Counting Change

[DonnaP]

So much of it is training, and how managers don't seem to care about training cashiers on handling money, probably because they weren't trained properly. Once again, I was taught to face the bills when someone paid me, as a courteous way of double checking the cash they had handed me. As a result, all bills in the drawer were faced and when I counted the change back--which was also a double check--they were still faced. But all these money handling procedures, I didn't know them before I started working. Some of these jobs, they make the kids stupid because they teach them that the computer does everything, they aren't even allowed to think otherwise.

 

[Espee]

When there's a power outage, just try buying something-- even with cash. I guess that's when we all get to turn to looting?

 

[Tango Yankee]

When there's a power outage, just try buying something-- even with cash. I guess that's when we all get to turn to looting?

During the recent power outages here in Ohio an Ace Hardware store opened for business and accepted IOUs from their customers. They could take cash but since ATMs were down people didn't have access to it! Now THAT was customer service!

 

[Edward]

I suppose a lot has to do with the fact that restaurants and shops of old were run by the owner. Today, so many businesses are owned by people that may have never step foot in the establishment and that hire management staff to run the operation. Occasionally they will luck upon a top flight manager, someone who runs the business like his own, but more often than not, managing staff is less than quality and is constantly turning over. There is little pride in the business, particuarly by younger staff that only see their job as a temporary income while in school or what ever.

There are so many companies - especially in these days of high unemployment (read: surplus workforce) who treat their staff so abysmally, that it is little wonder that many service industry personnel have little incentive to treat the customer well. In some ways, I prefer service that is a little grudging than the OTT 'gimmeatip!' variety. FWIW, consistently the best customer service I have had has been in the US and in China. Also, here in London some places really stand out. (If you're going to Charles Tyrwhitt, go to the Jermyn Street branch and see a young man by the name of - coincidentally - Edward. Unfortunately they don't work on commission, but I truly intend to find time to write to his boss and indicate how exemplary he is).

Recently I purchased a cup of coffee at a McDonalds while on a road trip to Ft. Worth. I paid for my cup with a 5 dollar bill, and was handed change for a 20!! When I tried to return the excess change, it took a request to get a manager over before they'd accept the change back...and even with the manager involved, they looked and acted like I was completely out of my mind...even when I showed them my receipt, told them what I had given the clerk, then showed them my change! So, it's at management level in a lot of places. At least my conscience is clear...I could have walked out 15 dollars richer for the experience, instead of a bad attitude at being treated like a nut case, and having a now cold cup of coffee to add insult to injury. Regards. Michaelson

My mother once had a similar reaction on Northern Ireland trains when she walked the length of the train to find a conductor to pay for a ticket. I had a girlfriend years ago ho came in one day boasting of how she'd been given change of a twenty instead of a ten in Starbucks (that's not why she's an ex, but in retrospect it should have been a sign). All I could think of was whichever poor kid ended up being yelled at for being short at the end of the shift, and paying it out of their own wage...

Two more additions while we are on this topic.......Telling time.....I have actually heard some of my wifes high school students ask about telling time....if you look at most of the students these days a majority of people are wearing digital watches. Also, simple math.....without a calculator some of them are hog tied in trying to figure out a simple math problem......and don't get started on long division....Anyway just a thought or two that struck me. Regards, Williamson.

A lot of kids I was at school with struggled with telling the time, in part because they wore digital watches so had never had to learn. In some ways I think, well, that's just the nature of things: I never had to learn how to use a slate, or a sundial... but I'd hate to see that sort of thing die out, all the same. I went back to analogue at thirteen, partly as a matter of aesthetics, but also because the 'thinking' worked for me - I actually visualise periods of time under one hour in terms of 'blocks' of the clock face - 20 minutes = a third of the face, that sort of thing. Made it very handy when apportioning my time during exams.

Worse, they don't even wear watches anymore, digital or otherwise. It's now their phone which has become the 21st century equivalent of the Swiss Army knife because it does practically everything.

Inevitable, really. It wouldn't be my choice, but I can certainly understand those who want to minimise what they carry by shrinking all functions into one gadget. I feel naked without a wristwatch, but I can see them not disappearing, but certainly becoming a niche product like pocketwatches before the next century is out. Perhaps it might actually inspire a new era of wristwatch design. It seem logical to think that as their utility diminishes, design will become even more important as they become, in effect, jewellery (moreso than they are now).

Most of your corporate leadership today are MBAs who aren't necessarily rooted in any particular business or industry which is in stark contrast to the old days when members of the management team often started, literally, on the ground floor of the company. Many of today's MBA's had probably never even ran as much as a lemonade stand prior to getting their MBA. They've been taught in school that marketing is marketing whether it's candy or cars and their careers often consist of hopping from company to company on a resume-building tour.

In many ways that is correct - "transferable skills" - but what makes for efficient business also has its downside. The music industry is riddled with Simon Cowells to whom it is nothing but product, which is sad. Mind you, the music industry was, arguably, ever thus.... I think that's a much more deeply rooted problem with business culture in general than a modern thing, necessarily. For "the love of money," as the Book says, "is the root of all kinds of evil".

During the recent power outages here in Ohio an Ace Hardware store opened for business and accepted IOUs from their customers. They could take cash but since ATMs were down people didn't have access to it! Now THAT was customer service!

Indeed! I hope they did well enough out of the resultant goodwill to make back any losses from less than scrupulous customers!

 

[John in Covina]

The big wad of money says we're right and stop wasting our time worrying about your change -we're right.

These days there are so many little deceits in business for supposed billing mistakes to Walmart's carrosel of lost purchases at the register that I find it is up to me to protect my interests since the corporations tend to protect theirs.

 

[Stanley Doble]

^^ Your remark about the music business reminds me of something Frank Zappa said.

He said when he started in music in California there was a lot of good music being put out. This was the late fifties.

In those days the music business was run by old guys with cigars. They would publish anything they thought would sell whether they liked it or understood it or not. So they turned out a lot of rubbish but they turned out some good music too.

Then the old guys with cigars were replaced by hip young executives whose motto was "I know what the kids like". After that, the big companies turned out nothing but rubbish. Nothing good stood a chance.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

^^ Your remark about the music business reminds me of something Frank Zappa said.

He said when he started in music in California there was a lot of good music being put out. This was the late fifties.

In those days the music business was run by old guys with cigars. They would publish anything they thought would sell whether they liked it or understood it or not. So they turned out a lot of rubbish but they turned out some good music too.

Then the old guys with cigars were replaced by hip young executives whose motto was "I know what the kids like". After that, the big companies turned out nothing but rubbish. Nothing good stood a chance.

And many of the old guys with cigars began their careers as song pluggers on Tin Pan Alley without a single MBA between them.