An LFS Employee Here

[equinom]

Just a comment.

As a "newbie", I KNOW that I need advice.  I ask questions of the LFS folks - and I don't go back to the stores that have dirty tanks that seem overcrowded (If I think it's overcrowded - it's really overcrowded!).  A problem that I run into is that if I ask a question I get one answer.  I might ask the same question to another employee at that same store.  And I get a different answer - sometimes very different.
Now what should I do?  I get a book - I get on the net, and ask more questions - and still get a variety of answers.  If there seems to be one reply that is popular - that's what I go with.  Call me stupid - but I am trying.

As far as the business - I can reply to that.  My family has owned a business for over 30 years.  No, not a fish store - but a private business none the less.  And customers can be difficult - that doesn't change because of the product.  (Personally worked for 12 years as a technical consultant for a medical  company helping people who had big time problems that ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars)
The thing that sets a business apart from the competition is the service.  Current technology is so advanced that many of the products are of similar quality and functionality - so the only thing to make a business unique is the service provided.  

Employees with a know-it-all attitude doesn't help, and doesn't bring people (and their money) back.   Everyone has run into that, whether it be at a computer store, stereo shop, or the receptionist at the doctor's office.  Some folks think that because they "work" at a type of store - they should be
thought of as THE authority in that business.  SOME people that work at Best Buy feel they should be treated as if they were Bill Gates, music store employees think they are rock-stars, salon employees have the most unique hair/make-up, and the secretary at the doctor's office diagnosis the patient.  And SOME folks that work at the LFS think they are Jacques Custeau.  

But not everyone is like that - as a consumer it is your job to be informed and use common sense.  Find the store that has what you want, what you need - has top notch service, and then price.  If you think about it, that goes for just about everything you buy - food, clothes, cars, and hopefully pets.

This has gotten much longer than intended - I wish you were at a LFS near me, but you may want to cut SOME of your customers a break.  It might be that, because they are "newbies" they haven't even learned what questions to ask yet!!!  Even though you are very busy - and sounds like you have more than your hands full - try to think of customers as individuals.  They are not all alike either.

Thank You for caring about your product.  Bet you keep a great department.  Keep up the good work.
When I didn't think I could handle one more ignorant, raving customer who had caused their own problem - I tried to remember "If I teach one person something useful today, all the rest of it was worth it."    Difficult, but helpful.

 

[JWright]

Well said.

-Josh

 

[keprydak]

Just to add in my two cents - I have had mixed experiences with the LFSs in my area. For good ones, I have to drive anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to find what I want, or I have to special order it. There is both a Petsmart and a Petco right down the road, but I only go there if it is an emergency (or not a sunday. I dare not brave Houston I-10 traffic on other days). There are bad things I have seen happen.

For example, one time I was at Petco, just snooping around after I picked up a test kit. A woman had three screaming children in her cart, and she has a 1 gallon starter kit in her hand. She was hanging around the Tiger barbs, and I was about to butt in and ask which fish she was looking at, but an employee (a regular I see often enough) came up quickly and asked if he could help. Huh, yeah right. She points to the little TBs, and says, "I want three. They can live in this thing, right?" The emplyee nods. "How long do I have to wait?" she asks. He ponders for a moment. "1 hour after filling. Everything will be fine after that." I almost choked. I avoid that store at all costs now.

Another time I was at the Petsmart, picking up a fake root for my apisto tank. I see a bunch of kids looking at some mollies. I think, Hey, that's nice. My dad was with me, and he asks why I would spend $20 on a pair of apistos when I can have these cute little mollies. I inform him, I'm not really into livebearers or brackish fish anymore. I also didn't have the cash for aquarium salt (I am still in debt for the apisto tank) at the time. The employee nearby struts up and says, "You know, they don't really need salt. In fact, I don't reccomend it." He smiles. "Ummm, yeah, I think they do need salt. I just read it in my AFM this month..." I give him the look. He keeps insisting the magazine must be wrong, because he must obviosly know everything, right?

