10 May 2005
Customer Rules, part 7
Rule #7: Wait your turn.
Apparently some people out there missed the week in kindergarten when the rest of us learned how to wait our turn. These people are easy for me to spot: they're the people who interrupt me when I'm helping another customer. I'll be standing at the register, ringing someone up, and all of sudden the missing-kindergarten person will come up and ask me something. And it's not like there's a big line of customers behind the person I'm ringing up -- the most they'd have to wait is a couple of minutes. But apparently that's just too much of a wait for them, so they butt in. And it isn't always when I'm at the register. Sometimes I'll be showing someone something out on the floor, and a buttinski will interrupt there, too.
Seriously, what's up with that? Can they not wait the minute or two that politeness dictates? Are they really in that big of a hurry that they can't manange common courtesy? Come on, people, wait your turn!
What's most frustrating is that I still have to be polite, even when they're being very rude.
However...
One day I was at a music store. I was at the front counter, buying my whatever (blank audio tapes, maybe? Like I said, whatever.) All of a sudden, a kindergarten-missing buttinski comes up and asks the clerk a question. The clerk got the same look on his face that I do when someone does that to me, but answered the question. Before the buttinski left, I calmly and firmly explained that it was very rude of him to interrupt like that, and that he should have waited his turn. The buttinski was contrite and apologized and it was AWESOME.
So, to all you non-kindergarten-missing, non-buttinski's out there, stand up for yourself! You may have someone yell at you for having the guts to call them on their rudeness, but you'll be making the world a better place. Plus, it's really, really fun!
Apparently some people out there missed the week in kindergarten when the rest of us learned how to wait our turn. These people are easy for me to spot: they're the people who interrupt me when I'm helping another customer. I'll be standing at the register, ringing someone up, and all of sudden the missing-kindergarten person will come up and ask me something. And it's not like there's a big line of customers behind the person I'm ringing up -- the most they'd have to wait is a couple of minutes. But apparently that's just too much of a wait for them, so they butt in. And it isn't always when I'm at the register. Sometimes I'll be showing someone something out on the floor, and a buttinski will interrupt there, too.
Seriously, what's up with that? Can they not wait the minute or two that politeness dictates? Are they really in that big of a hurry that they can't manange common courtesy? Come on, people, wait your turn!
What's most frustrating is that I still have to be polite, even when they're being very rude.
However...
One day I was at a music store. I was at the front counter, buying my whatever (blank audio tapes, maybe? Like I said, whatever.) All of a sudden, a kindergarten-missing buttinski comes up and asks the clerk a question. The clerk got the same look on his face that I do when someone does that to me, but answered the question. Before the buttinski left, I calmly and firmly explained that it was very rude of him to interrupt like that, and that he should have waited his turn. The buttinski was contrite and apologized and it was AWESOME.
So, to all you non-kindergarten-missing, non-buttinski's out there, stand up for yourself! You may have someone yell at you for having the guts to call them on their rudeness, but you'll be making the world a better place. Plus, it's really, really fun!
# posted by mamurd @ 9:16 AM 
