Behavior Consumers Hate

What behaviors by store associates do consumers hate? Number one: employees that carry on a conversation while ringing up a consumer at the checkout, according to a Trade Talk piece on the Grocery Headquarters web site.

MOHR Learning, Ridgewood, NJ surveyed consumers at malls to answer the question, “Of the following things salespeople sometimes do when you’re shopping, which one do you find most annoying?”

This is how respondents rated their top seven pet peeves about store personnel:

1. Engages in conversation with fellow employees during my checkout: 21%


2. Ignores me: 19%


3. Talks on the phone instead of ringing up my purchase: 16%


4. Serves another customer when I was first: 14%


5. Tells me where to find something instead of taking me there: 13%


6. Takes too long at the register: 10%


7. Calls me by my first name when they see it on my credit card: 3%

Moderator’s Comment: Does customer service really make
a difference when it comes to where consumers shop?

Call us jaded, but you can’t get much longer lines or
less service than you do at Wal-Mart. They seem to be doing pretty well. Same
store sales increases of four percent are considered disappointing in Bentonvile
while most other operators would be jumping with joy over the same performance.
[George
Anderson – Moderator]

• Trade
  Talk: Shoppers’ pet peeves – Grocery Headquarters