But then again, luckily I do have a good LFS out here. Only 30 minutes away is Spectrum Fish and Pets, the BEST LFS ever. They ordered my stunning apistos for me, they ask you if you need help, and don't bother you if you don't. They give good, real adivce. I often ask questions I know the answers too, because I like opinions. I was there one time buying some Tiger barbs. The man says to me, "You know they are fin nippers, right? They're vicious if you get a bad bunch! You do have at least 20 gallons?" He hadn't veen put the net in the tank yet. Of course, I did, so i bought them, but he knew what they needed and he offered me the advice. I love that LFS, too bad I can only go on select Sundays when I've been really good all week. It's a treat to be around those guys who love animals of all kinds and really care about how they are doing. I went in last sunday, and the manager comes up to me and says, "So, how are Rocky & Adrienne doing?" (they are my apistos.) He remembered their names even.

So thank god for all those great LFS employees out there. The whole aquatic world would be doomed without you. All I have to say is, next summer, I hope to join your ranks

 

[colesea]

And if every customer there ever was in this world were open, receptive, polite, not ignorant, and repsectful, you wouldn't LFS employees who don't give a damn. True story:

It was a weekend, and I was in a pretty good mood. I had just finished feeding and was doing some minor cleaning around the department when this lady comes up to me to ask what I would reccomend for a small bowl. She's got two kids in tow, a little boy and about a twelve year old girl. I lead them over to the bettas, explain betta care for them, stand there for a few minutes, and asked "is there anything else I can do for you?"

I get a negative reply, so I figure they're just picking their betta color and I walk away. I help another customer, I finish that up, I turn around, and there is the twelve year old girl standing next to the goldfish tank looking very unenthuseastic. She says "I want a goldfish."
 
In her hands is a very small Kritter Keeper. I don't know if everyones seen one of those, but this thing is maybe a quart, if that.  I look at her, I say. "Is that what you're going to put the fish in?"  She nods. I was very polite, I smiled at her, and I said, "Goldfish aren't going to live very happily in that. The best fish for something like..." and I turn around to lead her back to the bettas and I come right up face to face with the mother, who pretty much shouts at me. "Can't you just get her the damn fish?"

I blink, I look at the mother and say very nicely. "Mam'am, the goldfish is not going to live in that. If you want a goldfish you'll need a bigger tank..."

I don't remember exactly what she said after that, but she got all in my face, arguing with me about how she's had goldfish all her life, and they live and bowls and the whole nine. So I scoop her kid a goldfish ($6.49 I might add) and bag it and give it to her, have a nice day.

A few minutes later, my manager walks up to me and goes, "Did you have some lady back here about a goldfish?"  Apparently this lady had complained that I was snotty, had an attitude, that I told her kid the fish was going to die and it upset her daughter. Made a whole huge big deal about the fact I simply said, "Mam'am, a goldfish will not live in a tiny bowl like that..." I even gave her the damn fish! My manager kinda just smiled at me, said she had mentioned something to the lady too, about how the container looked a bit too small for the goldfish, and we shrugged our shoulders and went on our way.

Sure enough, that same lady was back, five days later, with a dead goldfish, blaming me I killed her fish, sold her a sick fish, the whole nine. Her daughter didn't even want another fish when I offered the exchange!

I deal with at least two people like that a day. I've learned not to offer advice unless asked for it. If somebody wants three tiger barbs for a one gallon tank, who am I to say they can't do it? The fish expert? Please...don't make me snort chocolate milk through my nose. I don't get a headache, I don't get written up for "poor customer service" and the customer goes home happy, kills their fish, then comes back and blames it on me anyway.
~~Colesea

 

[JWright]

I've worked both in tech support and retail. People think tech support is bad (no, those stories aren't made up), but I'll never work another day of retail in my life, so I can see where you're coming from Cole.

Josh

 

[FISHGUY33]

