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Obliviosity
May. 25th, 2002 11:14 amYou know, it's funny sometimes how much people don't notice things. I was just thinking about that as I've been getting ready to go to work today. Not much time to expound, but I'll dash off a quick entry about it.
A typical conversation with a customer upon seeing our self-checkout stations at the retail store includes one or more of the following:
"Are you at one of these registers?" (Didn't notice the big blue "Self-Checkout" sign hanging over my head.)
"Oh, but I don't want to pay with a credit card." (Didn't notice the big "Cash In" slot on each machine.)
"Do you have any real registers open?" (Didn't notice normal lanes 5 through 14, at least one of which will usually have its indicator light turned on denoting open-ness. Conversely, when I'm working one of those "real" registers, they never notice when I've turned my light off to go on break or go home. They just assume that, since I'm there, and/or there's a line there, I must be open. Perhaps it, and the sign thing mentioned above, have something to do with people being most likely to notice what's at eye level.)
"Are these new?" (We've had them since October.)
"Where do I put the money|slide the card?" (The cash slot is right there on the machine in front of them, with a little green light blinking under it...and the credit card device is right under their nose, and is even pictured on the screen to aid them in finding it.)
"I signed the credit card box and touched okay, but it didn't do anything!" (This is one of the most irritating thing about my job...the machine's female voice that tells the customer what to do very clearly says to sign the box "and touch okay with pen." Yet it seems like at least half the customers automatically sign the box, then shift the pen out of their way to tap the OK button with their finger. I mean, why???)
And then there are the stupid questions, like, "Does this thing give change?" (It wouldn't be terribly useful for retail if it didn't!) or an aggrieved "Are all your registers going to be like this?" (Are you kidding? If you don't like the self-checkouts, then shouldn't it stand to reason that other people are going to feel the same way...and so if all our registers were like that, we'd lose half our customers, which wouldn't be terribly wise when we're trying to get out of bankruptcy, would it?)
Sometimes I think this job is making me far too cynical, as I mostly only see people at their worst.
Well, I'm out of time. Back this evening.
A typical conversation with a customer upon seeing our self-checkout stations at the retail store includes one or more of the following:
"Are you at one of these registers?" (Didn't notice the big blue "Self-Checkout" sign hanging over my head.)
"Oh, but I don't want to pay with a credit card." (Didn't notice the big "Cash In" slot on each machine.)
"Do you have any real registers open?" (Didn't notice normal lanes 5 through 14, at least one of which will usually have its indicator light turned on denoting open-ness. Conversely, when I'm working one of those "real" registers, they never notice when I've turned my light off to go on break or go home. They just assume that, since I'm there, and/or there's a line there, I must be open. Perhaps it, and the sign thing mentioned above, have something to do with people being most likely to notice what's at eye level.)
"Are these new?" (We've had them since October.)
"Where do I put the money|slide the card?" (The cash slot is right there on the machine in front of them, with a little green light blinking under it...and the credit card device is right under their nose, and is even pictured on the screen to aid them in finding it.)
"I signed the credit card box and touched okay, but it didn't do anything!" (This is one of the most irritating thing about my job...the machine's female voice that tells the customer what to do very clearly says to sign the box "and touch okay with pen." Yet it seems like at least half the customers automatically sign the box, then shift the pen out of their way to tap the OK button with their finger. I mean, why???)
And then there are the stupid questions, like, "Does this thing give change?" (It wouldn't be terribly useful for retail if it didn't!) or an aggrieved "Are all your registers going to be like this?" (Are you kidding? If you don't like the self-checkouts, then shouldn't it stand to reason that other people are going to feel the same way...and so if all our registers were like that, we'd lose half our customers, which wouldn't be terribly wise when we're trying to get out of bankruptcy, would it?)
Sometimes I think this job is making me far too cynical, as I mostly only see people at their worst.
Well, I'm out of time. Back this evening.
