As A Cashier, I Hate Having To Pester Customers For Memberships/Other Things

[Emergency & I]

I mean, it's part of the job. You work in a struggling sector in need of loyalty and revenue. Consider switching to a different type of work?

Anyway, this concept exists throughout the non-retail world. They are called KPIs in a lot of places and beckon a great deal of pressure.

 

[SchrodingerC]

Hated having my job tied with a member/insurance sign up quota.

Like, I couldn't force people to sign up for these things. Plus the threat of being fired for low quotas wasn't the best motivator either.

 

[Deleted member 2761]

I know you're required to do this so I don't mind. You gotta put food on the table, you know?

 

[ItIsOkBro]

As a customer I understand you aren't asking those things because you want to, and have reached a point where politely declining doesn't bother me.

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[Rex Griswold]

Me too fam. I have to push warranties and occasionally credit cards. I sympathize with the people who just want to buy something and just get out.

Plus, fuck working harder for someone else's bonus so I can not even get a thank you.

 

[MrNelson]

I worked for Walgreens back when they rolled out their reward program. First few months of that shit was brutal, because it went from everyone being able to use coupons, to just members, so for weeks it was just signing people up constantly so they could keep getting their savings. After the initial period it wasn't so bad, but what I hated the most were the people that would just be shitty about it. I legit had a guy ranting about not wanting to give a company his personal information (being name and phone number) , and then immediately paying with a credit card. Like, just say no dude, it makes everyone's life easier, and then you don't look like a fool when you give your personal info to the company via another method.

 

[Deleted member 33533]

I used to work in retail at a dollar store where we had a promotional item of the week thing going on. It was corporate policy that we were to ask every customer at the register if they were interested in whatever item it was that week.

However, there was also a cheap ass, generic brand candy bar that they would put next to the cashiers with a sign explaining that if the cashier failed to promote the item of the week by the end of the transaction, the customer would receive that shitty candy bar for free. As you expected, this inspired customers to be petty assholes over the simple prospect of getting a free thing. They would often very intentionally try to distract you in order to get you to forget to bring up the item before you finished ringing up everything. Others would literally anticipate the moment the last item was scanned to yell out that you forgot the mention the item of the week as you were literally taking a breath to do just that. They would then slyly tease you about "forgetting" and walk out with a smug face that they got their shitty candy bar.

However, behind the scenes, they didn't know that every employee only got 3 candy bars. If you reached the end of the month without losing all 3, you got the ones you didn't lose for free! Yay... Guess what happened if you lost all your candy bars? You were fired. I'm not even kidding. That was the policy. I remember asking my manager if my candy bars replenished after a month. They did but it was still 3 strikes and you're out. So if I lost 3 candy bars over the course of 6 months, they said they had grounds to fire me.

Needless to say I quit that job not too soon after. It was just one of those shitty jobs you do while in college but it's part of why whenever I see a cashier promoting something annoying that I don't want to hear, I just let them promote it and just say no. I know they have to do it and there's probably a bullshit consequence if they don't.

As a customer I understand you aren't asking those things because you want to, and have reached a point where politely declining doesn't bother me.

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This.

 

[eXistor]

It's your job. Do it or look for something else to do. You can hate it all you want, I have to do it too and I don't agree with it either, but I suck it up and do it anyway. My job is pretty great otherwise, so if they want me to ask this stuff I will.

 

[ChrisR]

Former Plus Champ here: This aspect of your job was there to help the bottom line of the club and the company as a whole. This is part of the job, and if management does not want to enforce you to do it, they don't have to, they just may not be around very long. As I'm sure you remember, management in Sam's Club/Wal-Mart is quite competitive, to a fault. I left Sam's Club because I did not know the game was even being played before I lost, I was young and naive to think that my supervisor and management actually wanted us to be successful and move up the corporate ladder, they did not want the competition.

From the other side: I had members scream and yell at me because I had offered them credit or Plus on more than one occasion. All I could do was shrug my shoulders, apologize and let them know I would try to remember for next time before retrieving a manager for them.

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Oh I knew, it just sucked. I had several people terminate their membership right then and there either due to the push for Plus and/or the "Transfer Everything" policy. I had zero BOB issues, but others did but damn if transferring a few thousand dollar order doesn't slow shit down, and pitching credit cards to people in 2007/2008 was not a great time to be doing it...

Eventually they moved me to cashier the smoke and/or alcohol cages because I was one of the few 21+ cashiers who didn't need constant supervision the main registers got and could get people checked out quickly.

 

[lenovox1]

Me too fam. I have to push warranties and occasionally credit cards. I sympathize with the people who just want to buy something and just get out.

Plus, fuck working harder for someone else's bonus so I can not even get a thank you.

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Yeah, if upper management wants people to push explicitly revenue driving initiatives like fucking store credit cards onto others, they should at least allow people to bonus based on their own work.

 

[Cotton McKnight]

Oh I knew, it just sucked. I had several people terminate their membership right then and there either due to the push for Plus and/or the "Transfer Everything" policy. I had zero BOB issues, but others did but damn if transferring a few thousand dollar order doesn't slow shit down, and pitching credit cards to people in 2007/2008 was not a great time to be doing it...

Eventually they moved me to cashier the smoke and/or alcohol cages because I was one of the few 21+ cashiers who didn't need constant supervision the main registers got and could get people checked out quickly.

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Tobacco cage were some of my favorite people to go visit, couldn't really sell plus there, but had to let the management know I at least touched base with them. Same with the pharmacy department.

