. I’ve had my share of jobs over the years and the butterflies in the stomach feeling always shows up whenever I’m on the brink of starting something new. 

It’s a feeling I welcome! It’s another way of pushing myself and getting out of my comfort zone. A wonderful way of learning and growing. 

So this weekend I’m going to take it easy, meditate on what was and get ready for what’s coming! 

Wish me luck!

And I wish you all a wonderful weekend! 

Working With Books!

So, I was talking about starting new chapters in my last post and one of the very exciting and very new chapters that’s started in my life is my new job.

I’ve written about the physical struggle I’ve been through with my shoulders and arms the last year and it’s been a whole lot of painful and not to mention, hard on me psychologically as well. It finally came to a point where I got the message that working in an office and sitting in front of the computer eight hours a day just wasn’t going to work for me. My doctor and other specialists recommended me to end that chapter and start looking for a new one.

Have you ever had that feeling that a particular opportunity was waiting for you to just open the door and let it in? This one felt kind of like that. Everything just happened so fast! I found a listing for a job at a bookstore very close to where I live and I just about had the time to send in my application before the deadline. Just a few days later I was called in for an interview and another few days later I was offered a job.

I can’t believe that out of the 400 people that applied for this job, I’m now the lucky one to be able to work with my passion and love. And that feeling of walking into my job and being surrounded by written words is such an amazing one.

I now have a part time job that I really look forward to coming to and I have the time to work on getting even better physically. I also have time to work on the other sides of my book passion, like my writing, reading, blogging and YouTubing.

I have a feeling that this is the start of something great! I can’t wait to see what the future holds for me now!

I’m very humble and grateful for everything. My new job, the people close to me, you readers and life in general! This life is such an amazing journey and even though parts of it is rough and messy, we must never give up!

That one amazing opportunity might be sitting around waiting for you too. You just have to take the chance, go out and go look for it!