If You Want Me To Rent Your Movies, Pretend I Exist

I hate it when you walk into a store and the employees do not acknowledge you. It was something I promoted heavily to my employees in one of my previous jobs, where I was the store manager in a customer service related field. Since I left that company, I still find myself watching the customer service skills of the employees of any retail business I enter.

Today on my lunch break I returned a movie to the west side Blockbuster store in Bend, and went inside to see if I could find a good kids movie to take home. Upon entering, I saw only one employee at the front of the store. She was organizing candy, and never looked up from her task to say anything to me. Would this bother anyone else? It gives me a strange vibe, and I feel awkward that they don't care I am in their establishment.

I was taught that you should at least give a simple hello to everyone who walks in the door. I wholeheartedly believe in this. It makes a store seem cold and impersonal when you walk in and are greeted with silence. Customers need to feel the personality of the store, and there is no better time to put it out there than right when they walk in the door. This opens up the type of experience the customer will have right out of the gate, and makes them more comfortable being in your space, and also approaching you for questions.

I feel like I’m kind of rambling, so I will close this post and visit this topic another day. To end the story, after walking in and being greeted by complete silence, I wandered down a few aisles. The store manager walked out from the back room and made eye contact with me, but she then quickly turned away without saying a word. I actually started to feel so out of place that I wanted to just put my head down and walk out. I decided to give them another shot and instead wandered towards the front of the store, and kept my head up as I walked out. There were 3 employees by the door, none of which were working with any customers, and not one of them looked my way or said anything.