Thursday, July 28, 2011

May I Help You?

A big part of my job at a mall Customer Service desk is to answer questions.

The most common query is the location of the restrooms. I also get a fair number of questions about getting to the mall's restaurants. Some shops are more popular than others and generate a lot of interest. For example, I quickly learned how to direct people to the computer store.

I don't know why, but sometimes questions seem to come in clusters:
  • In one day I had three people ask me if we'd be offering gift wrapping. (The answer is no.)
  • Another shift brought three inquiries about bulk candy stores.
  • One day, I had two CONSECUTIVE questions about the post office (one on the phone and one in person.)
  • And once, over the course of three hours, I had six queries about a clothing store that we don't even have.
Strangely, once I fielded the initial cluster of these questions, nobody's asked them again.

6 comments:

  1. How are liking your new job? That's interesting how things come in clusters. Nice that you're there to help people. Our malls are struggling here in my area. What used to be a form of entertainment when my kids were little is now more of an empty shell. In fact out favorite smaller mall, the one my kids remember being able to see the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus at...has been torn down.

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  2. I can't even begin to imagine what the questions will be like closer to Christmas!

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  3. It sounds like you've mastered your new job and might even be enjoying it. That's great! I would have guessed that the bathroom question would be the one most often asked.

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  4. The bathroom question is always MY question to the mall customer service person. I bet you will meet some real interesting characters in your job (and a LOT of blogging material!) ;-)

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  5. Oh, isn't that interesting! Makes you wonder if a certain news story didn't perk everyone's interest.

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  6. So Kathy, what do you think so far? And I'm going to sound liek an old lady but- do you have to stand all day? Or can you sit?!

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