ok its true alot of people at fish stores give themselves a bad rep well most pet store people do really make you mad but there are some who are good and help but ive had bad expienence ok here we go......... one day i walked into the petstore and i asked a lady what i could do to lower my amonia and she said "you shouldnt feed you fish for a week" and i said "is that safe they are use to eating 2 times a day"she said "yea its safe why wouldnt it be?" so then i said" ummmm because wouldnt they starve ?"then she said "no that wouldnt happen"i said well instead of not feeding them period i should only feed them once a day and slightly lower it ?"so she went on saying how they wouldnt die and stuff . wouldnt you know it within 3 days i woke up and my tigerbarb and african butterfly fish were dead the butterfly was $15 but money wasnt really an object at the time i hand traind and taught the t barb tricks andi hand fed the butterfly story #2 i went into the petstore and asked the lady to get me a pair of tiger barbs and a jewel cichlid so she got me the barbs and said that "the cichlid wouldnt go with the barb" i said well ill try it and see what happens" well she started histaically screaming at me saying she wouldnt sell me the jewel cichllid i just asked her to put them in the bag and to please stop yelling at me she took the fish to the counter and said "i will not sell you these fucking fish i told the maneger and he ended up not beliveing me so i bought my fish my magazine(aquarium fish)love it and my fish food told the maneger im never buying anything from there again (i was gonna buy a new tank also) so i now go to petco o by the waythe store that both insodents happened at was petsmart but now i go to petco and a small family owned shop but i have had one real good thing happen to me i went in just setup my new tank and took up the water sample the guy said kid im not gonna sell you any fish because the amonia is way too high (he told me nicely) all the fish you would buy would be dead so if you change all of your water come back when your done changeing it let it sit for a week and breing me another sample o i forgot to tell you the amonia was so high the color was brown the guy said the worst he say was green well so far ive had more bad run ins with fish store employees than good ones fishguy33 *thumbsupsmiley* *celebratesmiley*

 

[aidanchick]

Working in customer service sucks. period.

My LFS is amazing, some days I get slightly snooty service but when I do, I just look around the store and realize it's  busy and has alot of customers in it... So i just browse until the majority of them have left (the ones toting little screaming kids, and the people with dumb looks on their faces) then I get friendlier service, plus a calmer worker helping me.

Just the other week after I had finished doing my fishless cycle everything is perfect, I have this major urge to put fish into my tank .. I remember that my LFS is open till 9pm and it was only 8pm.. so I drive down to the store and I get my fish.. one of the employees starts talking to me about his fish tank, my fish tank, and shows me some new filter that they got into the store recently ... I ended up talking with the employee for almost 15min. I was going over a check list with him about what else I needed, what I might be low on at home and stuff... He was great, I thanked him and quickly left because well I had bagged fish in my hands!

I have many other happy stories about my LFS, very knowledable staff, and those who dont know much are put on cashier and the front area of the store (the back holds the tanks) .. about 70% of the time when I buy fish from them I get asked "what size tank you have? What other fish you have in it?" and if the fish is not compatible with my current fish they advise me not to get that fish and show me more compatable ones.. even if they are $2.00 cheaper.. *I wanted a bala shark.. or an irridesant shark... but I have a 10gallon and they were like nope, unless you want to buy a bigger tank for them, then went and showed me their bala shark that was at least a foot+ long! .. I knew they got big, but not that big..

I ramble on and talk to much.. I should go to bed.


I am thinking of applying at that store, but that will be a last resort....

 

[colesea]

Thank you for some happy stories, and for understanding how screaming kids and a busy day can really demoralize a person. I got told by my Asst. Manager one time that I had to improve my customer service because people were complaining about me. She never ever told me what the complaints were, so I started to really monitor. I noticed the people who had the most complaints were the ones that were told "Can you please hold on a minute, I'll be right with you."  Apparently they thought I was "snotty" because I was making them wait while I finished up the customer who was before them *shrug*. I can't answer questions from two people at one time.  

I even had this one guy help himself to fish because he thought I was busy BSing with somebody else!  I went over to him, very politely explained that if he would wait a moment I would call him assistance, took my nets and capture bucket back from him, paged another employee over, went back to him and told him help would arrive in another second thank you for waiting, and sure enough, as soon as I turned my back, his grubby hands were back in my tanks!!

I wasn't aware that he was in need of assistance. He never came over to me to ask for it, or to request that someone be paged. I was on the floor, busy explaining -everything- about maintaining a fishtank to a couple that purchased a $600 set up from me because I was so kind and helpful in answering all their questions for about an hour  :. Hell, I even tried the "Here's this aquarium book, everything will be explained to you  in this," but they didn't buy that, they were the type of people who needed that extra reassurance they weren't too stupid for a fish tank.  But I guess I should've been psychic or something. All he bought was two kissing gouramis. Not that any one sale is more important than the other, but if he'd just politely said "Excuse me, is there anybody else working in the fish room?" I would've gladly called somebody over or even have helped him myself after asking my $600 sale to please be patient a moment I'll be right back to them.

