Customer Interactions

There's nothing that bugs me more with a customer interaction, than when a customer ends up prolonging our interaction longer than expected.

Like if they appear to indicate that they're only getting one fish....I tend to allocate enough energy to deal with catching one fish for said customer.

So it gets on my nerves when I plan for only a 'one fish' interaction....and then the customer proceeds to request more fish. Or to ask a ton of questions. Or need to be shown where something is. 

Because I didn't expect to have to spend 'more time' with the customer. And I was already preparing myself to interact with the next need within the store. 

*exhales*

And I had to deal with multiple customers today that ended up prolonging their interaction with me. By like four times the expected time frame. *exhales*

The main customer that comes to mind was a gentleman who told me that he wanted 10 african dwarf frogs.

Which O_o TEN?!

Like I don't know if I've ever needed to catch ten frogs for a customer. 

Most the time people want between 1-3. It's rare to need more than that.

Mostly because most people who want frogs...have smaller tanks.

Nope. This dude had a 40 gallon tank.

Which is caused for concern because that's a deep tank.

And the frogs need to be able to swim up to the surface to get air. And it's a lot easier for them to do that in shallower tanks rather than deeper tanks.

So if people want frogs in bigger tanks...they need to create a 'step stool' system where you have to have various objects in your tank of different heights to help the frog 'step up' towards the surface.

I'm not quite sure the customer understood the concept though he was quite willing to go buy a decoration to 'help' the frogs out. 

And thankfully he decided to go down to 5 frogs instead of 10.

However. 

Instead of ending our interaction there with the frogs....

The customer proceeded to decide that he wanted fish.

But the dude had like...no idea what kind of fish he wanted.

And he basically started pointing to every tank on the wall saying "I want one fish from this tank. And one fish from this tank, and one fish from this tank." 

I could see he was gearing up to request like thirty fish. All from different tanks.

And I quickly stopped him. Telling him that he didn't want to add too many fish at once. And with already adding in five frogs...he really should only add in 5 fish with them.

Thankfully he listened to me. Though he did insist that I grab one of each fish from various tanks. *exhales* 

So I catch and bag the fish. Thinking the interaction will finally be done.

Nope.

He has his son with him. And he tells me that his son wants a bird.

A parakeet. -_- ugh. 

I don't understand everyone's obsession with the evil little creatures. 

In any case. The boy wanted a parakeet.

But he was having trouble describing which specific parakeet he wanted.

So I ended up playing a game of "Is it in the back or the front?" 

"The front."

"Okay is it on this side or that side?" (since I wasn't sure if the boy knew his left from his right)

He wanted the bird on 'this' side.

Easy peasy to figure out and then to catch.

ONLY it wasn't the only bird the boy wanted. *exhales*

No, he also wanted to buy one of our society finches as well. -he had two separate cages for each bird-

And like...by this point I'm just seeking to get away from the customer as quickly as possible before he decides he needs a hamster or an anole too.

Thankfully three interactions past the original frog interaction...I was finally able to free myself of the customer and move onto my next task and next customer.

But gah.

It was torture.

To think that I would only be spending like five minutes helping a customer and instead ended up having to do like thirty minutes with this customer. *exhales*

It's tiring.

And this sort of thing happened multiple times today. XP 

Not. Fun.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi