The moment you reach the cash counter after you have waded past the nagging salespeople, and their not so great attempts at persuading you to buy something…I say, not so good attempt since most of them, or rather majority of them have little or no knowledge of what they are trying to sell to you… so ya, just when you have reached the cash counter, the executive starts to mumble under his breath of whether you want the Lifetime Membership Card… and he won’t stop rambling….
I keep saying No!… No!!… No!!!… And they still wouldn’t stop…. And they wouldn’t stop till they have narrated the entire deal to you…. I DON’T CARE Man!!!!
If I had thought you were the best that I could get, I would surely have taken that Lifetime Membership Card… but No, you are not the best one around… you are just more accessible and around … and may be only today… coz tomorrow some one else may take that place and I could be in some other part of town… You are not the best one around since most of you nowadays sell the same thing, the schemes are predictable, the decoration is, the slogans are and your people do not still know what they are selling…
shut-up - Image Courtesy: Ronmartin.net
Be it that flamboyant international bakery and coffee brand, or the big lifestyle brand with fluorescent bags or the so called multicolored music store from a giant Media house … frustration peaks when the salesperson does all the deal of Namaskar Madam and then doesn’t know what to say next and has a ‘BLAH’ moment!!! Exasperated I am then… I am reminded of that scene from ‘You’ve Got Mail’ where Meg Ryan enters the large book store owned by Tom Hanks which is surely pretty and attractive, but has a salesperson who doesn’t know all about the Shoe Books… Does he need to know about everything in the store… well, not exactly, but at least show the gesture of wanting to try and finding it out for the customer…?
My dad has run a business of sarees for many years now and I learnt it from him to at least show a kind gesture for the customer… whether they wanted to know more about a yarn, or the origins of a saree, or a design in particular… my dad gave the customer that undivided attention trying to understand his or her need and when he did found out the details, he would call up the customer and share it with him or her. The customers would be pleasantly surprised most times and completely overwhelmed for they could never imagine a business man taking the pains to understand one simple enquiry of theirs and make an effort to know more about it… and trust me, I think that was Customer Service! 
I stopped working in a Call Centre because I found myself in a crowd where I couldn’t help and was not supposed to help…I was only supposed to take the calls… and then of course we were given sessions on customer service!!!
Try to hard sell something only when you can help the customer make a prudent decision… and for God’s sake, please stop rambling about the Lifetime Membership Cards… I really do not care you know…