Needless to say, that man didn't have very nice things to say about me to my manager after he finally bagged his own fish and left the store. He even raged at me about "BSing and not doing my job."

By the way, I don't work on commission. I could've cared less if they bought $600 or $400, but I couldn't leave them until the sale or no sale was concluded. That's just good customer service, you don't ditch a sale in the middle of the pitch.
~~Colesea

 

[aznpanther98]

it's so amusing to see dumb customers at petshops, i was at this petsmart in area and my cuz's friend works there and he's always telling me about customers driving him crazy, well anyways he wasn't there when i went to get some stuff and i was looking at fishes and lucky me i found the otos and the real sae's had trouble getting them, anyways i was waiting for him to finish with these customers and i over heard some guy asking about putting salt in his tanks and well the guy was asking something like "if iput salt in my tank and the water evaporates and the salt is left behind and when he adds more water how much salt should i put in the tank"
the kid workin that night just said well i GUESS u don't need to add much salt just put more water in and it'll be fine... i'm the kind that likes to but in and try and help but i didn't wanna be rude and all i wanted to say about water changes, then another customer asked about this one fish not sure what it was but petsmart didn't have it and the kid told him to goto this one lfs (couple friends of mine also works there) he had trouble getting the directions down but it's only a mile away!!! straight down the road and make a left and it's right there lol well i helped him out with that, then the kid that works there dissapeared for a minute i think he was helping someone else, well once i found him there was another customer that was waiting to get some help and he was very impatient making comments to me about waiting for him i just wanted to say i've been waiting longer than him and just be patient and well he couldn't wait one more minute so he said f*** this and left, right when he left he was next lol so i got my fishes and he apoligized about taking so long, i was cool about waiting we even started talkin about how customers can be a pain (i work at my family resteraunt and well i know how some customers can be pricks about not getting service fast enough if they want fast service GOTO MCDONALDS!!!!)
i ot bunch more stories about being in petsmart but it's the usual stuff screaming kids sayin "ooohhh i was that fishie" then they bros and sis's want one themselves so the daddy bought them each fighting fishes, bowls and they're own fish food, they're probally fish heaven now lol

 

[colesea]

The people who have promised their kid a fish are the worst. Some customer of mine came in with three kids and had promised that each kid could pick out two fish. Well, those six fish were intended for a ten gallon aquarium that had only just been set up yesterday. So I explained the whole cycling process and how I didn't think six fish were really apporiate for that moment, and he glared at me as if I'd just made his life a living heck when the kids started to get moody over having to share their fish or not getting the ones they want.  Not my fault buddy for your bad parenting. If I learned anything from my time as a summer camp counciler, it is never make promises to kids.

Then there are the people who are trying to cover up the death of mr. fishie by having to have one that looks -exactly- like the dead one their kid doesn't know died. I can understand not wanting your child to be hurt, but I'm not digging through 1500 feeder goldfish just to find you one with the black tip on the left pelvic fin with no black on the tail... killing the kids fish doesn't make you deservent of another fish in the first place.  Suck it up buddy and admit to your child what a scum you are for not taking the time to care for their beloved pet properly.

Or the people who just have to have that one extra fish.  Had some lady intent on picking out eight fish for a tank set up yesterday. I told I didn't think it would be a good idea because of the whole ammonia spike thing, and said I usually reccomend only two fish every two weeks. So she went on to say "but I was told I could have at least eight fish." And I said, that's after eight weeks and a water change of having the tank cycle." So she went into the whole "one inch per gallon thing" which I had to correct her on. She said "do I have to keep fish in pairs?" I said, "It is reccomended you keep them in pairs, and to actually keep all the same fish in a ten."  So she was very impatient because she had to get back to work, and said "Can I put three in today?" Okay, did she just not hear me? I think I said I only reccomend two fish every two weeks. I must have repeated it three times in the whole exchange. So, I bagged her three fish (one each of a rosy barb, swordtail, and tetra), and gave up. You can't educate the ignorant, you just can't.

I hope the above lady didn't have kids. Irresponsiblity seems to breed irresponsiblity.
~~Colesea

 

[equinom]

Isn't that in a song, "been all around the world and only stupid people are breeding?"

Keep a stiff dorsal fin, and forgetaboutit!