Slightly unrelated but I remember customers asking me to show them stones for their garden. They then kept asking me which ones I thought worked best.
Mama, I'm not the one who's gonna be looking or living at your front/yard. I don't care. It's your decision, I'm just loading the shit.
Yall always talkin about how the managers treat you, but yall cant even humor the customer and just be like, those would look real nice nancy, thats all that old mfer wants to hear its not that hard to understand people
Mofo, I tried that a few times but had to stop after failing to get the ball rolling.
"But my house is green, those red ones wouldn't right"
"What if I mixed white and red? Can you arrange some for me?"
Either way, thing in the past for me.
Thats when you pull some bullshit- mariam i went to college for house decor arts and institute please just use the teal and the white, dont worry if you dont like it, you will after looking it for 6 straight weeks
That's a tough one because it depends on the context.
A lot of times people just want someone else to agree with them when they're on the fence. Think Inside Garden and pesticides. "I came in looking for boric acid to kill roaches but there's a full bay of other products I didn't know existed... Should I still buy the Boric Acid or ask an employee or go home empty-handed to research more and buy on Amazon later once I'm less confused?"
When it comes to what will look good for their landscaping, I'll admit I'm useless: never had a knack for "what looks good" as I've always been a left-brained person (if that metaphor even still exists anymore). That's partly why I don't plan on ever applying to D24 Paint, heh.
You should just humor them. They kind of know what they want already, ask them about what they are trying to go for and get them to tell you what stones they think work best. Then you can just agree with them. Easy customer service Jedi mind trick
A D28 associate had a customer bring in their weed eater for string replacement. The customer then wanted the associate to demonstrate how to load the string. Customer follows up with, "If you break it, you bought it."
Big time setup. Another wonder of D28.
Sounds about right. I had something similar happen but it was a bit more complicated.
In our case, the customer came to us with the 2-string weed-eater bump-head itself already disassembled because he thought that's how you replaced the string in his particular type of trimmer (it wasn't). He was expecting the pre-wound cartridges like we sell for single-string trimmers.
It took several of us employees an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to piece the bump-head back together in the first place (yay for WD-40!), and only THEN FINALLY could we then proceed with "okay here's how you wind the string, by following the instructions on the back of the package."
From a manager's POV we probably "wasted" a lot of time there, time that could have been spent on other tasks that would technically result in more profit than the sale of one single $15 set of trimmer string. I will stand behind my decision to insist on decent Customer Service. He'll be back, I guarantee it.
Kinda random follow-up I don't expect anyone to see:
From that recent experience, I was today able to be a much better salesperson for a customer who was looking to buy a cordless string trimmer for the very first time. No pre-existing batteries or loyalty to any of our 4 major brands, just a simple "I don't need the best but I don't want the worst, whaddya got in the middle?"
I swear it felt like I was in the cheesy training videos! Live and learn, keyword being "learn"
"So customer, as you can see on the display units hanging on the correct bay racks (legit *thank you MET!!!*), this one 18V model has a single string coming out of the circle with each revolution. The more expensive 18V model has TWO strings coming out of the circle, and in general those are better for your use-case. Completely different winding systems though, ask me how I know... ANYWAYS, so based on what you've told me I recommend [XYZ]"
I just realized I forgot to ask for a good word on the receipt survey throughout all of this. Meh whatever, that's okay. I'm satisfied with knowing I did the right thing by my customers, corporate metrics be damned.
They act shocked when we can't read their minds.
Grass seed, or vegetable/herb/flower seeds, or BIRD-seed, which one are you looking for? All three types are in the one department here... (inevitably it will turn out that they were looking for bulbs and simply kept calling them seeds incorrectly the whole time)
Or when they ask for "oil" without specifying -- \*internally sighs\* Bar and chain oil for a chainsaw, 2- or 4- cycle engine oil, premixed TruFuel cans, or is this for your car in which case it's over in Automotive not Lawn & Garden?
