Just Ask the Question

 I'm sure most places that deal with customers deal with it. 

I'm sure I've even been 'one of those' customers who's done it.

But it's still really super annoying when customers feel like they have to tell an entire story to you before they can ask their question. 

Like I get it. They probably want to make sure they're setting up the situation properly. Making sure that the worker has all the (un)neccessary details that will help the customer get the results they want in the end.

But boy....is it freaking annoying.

Especially when I'm busy and I have tasks to do. I would much rather just answer your two second question with my own two second answer rather than listen to you blather on for 15 minutes with prequel details before you even get to the question.

Like seriously. 

The main one that comes to mind is the simple question of "Can I return food to your store?" 

I don't even mind the slightly more detailed "My [type of pet] doesn't like the food I bought. Can I return it?"

It's a quick answer too. "Yes, so long as half of the food is still unused in the bag and you bought it within the last 60 days and have the receipt you can bring it back and either get your money back or exchange it for a different food." 

Okay. Slightly longer answer. But honesty it's a quick answer all things considered.

I mean, I can't speak for all my associates, but we are quite used to people returning food for a variety of reasons. They bought the wrong one, their pet doesn't like it, it made their pet sick, it's too smelly, it's actually expired. Etc.

Just prove you bought it within 60 days and have half of it still in the container and walla. You're golden.

There's really no need to go into a super long explaination before getting to your question.

Like a couple days ago I had a customer call in regards to a cat food she bought. Just the fact that she brought up she bought a 'different flavor' of her usual food tells me that she's probably wanting to ask if she can bring the food back to us or not.

But this customer had to tell me that she usually feeds her cat the chicken flavor of this brand but she recently switched her cat to the salmon and cod (maybe it was just cod idr at this point) but she was reading online that cod is high in ....I think it was magnesium? And that she's worried it's causing issues for her cat but the cat was fine on the chicken before so she just probably isn't good with the cod---"

Like lady "ARe you wanting to return the food? Yes? Then cool. If you bought it within 60 days just bring it back with the receipt. I need half of it still in the bag. Okay? Okay cool."

I don't need the ten minute prequel story.

I really don't.

If it takes over a minute to explain your situation to get to your question you are giving me the wrong details. 

Honestly, if you would just ask your question then if I need more detail I will ask you for that detail. I don't need all this filler conversation when the store is chaotic and I'm trying to get fourteen different tasks done before the end of my shift and help customers at the same time.

Today I had the same sort of situation.

A customer came into the store and demanded to talk to a manager.

Unlucky me, I was the one free at the moment so I go up to see what the customer wants.

Customer has a container of food on the register which automatically tells me she wants to return it. Though the food isn't in its package it's in some different container. Which we usually don't accept but we've also been directed by corporate to "make the customer happy" so as long as we can prove you bought it in the store, I'll do the return I don't care.

But does she ask me "Hey can I return this? My dog is getting sick from it."

No.

She goes into this whole entire story where she bought food from us back at the beginning of the month, and usually she buys the same brand of rx food but she switches between buying it from Chewy and from us. 

Which okay. Sooooo???

But she came home from work like 5 days after buying her most recent bag of food from us to find that the dog has bloody stool.

Okay. Not a good sign. Does point me towards the fact that yah you probably want to return the food because you think it's the cause of the bloody stool.

Does she ask me at that point though? No.

Instead she pulls out her phone and shows me pictures of blood on the grass and maybe the poop mixed with said blood.

I don't know honestly. I was doing my best to not look at said pictures because it's not like there is anything I can do with said pictuers and it has nothing to do with trying to return the food.

But she keeps flipping through her phone showing more images though I'm only seeing them from the corner of my eye because I'm just staring at the customer waiting for her to get to the point as she explain that she took her dog to an emergency vet. She took it TWICE. 

Customer legit pulls out the invoices for said emergency vet and waves them in my face.

Like. Yes. I see you have proof of the visits. 

Still has nothing to do with the question I know you're wanting to ask.

But the customer continues to tell me all about the vet visits and the tests and how the vets could find nothing wrong with the organs that deal with blood. But her dog is bleeding all over the place.

She uses her phone to show me yet more crime scene worthy photos of pools of blood on the ground. 

Like lady. Still nothing i can do about your dog. WHY are you telling me and showing me this? Yes. poor thing. Yes I can see that you're thinking the food is causing this reaction. I'm skeptical myself. But I'm not going to say that to you, especially when said food has been used before and for a while by you.

In any case at some point I find a slight opening in her rant about what's been happening in her life and how she's dropped $1,000 at the vet to try and figure out what's wrong.

To ask her. "So are you wanting me to return the food?"

To which yes, another explaination later. She does. "Do you have a receipt?"

No. She doesn't. And yet another pointless explaination later I get that she has records of her visits in our system.

Which great. I can look that up. I just need to verify that the food you purchased is the size of food I think it is and that the container of food that isn't in its proper bag is the proper size for the size of bag you bought.

Yes? Yes. Great. 

I can do the return.

But honestly.

It was a good 20 minute conversation I had with this lady. Well she mostly monologued at me. But yah 20 minutes when I could have had her in and out the door in under 5 minutes.

*exhales*

And then she also is like "I'm sure the food is what caused this issue with my dog. What are we (aka I) going to do about it?"

Like lady. There is NOTHING I can do. 

She felt that the food wasn't properly processed.

I for a fact know that dog food especially prescription dog food has to go through a pretty stringent process with lots of checking and detailing and quality tests before its sold to the store. 

It's not like I make the food in house and have a nice little packaging facility behind the store where we create everything.

If you have a problem with the brand you'll need to contact the manufacturer because I just sell the stuff. It comes to us already packaged. That's it. 

And as far as I'm aware no other customer has had issues with this food. Coroporate hasn't sent down a recall. Therefore the manufacturer is also not aware of any issues with their food else they would issue a recall to fix the problem and help prevent further animals from getting sick.

But still. If they think the food is to blame. They need to call the manufacturer.

Plus if you've been feeding the dog the same rx food for a while....either it's a bad batch of food that you ended up with or else there is something else going on with your dog.

Like I get a bunch of tests were run at the emergency vet. But there's probably some other underyling issue that isn't as visible to see.

*exhales*

In any case.

I got her her money back for the food.

But it sure felt like pulling teeth getting to that point.

Why can't customers just ask the question first? Because in most cases we don't need to know more than what the question is in order to give you the answer you need.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi