What do you do when something is out of your control? Just the other day, two of our checkers called in sick and it was only down to Debbie and I, from 6 PM to midnight. Lines are building up because customers had just gotten out of work and anxious to buy or make dinner. What do you do if there’s only two of you and about 20 people in line? What do you do when there’s hecklers that keeps asking when are we going to get another checker or why are we so slow? Yelling and being mad about the lines does not make things go faster. We see the lines and believe us, we really don’t want to check every single person out without help. The best thing we’ve done over the years was just ignore it and go on with our business as fast as we can. That was until I received a special email from Melissa of Huckleberry Prairie, who was once the manager of a grocery store. She wrote me a list of her pet peeves and although we can relate to them all; she mentioned this particular moment and how we can alleviate it…
Hecker #1: Can you guys get another checker up here!
Heckler #2: Do you realize how many people is waiting!?
We can hear the grumbles and pouting. We have to do something before the customers form an alliance against us.
Heckler #3: Your lines are long!
Then it hit me. I remembered what Melissa wrote…
LUIS, CAN YOU CHECK PLEASE!
You can sense the tension slowly dying down as the customers wait for Luis…
A few minutes go by…
LUIS, CAN YOU CHECK PLEASE!
The lines became smaller and smaller. The heckler’s stopped their abrasive comments and still no sign of Luis.
When things got normal Debbie turns to me and says,
Debbie: Who’s Luis?
Me: [shrug] It worked didn’t it?
THANK YOU MELISSA! You definitely saved our butts on that one. Be sure to check out Melissa’s blog, Huckleberry Prairie. She’s one funny lady.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s a good one!
Priceless! I hope every store posts this in their break room.
Our local store is notorioius for always having maximum two lines open, usually just one – we just go with it as do our neighbors – they understaff all the time and don’t care b/c the people still come in. We just deal.
I love Luis.
That’s funny. It would never work here because we are such a small town everyone would be all like “Did someone new move into town?” but hey, glad it worked for you.
LOL…Yea, that was a good one ha ha…I know the feeling of both parts here…Been the cashier during Christmas holidays in a dept store where the lines were literally to the back of the store…And the Dept store didnt take refunds, issuing store credit for something they purcahsed a couple of mins ago…Doesnt make for happy customers….And of course, I have been the customer in the lines…If its too bad, I will leave…
Store managers do realize that fast service at checkout builds repeat business, and slow service loses customers forever?
Secretia
If that happens whenI get groceries I’ll know they read your blog! That is great advice!
That’s fantastic. Very funny!
HA! That’s beautiful!
In response to Wicked Shawn’s concern: Instead of calling for Luis, you could call for one of the checkers who had called in sick. (Teach them to call in sick!)