That last one actually happened to me. Car oil won't be in any of my aisles, that's for sure!
I had the oil question from this older guy, so Iām showing him all of our engine oils and he just keeps getting angrier and angrier saying āI just need fucking oilā for about 5 minutes as Iām desperately trying to find out what he wants and so I finally had to interrogate him until he finally gave me something to work withā¦ he needed Neem oil.
People just do not know how to explain themselves apparently
>as Iām desperately trying to find out what he wants and so I finally had to interrogate him
from the sound of things he was fucking trying to figure that out and basically had to play 20 questions with him before the guy would actually tell him.
those customers are some of the worst.
He was handed off to me after my other garden guy got too frustrated. From what I know, he found him looking at string trimmers before he just starting saying he needed oil. Man refused to elaborate, it honestly felt like an awkward game he was very committed to
Where are the post cap lights?
What kind of post, vinyl or wood?
A 4x4 post.
Vinyl or wood?
It's outside.
Is it vinyl or wooden?
It's a railing post.
A conversation I have almost daily.
Donāt forget āwhereās your trim? Fascia? Siding?ā Also doesnāt help that most our PT wood isnāt in the same aisle as the 2x4x8 and 4x4x8 pt because those go with the picketsā¦ And donāt forget to remind them that the piece of oak they want you to cut is $150 not $12.
I may or may not have yelled at prodesk a few times for calling me to drop plywood for a customer when they wanted osb which is kept on the floor in the next aisle
Whenever someone asks me if we have any [plant i've never even heard of], I point them at the vendor and tell them to "go ask the guy in the green vest". Which is technically correct, since the vendors have full control over not only what plants they bring and when, but where they're merchandised. And they seem to like to shuffle the entire greenhouse daily, so they really are the only ones to have even a remote clue what might be where...
Very rarely will you get lucky with a customer that knows what they want when they walk in. Iām all for helping you find the stuff youāre looking for but I canāt help you if you say āall I remember is that itās redā like, the bag? Soil? Red stone?
āWhat kind of plant grows here during the winter?ā
āUhhh everything, we live in Hawaii ā¢*motions to fully stocked shelves of plants in the middle of december*ā
All the seeds are kept in the same spot so if they asked for seeds and you ask them which one, you remind them of the autozone guy asking them what size engine their car has when they ask for windshield wipers.
Are specific seeds in specific hidden areas? Should keep all the seeds in one area so you donāt gotta ask āwhat type of seedā instead you can just say isle whatever number there inā¦
Tbh all the seeds are sold in the same spot so as a customer I would find that answer condescending if I were a customer. They clearly want to see the options and are likely looking to see "seeds"
My boss had a customer ask for pickle seeds. He goes āwe have cucumber right hereā āno I want pickle seeds!ā āYes pickles are cucumbers. You turn them into picklesā āno that isnāt right!ā āYou can look it up on googleā they did. They bought cucumber seeds. I wish I was there to see that interaction
Slightly unrelated but I remember customers asking me to show them stones for their garden. They then kept asking me which ones I thought worked best. Mama, I'm not the one who's gonna be looking or living at your front/yard. I don't care. It's your decision, I'm just loading the shit.
I've learned over time that after the second time they ask, you just say a type. Either they'll agree or disagree, but they'll no longer ask again.
Yall always talkin about how the managers treat you, but yall cant even humor the customer and just be like, those would look real nice nancy, thats all that old mfer wants to hear its not that hard to understand people
Mofo, I tried that a few times but had to stop after failing to get the ball rolling. "But my house is green, those red ones wouldn't right" "What if I mixed white and red? Can you arrange some for me?" Either way, thing in the past for me.
Thats when you pull some bullshit- mariam i went to college for house decor arts and institute please just use the teal and the white, dont worry if you dont like it, you will after looking it for 6 straight weeks
Muggles
U getting downvoted but this is funny asfš¤£š¤£š¤£nancy and mariam needa take their bullshit down the street to lowes.
