A Question From Imp About Working At Walmart, Maintaining Cool Etc.

[Pookie]

Pook, Customer Service at W-M is likely the most demanding, least-understood by top management, most-disliked personnel by the shopper, yet inadequately compensated-for
job in the whole store. This, after viewing your Profile.

How do you maintain your "cool" there? Are you "at-ease" with it for the most part? Do you not go home talking to yourself about the day's experiences? Sorry if off topic, off thread, off my rocker, just HAD to ask..,........,.,,...imp


You're quite correct about that. It's very demanding, least-understood and most-disliked. However, it doesn't really have to be all that.

I have developed a reputation of being fair, but I don't put up with poo. Managers at first tried to run over me, but I stuck with policy and won. Rules are rules, period. The managers who tried to run over me are gone now; luckily I raised enough sand to get rid of them, with some help.

Here's what happened to get those who would argue with me fired:

1. They overrode me and accepted returns from Target, KMart, and other stores

2. They told me not to open boxes. That was a bad idea on their part. I open ALL boxes.

3. One fool called me the c-word in front of a customer. He forced me to accept a return on a coffeemaker purchased two years ago. I called the home office on that one.

4. Somebody called the service desk wanting to send a MoneyGram over the phone. Yeah, like I'm going to do that. How do I know that card they're using isn't stolen?

I think now, with the new management in place, it's different now. I do get the support of managers now, and they know dang well I follow policy. It was a battle for a while, but you just have to stick to ethics and rules. Period.

I still get idiots. We all do there. You just have to stand up and stand your ground. I learned a lot of these lessons as a female company commander over 378 guys in the Army. You've just got to stand UP for rules, policies, and procedures, and you can't back down. I found that once people figure out you're not going to compromise your principles and they find out how stubborn and dedicated you are to these principles, they don't have a dog in that fight and you win. They don't have a leg to stand on when you hit them with truth and integrity.

But in customer service you should also have compassion, sympathy and understanding.

An older lady (in her 60's) brought me a smartphone she hated. It wasn't working well. I took one look at it and said, "Oh gosh, this isn't a good phone."

It was a dang Huawei!! Don't ever buy those phones! YOW!! I refunded her the cost of the phone, even though for electronics, 15 days is the cutoff but this was only 19 days and she was older. As customer service managers, we have a 10-day leeway over stuff like this. I sent her packing with her refund back to Electronics, suggested the Motorola Moto-E, she got it, loves it, and I spent time with her setting it up. Why the Moto-E? I have it. I know this phone, tried and true.

Another lady came to return dog food in June. Apparently her dog was very ill and passed away without, of course, having it. She was in tears and a senior on Social Security. Of course I refunded her money, then stepped around to hug her. I felt so horribly for her; I remember when my beloved wolfdog passed and there was all her food and toys....ouch. I had tears too and I tried to comfort her as best I could. Back in September, she adopted an older dog who needed a home and by gosh, she hunted me down to show me pictures of him!

I could go on and on. But the thing is to do your job and never lose compassion and understanding. When I come home, I feel I have done the best I could for that day, and go on to the next. Keep on rolling...no matter where you are, there's always a chance to make a positive difference in someone's life.

I hope all that makes sense. I'm glad to be trusted and respected by my co-workers and management now. It's a good feeling, and I look to each day with a prayer and also with knowing who I am.

Make sense?

 

[Pookie]

imp, I hope you see this.

 

[Warrigal]

Makes perfect sense to me, Pookie.
Whatever job we find ourselves doing, if we do it with integrity and compassion then we are doing it right and can be proud of our service to the community.

 

[Pookie]

Makes perfect sense to me, Pookie.
Whatever job we find ourselves doing, if we do it with integrity and compassion then we are doing it right and can be proud of our service to the community.

Yes, absolutely. This may sound nuts, but I make laminated bookmarks for friends and family. The one I made for myself has a little daisy and it says, "Bloom where you are planted."

In the workplace, in our family, in our friends, and even with strangers, we have to open doors to compassion and understanding. Life is just no good unless we all can share in kindness. So I need to bloom wherever I'm planted.

I'm so glad I'm trusted now. It took a while, but what's funny is that one time, a lady was in line at the service desk, and there were two of us there. I called next in line, and she said "No, I'm waiting for Belinda (not her real name), not you." We knew it was trouble, because so many know me and go to others.

Turns out she's returning a TV. The box seemed intact but we knew better. "Belinda" opened the box and it was supposed to contain a 32" TV. Instead, it was full of gravel and a lot of wadded-up newspaper.

Imagine that going back on the shelf if it hadn't been checked.

I would tell all of you, when you buy anything at Walmart or any box store, open it up and check it in front of your cashier at the point of purchase and make sure it has all the parts included in it. You never know if some lazy customer service idiot refunded it without checking it and it ended back up on the shelf.

Be careful. Your money is precious and don't take anything at face value, even if it looks like it's never been opened. No one will ever harrass you for opening it in front of the cashier; that is your right.

I hope this helps folks here, just a little unsolicited advice from a customer service manager who is also a customer.

 

[imp]

Retailing Employment Experiences

Two instances come to mind of similar nature, involving top management. Ya gotta understand how the works led up to it, if you will be patient with me, not my usual diverse babbling.

