The change thing bugs me also, as well as how most cashiers put the coins on top of the dollar bills.

I also love the confused looks I get when I hand over $21.5
0 for a $16.50 bill. They always try to hand the dollar bill back to me until I explain that it makes it easier for both of us if they can just hand me back a five.

Something interesting came up at the company-wide meeting this week... Apparently in Japan, customer service is the highest promotion within technical companies... development is the entry-level position. So, as a result, you don't get to deal directly with customers unless you're highly respected within the company and trusted to deal with them properly.

Quite the difference from how we do things here, eh?

I personally don't care whether a cashier counts up from my purchase amount or just gives me the amount the register displays as long as I do get the correct amount back. I have noticed though that many young people today seem to have difficulty deciding what change to give back/what form. ie for $.48 change they might give you one quarter, one dime, two nickels and three pennies. They seem rather clumsy at counting money which is probably a sign of the times we live in since most people don't seem to use cash much anymore.

I have also spent eight years working in perhaps the largest retail store in the world and I know the amount of pressure a cashier is under to maintain a high level of customer service. However, what most of the general public doesn't realize is that customer service is calculated by the number of items you scan, and is not possitively reflected by the amount of time you spend serving a customer. In fact it is adversely affected. Indeed, most customers opinions about the amount of time they have to wait in line support this stance.

Personally, I find it rather amusing that people consider the 'change factor' such a negative impact on customer service. The things that I find troublesome are the ways in which companies make it near impossible for employees to provide service to customers. Factors that contribute to this are inadequate staffing, lack of training, lack of product knowledge, and reinforcement to provide assistance to customers no matter which 'department' you are in. (You know. The "it's not my department" ploy.)

The complaint posted by Michael on July 30, 2003 is somewhat bothersome as well. But, do remember that this is an issue with training and company policy. Like, "Did you find everything you were looking for?" The staff are told what to say and do and are not given a choice to not do it. If you don't do what you are trained to do, even if it irritates customers, you can be fired. What I dislike even more than this is the instances in which you ask for something specific, and get something which you didn't ask for, because the employee either didn't hear or understand you and didn't confirm what you requested.

Of course if you have managers that do not practice this themselves, it is pretty hard to foster it in the rest of the staff. It doesn't always follow, that the highest ranking staff have the greatest ethics towards and respect for customers.

It is my opinion that to pick on the counting back of change is a trivial complaint to make in view of all the other factors that affect customer service. It would be a good idea to remember that what you see as "poor service" is often perpetuated by company policy. Therefore, if you would like to see a change, it is always a good idea to seek out management,the reginal district managers or better yet the home office to make a complaint. The employees don't have the option of implementing change even though they receive the greatest amount of complaints. So, if you want to take the time and make a positive impact on customer service it would be prudent to take the correct route. Most people won't though, and of course we all know what that means, a continuation of poor customer service.