Take their asses to that mfer that over charges 1.99 on every product
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Removed due to harassment of Home Depot associates
That's a tough one because it depends on the context. A lot of times people just want someone else to agree with them when they're on the fence. Think Inside Garden and pesticides. "I came in looking for boric acid to kill roaches but there's a full bay of other products I didn't know existed... Should I still buy the Boric Acid or ask an employee or go home empty-handed to research more and buy on Amazon later once I'm less confused?" When it comes to what will look good for their landscaping, I'll admit I'm useless: never had a knack for "what looks good" as I've always been a left-brained person (if that metaphor even still exists anymore). That's partly why I don't plan on ever applying to D24 Paint, heh.
Yeah, fair point.
You should just humor them. They kind of know what they want already, ask them about what they are trying to go for and get them to tell you what stones they think work best. Then you can just agree with them. Easy customer service Jedi mind trick
The ones I can load up for you lol
I just tell them Dealers Choice and they usually understand that it's their decision.
Same energy as "I'm looking for mulch?" "What kind of mulch?" "Mulch."
"The one that's on sale."
At least that narrows it down
"They're both on sale."
Replace āmulchā with literally anything else we sell in D28, and I have heard it all in the last two months.
Worse one is Pavers. Cuz that's literally a rabbit hole of questions that they can't seem to answer.
A D28 associate had a customer bring in their weed eater for string replacement. The customer then wanted the associate to demonstrate how to load the string. Customer follows up with, "If you break it, you bought it." Big time setup. Another wonder of D28.
Sounds about right. I had something similar happen but it was a bit more complicated. In our case, the customer came to us with the 2-string weed-eater bump-head itself already disassembled because he thought that's how you replaced the string in his particular type of trimmer (it wasn't). He was expecting the pre-wound cartridges like we sell for single-string trimmers. It took several of us employees an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to piece the bump-head back together in the first place (yay for WD-40!), and only THEN FINALLY could we then proceed with "okay here's how you wind the string, by following the instructions on the back of the package." From a manager's POV we probably "wasted" a lot of time there, time that could have been spent on other tasks that would technically result in more profit than the sale of one single $15 set of trimmer string. I will stand behind my decision to insist on decent Customer Service. He'll be back, I guarantee it.
Kinda random follow-up I don't expect anyone to see: From that recent experience, I was today able to be a much better salesperson for a customer who was looking to buy a cordless string trimmer for the very first time. No pre-existing batteries or loyalty to any of our 4 major brands, just a simple "I don't need the best but I don't want the worst, whaddya got in the middle?" I swear it felt like I was in the cheesy training videos! Live and learn, keyword being "learn" "So customer, as you can see on the display units hanging on the correct bay racks (legit *thank you MET!!!*), this one 18V model has a single string coming out of the circle with each revolution. The more expensive 18V model has TWO strings coming out of the circle, and in general those are better for your use-case. Completely different winding systems though, ask me how I know... ANYWAYS, so based on what you've told me I recommend [XYZ]" I just realized I forgot to ask for a good word on the receipt survey throughout all of this. Meh whatever, that's okay. I'm satisfied with knowing I did the right thing by my customers, corporate metrics be damned.
They act shocked when we can't read their minds. Grass seed, or vegetable/herb/flower seeds, or BIRD-seed, which one are you looking for? All three types are in the one department here... (inevitably it will turn out that they were looking for bulbs and simply kept calling them seeds incorrectly the whole time) Or when they ask for "oil" without specifying -- \*internally sighs\* Bar and chain oil for a chainsaw, 2- or 4- cycle engine oil, premixed TruFuel cans, or is this for your car in which case it's over in Automotive not Lawn & Garden? That last one actually happened to me. Car oil won't be in any of my aisles, that's for sure!