While building our home outside Phoenix, unemployed, I took a P/T job with one of the big Sears stores in Phoenix, Metro-Center Store, one of it's "flagships". 1986. "Maintenance Engineer', though the job title was laughable given typical maintenance abilities in retailing, I had an Engineering Degree! My interviewer, Maintenance Supervisor, told me I was over-qualified, why did I want the job? Building my own home, P/T income would help (I had left the highest paying job of my life, because of H.R. B.S. 'Nuther story, 'nuther time). He hired me. Soon, I was saving the store thousands, doing all their usually contracted-out electrical work. Sears was experiencing declining revenues already then. Home office in Chicago decided to implement a Maintenance Function of Sears skilled employees, who would travel to all the stores within a given "District". I was singled-out as a candidate by the newly appointed District Maintenance Manager, Fred DiNapoli, a man about 15 years my junior, 1990, I was 48. He turned out to be extremely understanding, knew full-well my knowledge of the skilled trades would help HIM succeed, he having been a Ladies' Clothing Manager! After he learned what I could do, he stood up for me whenever complaints about me were received. My attitude was, get the work done, skip the overwhelming B.S. ever-present among Department Managers, and especially the Store Managers, whose position was that of King, so far as Home Office was concerned, and dish out s-!t when necessary.

A few notable things while I was so employed:
One evening, it happened to be at my old Metro-Center, doing an electrical repair which necessitated going up on a 12-foot ladder, up into the ceiling, I turned off the circuit breaker feeding that junction box, LOCKED the breaker panel, went back upstairs, up the ladder, and thought, what if I chose the wrong breaker? Checked the box, it was "LIVE"! Back downstairs, the normally locked door to the electrical room stood open, the locked breaker panel door had been pried open using some sort of crowbar, the lock broken, the breaker turned back on! This constituted criminal negligence, absolute ignorance not considered. I was PISSED! Could have: shocked, fallen off the ladder, worse yet, killed up in the ceiling. Dep't. Manager admitted he broke into the panel, when I took him to task. His excuse? "My lamps were off, customers come first". I'm certain he got a severe reprimand, but, within a few years time, he was made Store Manager elsewhere!

The other "biggie" at Metro-Center" (I know, it's getting pretty long), I had a long-running feud with the Store Manager (no surprise, he hated my guts), as one young Dep't. Manager had told me one night, "Your reputation precedes you". My boss, Fred, suggested I get to know the guy in Chicago who was Corporate Facilities Manager of Sears nation-wide, Tim Stewart. I spoke with him numerous times, many emails, a short-circuit route which thwarted scheming by Store Managers who wanted me gone. The crowning touch came when the Metro Honcho ordered the side door by the West Entrance permanently locked. It opened into stairways intended for emergency fire use, the door was clearly marked on it's inside, Emergency Fire Door"! I called Fred. He said, call Tim. I did. Tim, usually calm and cool, became livid! He instructed me to immediately get the door unlocked, even if it meant destroying it! Think the Honcho was pleased? He was on a plane to Chicago the following morning, news seeped out: Fred told me.

Last item, unless someone wants more. Roswell, New Mexico. Big squirrel-cage blower fans circulate the conditioned air throughout the stores, called High Volume Air Conditioning (HVAC). One of them had a bad bearing, contractor had quoted about $50,000 to rip the thing apart and repair it. Fred sat me down in his office, and we talked. I saw the chance to save them a bundle having an enjoyable interlude outside of the normal travel and drudgery. Told him I can remedy the machine for under $1,000. Was I sure? Yepper, Fred. Ordered a length of 4-inch diameter high-strength aluminum round stock, spent about 10 hours on my lathe at home making a big sleeve, I had taken the necessary dimensions while in Roswell, having the "fix" in the back of my mind, flew to Albuquerque where I met up with Greg Sanchez, the local area Maintenance guy, and we drove to Roswell, installed the "fix", along with a larger roller-type bearing. Several years later, Greg remarked, the fix was still humming along.

While in that employ, I conducted Electrical Safety classes for the store-level employees throughout District 251, AZ, NM, El Paso, occasionally Southern California. Little did I know then, that quitting the "rat-race" early, 1999, 6 years before Social Security benefits would be available, the class-room experience would come in mighty handy in 2002-2003 school year teaching Math at Bunker, Missouri High School! Little town, little observance of political necessity, I taught without a Teaching Certificate with the School District's blessing. What an experience it turned out to be! Thanks fer listenin'! imp

 

[fureverywhere]

I am doing everything I can to escape from Retail Hell. By the bye that is also a very funny website. They published a book too. Retail is one of the most stressful, ill paid, thankless jobs you can do. It's too bad because there were a bunch of customers and co-workers you might really enjoy. The problem is corporate culture. Sure Wally World, Target, Home Depot all pretend to be a big happy family with it's employees. A big back-biting dysfunctional family.

Everything is spelled out by big corporate. Even how they fire you. In a regular job back in the day you screwed up or stepped on the wrong toes and they would call you on the telephone or have you come to the bosses office. You messed up, you're out. Now "terminations" are predicted by the calendar. Unless you do something outlandish like empty the till. Yes it happened and the girl made a run for it and got away. I knew she was nutty as a fruitcake, but the powers that be thought she was so outstanding there was talk of making her head cashier...ooopsy.

But for an average sacking they wait until the last day of schedule posting. Then they can bounce out several people before noon. They've just done new hires the month before so they know exactly how many ants they can step on and still have coverage. Even as store manager you aren't anything more than a part of the machine and totally expendable. Assistant managers have it the worst. They get it from top and bottom and are the first blasted for anything major or minor.