 

[Wood Man]

I remember working at Suncoast video while in college. (not even sure if they're still around) And we were forced to push this new service called Netflix. I remember thinking "Nobody is going to want to wait a few days for their movies when you could just drive to Blockbuster right down the road."

Suncoast was basically pushing their own death.

 

[MrMephistoX]

Thanks OP for triggering my brief stint in high school at Blockbuster video...people don't want the upsell 90% of the time especially after you've just told them they owe $30 in early aughts dollars in late fees!

 

[Astro Cat]

Never once asked any customers to sign up for anything in the 15+ years I was working retail. Even when the register refused to let me continue unless I entered an email, I would just put in something@something and hit enter and went on my way. It's one thing if they choose to fill out that info on their own but fuck harassing everyone just because they need a soda or batteries, etc.

 

[madstarr12]

It all starts up on top. I worked at a Marshalls store, and there are goals the store needs to meet per month, per quarter, per year. The district manager pressures the store manager when the store wasn't performing, who then pressures the assistant managers, to then pressure the coordinators, who then pressures the cashiers. I havent seen anyone get fired for not meeting the goals, but hours were definitely diminished when that happened. I personally never pressured the cashiers as a coordinator compared to how management does it, it didn't feel right to be doing that when I knew sometimes it was difficult to get credit opened at certain times of the year. Tho, management didnt wanna hear it. However, if the store didnt meet goals continuously, management will be punished eventually.

 

[Scrub Jay]

Working for Kohls was a more miserable experience than pushing carts in 100 degree weather for this reason.

 

[Rhaknar]

as someone who works in a hotel where we have a quota of membership cards we need to do, yup it sure sucks

 

[KingK]

Yeah, I used to work at a shoe store for years and I hated having to pester customers about that stuff when I was on register.

 

[SugarNoodles]

She was almost certainly told to say that as part of the spiel. It puts the customer in a more receptive mind set to listening and considering the offers.

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Oh. It definitely didn't work because he didn't even wait for us to decline he just moved right on to taking our orders.

 

[KillingJoke]

Retailers are fucking tone deaf about how a lot of society just isn't sociable. Hence Amazon taking over the world.

 

[lenovox1]

Retailers are fucking tone deaf about how a lot of society just isn't sociable. Hence Amazon taking over the world.

Click to shrink...

Statistically, a majority of people still buy brick and mortar. Convenience is King, however.

Hardly any of these programs make the shopping experience easier, but they are finally improving in response to trends, studies and feedback. See, Target's new rewards program. You have to give people a reason to sign up for your thing and a reason to log into your app.

 

[ThreePi]

I don't get asked for memberships too often but then I don't do a lot of shopping. At most I get asked to donate my money to some random cause so a grocery store can act like they're the one donating money.

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This is what I hate the most. Panda Express always does it and they wait until after I hand them my credit card before they ask. It's such BS because they're taking my donation, bundling it up and donating it themselves while taking the tax break off of it. And on top of that, I have no idea how much of that donation goes to helping people vs admin costs and stuff like that.

 

[TheCthultist]

After 10 years of it, Ive completely stopped bothering them with it and just say I forgot if a manager brings it up... if they want to fire me over that of all things, fine.

 

[Jombie]

It's true reason I never buy anything from Books A Million.

 

[AlexBasch]

A cashier in some store I went some years ago freaked the fuck out because she didn't offer me a phone credit recharge and that would mean I'd get something for free. (Think it was candy or something, it was a convenience store) Told her it was okay and I didn't want any of that, because I thought that was how management would realize she made a mistake.

Imagine being punished for being polite, not making mistakes while marking my items, but forgetting about a phone credit charge that I didn't ask, it's bullshit.

 

[Jeffolation]

When I worked retail years ago I just wouldn't ask. Management liked me so I'm assuming that's why I never caught any static.

I had a call centre job years ago, trying to sell AT&T packages. As soon as they said no/not interested during my opening pitch I bailed on all the follow up BS, said have a nice day and hung up. I was kicked off the account by the end of my first day after three weeks of training lol. I'd rather be kicked in the head by a mule rather than trying to sell/up sell people anything.

 

[Zelenogorsk]

Barnes and Noble is always really aggressive about getting you to sign up for the membership that costs $25 so i always bring in just enough cash for what I want to buy and tell the cashier "sorry, maybe next paycheck."

When I stocked shelves at Wal-mart they wanted me to say hi to every customer within 10 feet of me and I never did that.

 

[NineConsonants]

Yeah it was always a frustrating part of working retail for me. Doubly so when corporate would act like employees are the biggest impact on customers' willingness to sign up/buy something. As if customers don't have their own independent thinking to rely on and decide if a product or service is right for them.

 

[finalflame]

As far as difficult facets of a job, these are pretty chill.I did them for many years in customer service and retail jobs. It's just a thing you have to say. If you're good at your job you'll get good at saying them convincingly.

 

[Saifu]

Another reason why the retail and service industry fucking sucks.
I can't wait to gtfo.

 

[Deleted member 18502]

Customer service jobs are all moving toward more and more revenue generation, thanks in part to automation.

 

[Omegasquash]

That's measurably more effective.

Customers are very wary of any guest retention methods, so couching it in the right rhetoric makes the entire process go much more quickly.

And while customer relationship management does measurably improve customer engagement and sales, on the cashier's end it is MUCH MUCH easier to deal with returns and guest issues if your purchase is in a central, CRM system.

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All of this is true, with the bold being very, very true.

 

[samoscratch]

I was supposed to push specials on customers all the time when I worked at a mobil station, I never did it, screw that.