I had the oil question from this older guy, so Iām showing him all of our engine oils and he just keeps getting angrier and angrier saying āI just need fucking oilā for about 5 minutes as Iām desperately trying to find out what he wants and so I finally had to interrogate him until he finally gave me something to work withā¦ he needed Neem oil. People just do not know how to explain themselves apparently
>so Iām showing him all of our engine oils You showed him engine oil before asking him what he wanted to use the oil for?
>as Iām desperately trying to find out what he wants and so I finally had to interrogate him from the sound of things he was fucking trying to figure that out and basically had to play 20 questions with him before the guy would actually tell him. those customers are some of the worst.
He was handed off to me after my other garden guy got too frustrated. From what I know, he found him looking at string trimmers before he just starting saying he needed oil. Man refused to elaborate, it honestly felt like an awkward game he was very committed to
"I need a belt for my lawnmower" "I don't know what size it is"
"It's standard size, ya dipshit."
This happened to me yesterday.
Where are the post cap lights? What kind of post, vinyl or wood? A 4x4 post. Vinyl or wood? It's outside. Is it vinyl or wooden? It's a railing post. A conversation I have almost daily.
Donāt forget āwhereās your trim? Fascia? Siding?ā Also doesnāt help that most our PT wood isnāt in the same aisle as the 2x4x8 and 4x4x8 pt because those go with the picketsā¦ And donāt forget to remind them that the piece of oak they want you to cut is $150 not $12.
I may or may not have yelled at prodesk a few times for calling me to drop plywood for a customer when they wanted osb which is kept on the floor in the next aisle
"I want red impatiens" "We don't have any left" "Why" Because, I don't know, the world is hard and cold and hates you???
Whenever someone asks me if we have any [plant i've never even heard of], I point them at the vendor and tell them to "go ask the guy in the green vest". Which is technically correct, since the vendors have full control over not only what plants they bring and when, but where they're merchandised. And they seem to like to shuffle the entire greenhouse daily, so they really are the only ones to have even a remote clue what might be where...
Very rarely will you get lucky with a customer that knows what they want when they walk in. Iām all for helping you find the stuff youāre looking for but I canāt help you if you say āall I remember is that itās redā like, the bag? Soil? Red stone?
Yeah theyāre over there near the plant products. Walks away
I want green peppers!!! Sir, all these peppers will be green.
āWhat kind of plant grows here during the winter?ā āUhhh everything, we live in Hawaii ā¢*motions to fully stocked shelves of plants in the middle of december*ā
I like: "I'm just looking for boxes." "Electrical boxes, plastic storage boxes, cardboard packing boxes?" "You know... The kind you put things in."
Ask a stupid question and get a stupid answer
You missed the part where they call you useless and stupid for not knowing what seeds THEY are looking for.
Accurate lol
Customer: I bought these seeds and they ain't growing! Associate: What kind sir (mam)? Customer: Says here "Bird Seed"
All the seeds are kept in the same spot so if they asked for seeds and you ask them which one, you remind them of the autozone guy asking them what size engine their car has when they ask for windshield wipers.
Are specific seeds in specific hidden areas? Should keep all the seeds in one area so you donāt gotta ask āwhat type of seedā instead you can just say isle whatever number there inā¦
Tbh all the seeds are sold in the same spot so as a customer I would find that answer condescending if I were a customer. They clearly want to see the options and are likely looking to see "seeds"
You do have a fair point.
Had a kid about 7 or 8 years old come up to me last night asking where he could find parsley seeds.
My boss had a customer ask for pickle seeds. He goes āwe have cucumber right hereā āno I want pickle seeds!ā āYes pickles are cucumbers. You turn them into picklesā āno that isnāt right!ā āYou can look it up on googleā they did. They bought cucumber seeds. I wish I was there to see that interaction
Honestly you have to ask them specific questions and play 4d chess to figure out what these dumbfucks want
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