Next Step

Everything in life has steps, and we are constantly trying to reach the next step in our lives.  We take the step from high school to college (well, some of us do); and we take the step from dating to engagement to marriage.  I started in retail as a part time customer service rep, and I have held many positions in different retail stores.  Sometimes the moves I have made in my retail career did not make sense to others.   I went from regular associate, to supervisor, back to associate, back to supervisor, to unemployed (by my own choice), to assistant manager, to department manager, and back to regular associate.  Every step I took was a part of my plan.  I took my steps to take care of myself and my family.  I was getting ready to do whatever I had to do to get to take my next step into corporate training.  I have always loved training new employees, opening new stores, and being able to share the little tricks I’ve learned along the way; and I was going to become a corporate trainer, I was determined.   Then I went to work on a Saturday morning, and the 40 employees of my store were all told that the company was closing.  In that moment, my next step changed, but I had no idea what my next step would be.   I had no plan.  The job market is tough; there are not many options out there, especially if I would like to continue earning anything close to what I earn now.  Now, I have to find my next step.  I am not sure where I will go, or where my co-workers will go, and I am sure in the long run all of us will be fine, however it is the initial first step that terrifies me. 

                I have received lots of advice, but this is an experience that is like none other I have experienced before.   The most frustrating piece of advice is “This is your chance to get out of retail!”  My normal response is “And do what? This is what I’ve been doing for 12 years!”  I’m not just a sales person who can sell anything; I am a true retail grunt.   I understand this business, I know what goals I am trying to achieve, I understand my acronyms, and this is who I am.  This experience has left me feeling as if I am standing in a dark room and I am stumbling around running into potential steps.  My fear is that if I choose the wrong step then the bottom will fall out and I will end up even further behind than I am right now.  I do not know if I am the only person to feel like this, but I do know that I am not the only one who is angry and scared about what is happening.  This company has employed and still employs some of the most talented and intelligent people I have ever worked with, and from what I can tell, most of us are still looking for our next step.  Good luck to any and all fellow retail grunts going through this process with me!

The Famous Cat Pee Story

When deciding what to write for this blog, I thought of all kinds of topics to cover.  Everything from tips for customers, tips for employees, my struggle to be successful while being tagged as "the emotional girl," and many more topics and stories.  Then I thought back, way back, to my days as a customer service representative at an electronics store, and even 10 years after it happened, it is still one of my favorite stories to tell.

It was a normal day at the store, when I looked over to see a large man in overalls carrying a very large television, walking into the store with his wife dressed in what can only be described as a moo-moo.  I directed him to bring the television to the service counter.  As he set the TV down, I asked him "What seems to be the problem with your television?"  The man informed me that he was having dinner with his wife and all of a sudden he heard popping sounds and saw smoke coming from the back of the television.  I took his receipt and asked the service techs to take the TV so they could try and see what had happened, after all the TV had been purchased only 4 month prior.  I gave the techs some time, made some small talk with the man and his wife as I did my best to not stare at his two teeth or acknowledge the unidentifiable smell that wafted from the couple.  I, then, excused myself and went to check on the techs.  As I got there they had just taken the back off the TV, and before I could say anything, I watched both techs, jump back and cover their mouths as they tried to control their gag reflex.  One of the techs came to me and said, "The problem is, their cat peed on the TV, and we cannot send that to service."  I took a deep breath (from my mouth, not my nose; that smell was HORRIBLE), and went to talk to the couple.  I looked the man in the eye, and used my standard line, "I'm sorry sir, but we are unable to service your TV due to that the problem is caused by physical damage."  The man began to shake his head, first slowly and then the shake increased in speed, until he said "That's crap! I want to talk to the man in charge!"  I turned around and paged for the manager on duty to come to customer service, when SHE arrived, he began to shake his head again.  He insisted he wanted to talk to a man, not a little girl.  My manager explained to him that she was the only manager in the building, and if he wanted to plead his case, he would have to talk to her, there were no other options.  He finally calmed down while I took my manager to the service area to see and smell the TV.  She instantly knew that a cat had peed on the TV, and that is what caused the obvious damage to the television. We went back to the customer, and my manager, almost word for word, said exactly what I said to the man when I told him that we could not service the television.  Then, the nearly silent wife, finally asked, "What kind of damage you talkin' bout?" I told both of them, that when the techs took off the back to the TV, they found that a cat had urinated on the back of the television causing the popping and smoking that occurred.  The man began his head shake again, and very loudly said "No! No! No!  That ain't possible!"  My manager asked the obvious question "Do you have cats?"  He replied "Yup, we have 9, but that ain't possible!"  I then asked "Do the cats not live inside?"  He said "Of course they live inside, but you are wrong, my cat couldn't have peed on that TV!"  The tech couldn't keep quiet anymore, and said "I took the back off that TV, and it reeks of cat pee, I know that smell, I have cats.  But please tell us, why is it not possible?"  The man crossed his arms across his puffed up chest, looked my tech in the eye, and said "It ain't possible! My cat is neutered; he couldn't have peed on the TV!"  The three of us stood there, trying to hold in the laughter, and all of us wanting to say the next obvious comment, finally my manager regained her composure enough to say "Sir, your cat being neutered does not affect its ability to pee, it only affects the cat's ability to make kittens.  We cannot service your TV, you will need to take it home, and do what you want with it.  I am..."  Before she could get out her apology, the man walked behind the counter, picked up his TV, which had been put back together, and walked out of the store, cursing us all the way to his car. 

The moral of the story is don't be ignorant, otherwise you could become the star of a story told by a retail grunt 10 years later and evoke more laughter than Betty White.  Acknowledge that the customer may not always be right.