It seems one can’t get decent service anywhere these days. Be it a restaurant, the local grocery shop, a department store, a fuel pump – well, the list is endless. The days of courtesy and amiability have been consigned to the archive of ‘undesirable qualities of the 21st century’, considered as a sign of meekness and docility in this era of aggression and machismo. But what irks me more than the lack of responsiveness, is the shoddy way in which a simple but crucial task is handled at any of these establishments – billing. Indeed, you wouldn’t be surprised to recount the number of times you would have happily entered a store but came out irritated, thanks to that inevitable process that needs to be endured once something has been bought. A classic example is a supermarket, as not only is there a high probability that things can go wrong (why this is so will become apparent as this article progresses), but it also amplifies the agony since there is usually more than one item to be checked out.
One of the most basic problems is the waiting time. Long queues are the norm, often reminiscent of the traffic at a busy junction. Weekends are especially a nightmare, not to mention fire sales and seasonal discounts. In fact, there is a striking parallel between traffic junctions and billing counters – both are generally manned by people with a lack of judgment and competence, and are incapable of adapting to the situation. Cashiers are hardly trained and are picked up dime a dozen to save costs and boost the company’s profits, while subjecting customers to a test of incredible patience. They often fumble at the counter, struggling when a product lacks an identification tag or when the system becomes unresponsive. If all else – including several fervent and futile attempts to coax the system into working – fails, the cashier will leave you standing helplessly while wandering around like a headless chicken searching for a savior; this could be another colleague or even the floor manager. Smaller establishments also suffer from one-counter-at-a-time syndrome, where in spite of having more than one counter, only one will be operational at any point of time, irrespective of the number of customers or the number of store staff, who would be doing nothing else, but will be too ‘busy’ stacking products onto shelves. At the end of it all, the lack of any apology or feeling of contrition, that would otherwise have softened the blow, is what makes it worse I suppose. Speaking (your mind) to the managers has a limited effect; the advice is soon forgotten and matters return to ‘normalcy’ within a few days. Employers need to take more responsibility and provide basic training (including soft skills) so that employees can cope better with the demands of the job. If engineering degree holders are given further focused training to make them employable, I suppose this couldn’t be too much to ask. Perhaps, a finishing school for this purpose will be a good business proposition, given the high deficit of required talent.
Other reasons that cause frustration may not be felt instantaneously, but only once you have left the store. Errors in the bill are not uncommon, with price swaps and incorrect quantities leading the list of issues. Of course, if you are not the type who compares what was bought and what was billed, these types of mistakes remain undiscovered. Sellers are also casual about offers on products – generally promotions by companies when another item is given for free – and will ignore them with an air of nonchalance that is so convincing you would believe it was a genuine oversight on their part, or give you disgusted looks that make you cringe and feel you have acted cheaply by asking for something which in all fairness on your part, wasn’t supposed to be demanded in the first place. Both of the above reasons will inevitably result in a trudge back to the shop, just when you have settled down comfortably at home (shopping is quite exhausting after all).
The quintessential question of any supposedly unfathomable activity thus comes up for discussion: is billing an art or a science? Well ideally, the question shouldn’t have have been asked in the first place, as this process should pose no problems if followed correctly by all parties concerned. However, as with most things in life, they are never perfect, and realistically we as customers can be expected to show some degree of tolerance for these deviations. Unfortunately, the quality of service often touches new lows and just when you think the last few visits to a shop were without incident, the ugly head of bad billing raises its head again and you are back to square one. That alas, is the nature of the beast; you can only hope to have a good en’counter’!