When Beauty Gets Ugly: "Be-otches"

 

…And now, back to teaching customers how not to shop in cosmetics.

Anyone in the service industry knows our customers’ moods fluctuate. We mark on our calendar the day of the full moon, knowing we'll be invaded by a flood of crazy people around that time. When we have bad days, it tends to be a series of weird events instead of just one single moment—and it never fails, when the...Peaches...come, they just keep on keeping on.

 Now, let me clarify for the rest of the customers out there. I mentioned before how Bad Customers make up a small percentage of shoppers. Well, bitchy customers are our one percenters. They are rare—thank God. So I think it's time to call out few;).

“The 'I-Pretend-I-Don’t-See-You-Even-Though-You’re-Standing-Directly-In-Front-Of Me' Woman”

Yeah, we know you can hear us. You stand there on the other side of the counter, not acknowledging our existence. Even though we’ve asked if you needed help twice now.

If you don’t say anything on the first ‘Hello’, we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. After a moment we’ll say it again—a little louder just in case we spoke too softly. When you ignore us the second time, we know you’re doing it on purpose. We feel a twinge of annoyance at your rudeness before we walk away. Of course, you could've just said, “I’m just looking.” Ninety-nine percent of us would say okay and leave you alone. Yet you choose to pretend we are not even there. Uh, that’s horrible manners, by the way. Just figured someone out there should let you know.

Now, this act alone doesn’t put you in the ‘be-otch’ category. What does is when you then yell at us for leaving you alone. “Excuse me,” you’ll say, an angry bite to your tone. “I need this lipstick shade in 106—that is, if you all aren't too busy chatting...”

Oh, ho-ho. Line crossed. It would now be a bad idea to ask for a makeup application or color matching…because we probably won't be gentle--and we might get a little too honest about that birth mark on your cheek. Wink. Thank you very much, and have a nice day.

 

“The Be-otch”

Sorry, just calling it like it is—and you know it’s true. You know you’re a capital B with an itch, a witch with a B minus the W—and you're okay with it. That’s who you’ve chosen to be. And you have chosen to be that way. No one is that rude without at least a modicum of self-awareness. You are either this way all the time, to everyone, or you choose the service industry to let loose because you know we aren't allowed to bite back. Either way, you take pride in the fact you don’t take no crap from nobody. No matter what. What's funny is you actually get surprised when people are rude back. Sorry, but it is a bit ridiculous when you complain to management about the way you’re treated - after you just spent an hour belittling the people who were only trying to help you. Come on, haven't you ever heard the phrase ‘You catch more flies with honey than vinegar’?

Because killing you with kindness is my MO, I'm going to tell you a little secret:

If you treat us nice...or even better, if you’re loyal and you treat us nice, you'll get hooked up. For real. Pay attention ladies and gents—this is absolutely the right way to shop in cosmetics. Pick a salesperson you like and stick with them - it really does pay off.

So one more time...Loyalty and niceness = lots of gifts and goodies. Rudeness and Raging = as little as we can give you in as crappy a way as we can give it to you.

 

Now, which way is the smarter way to shop? That’s what I thought:).

 

Cheers, and happy shopping!