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| Joe Vitus |
 Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:57 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Vodka either does not give itself away on you breath, or the cops are very, very nice to me. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:10 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1245
Location: St. Louis
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bartist wrote: That article on vodka....recommend obeying the writer when she tells guys to skip to the next paragraph. Also confused....isn't vodka the one spirit that does not give tell-tale booze breath? As a teen, knew kids who drank it (usu. with fruit juice) for that reason.
TFA is annoying. HAND is worse. Used to respond to HAND with "Thanks, but I have other plans." Another one I find repugnant is "Can I help you?" when it is used as code for "what do think you're doing here?" Seems to be everywhere now....movies and tv -- a man encounters an intruder in his yard, or a woman confronts someone following her, and says, "Sir, can I help you?" I mean, WTF, are you going to try and sell the guy pants or something?
I was also working under the assumption that vodka doesn't show on the breath. LOL, Joe!
"Have a nice day," has been getting more specific around here. I hear clerks saying "have a great rest of your day" or something along those lines. I'm more partial to "thanks for stopping by," which doesn't make any recommendations. |
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| grace |
| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:16 pm |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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Guilty on all counts re TFA and HAND (and its variants). In fact, I spent a good part of this morning wishing others a happy holiday. Happily, to a person they were easygoing enough to reciprocate the thought rather than get their panties in a twist.
If a store's Muzak-TM system plays "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" while you're shopping, do y'all stop what you're doing and stand there screaming "I will not! You can't tell me what to do!!" Just wondering.
I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving -- if, you know, that's what you want to do. No pressure or anything.
Guest vs. Customer = the latest development in customer service speak around here. Customer Service is now Guest Services in many area stores - even the Target, I think. Similarly, people I know who work in mental health refer to their patients as clients. Having worked in customer-oriented fields, I have to think it's just one more way for consultants in the field to justify their existence (ie, come up with new ways to "improve" customer service, though improvements are rarely actually improvements*).
*this applies to Guest only; I totally understand that one might feel there's a stigma to being called a patient, creating an actual reason to refer to that person as a client. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:31 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I have no problem with "client" v. "patient." The very definition of "guest," however, is someone whose stay is paid for by a "host." If you were the "guest" of a hotel or a refreshment line at a movie theater, you would get everything free. A customer is not a guest. Period. |
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| grace |
| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:39 pm |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 3210
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| Hey, I'm not defending the practice - just, having been in the trenches, offering a comment. I thought my comment was snarky enough that it was clear I'm not a fan. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:55 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
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Quote: If a store's Muzak-TM system plays "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" while you're shopping, do y'all stop what you're doing and stand there screaming "I will not! You can't tell me what to do!!" Just wondering.
I suspect the fatigue with HAND was more about the way a seeming warm sentiment is combined with a robotic delivery. No one, as you point out, really minds recommendations per se, esp. if they come from Nat King Cole and seem heartfelt (even if not to you personally). HAND grated because it seemed to engulf and replace all spontaneous communication.
And I was joking about "sorry, but I have other plans." It may have grated on my ear, but I'm a nice guy and not inclined to add to the already manifold miseries of people stuck behind counters and registers. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:00 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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grace wrote: Hey, I'm not defending the practice - just, having been in the trenches, offering a comment. I thought my comment was snarky enough that it was clear I'm not a fan. |
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| grace |
| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:08 pm |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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bartist wrote: I suspect the fatigue with HAND was more about the way a seeming warm sentiment is combined with a robotic delivery. No one, as you point out, really minds recommendations per se, esp. if they come from Nat King Cole and seem heartfelt (even if not to you personally). HAND grated because it seemed to engulf and replace all spontaneous communication.
And I was joking about "sorry, but I have other plans." It may have grated on my ear, but I'm a nice guy and not inclined to add to the already manifold miseries of people stuck behind counters and registers.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to open a can of worms. I've been on the receiving end of HAND after a tumultuous transaction (example, "but your signage doesn't say anything about a limit of one item at the sale price...."); and I usually do my best Betty White, put on a big smile and respond "Oh, and the same to you." In my head, that translates to "and the horse you rode in on," but they don't have to know that. Life's too short. JMO. |
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| grace |
| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:09 pm |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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yambu wrote: grace wrote: Hey, I'm not defending the practice - just, having been in the trenches, offering a comment. I thought my comment was snarky enough that it was clear I'm not a fan. Snarkastic, grace. I've been waiting for a chance to use that. Either my son coined it, or it's been around for years.
I use craptastic, perhaps a bit too freely at times; I will definitely have to make an effort to put snarktastic into rotation. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:12 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Yam says snarkastic and grace says snarktastic. Either one works for me. |
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| grace |
| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:22 pm |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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| Clearly it's one of those trompe l'oeil words. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:30 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| But haven't hotel customers always been referred to as "guests"? It's the "guest registry" after all. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| daffy |
| Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 4:12 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1939
Location: Wall Street
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Joe Vitus wrote: Vodka either does not give itself away on you breath, or the cops are very, very nice to me.
Lucky you, because the cops are being very nice! 
I've never understood this myth; if someone has seven screwdrivers, you can smell the alcohol. Vodka reeks. The difference between its odor and that of other spirits is vodka's comes almost solely from ethanol, while whiskey, gin, tequila, etc. have a lot of other ingredients which give them their own distinctive smells. Vodka smells pretty much like diluted rubbing alcohol.
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The first time I heard of customers being referred to as guests was when I started working at a popular restaurant back in '91, so it's been going on for at least 20 years and now it's become quite common. I understand the theory, but I must say that in practice it's become a cliche. The philosophy was that we were supposed to treat people as if they were guests in our own homes (and then charge them for it, billy!), so we should talk about them that way, as well. Unfortunately, sometimes the customers failed to behave as if they were guests in our home, and the owner certainly failed to treat us as if we were a hosting family: I've never seen a boss who stole more from his employees. |
Last edited by daffy on Thu Nov 24, 2011 4:14 pm; edited 1 time in total
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| daffy |
| Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 4:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Wall Street
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 1:34 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
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Thanks for exploding the vodka myth. It tastes like rubbing alcohol, too, IMO.
Pheasant tastes exactly like chicken, was the lesson learned yesterday when the daughter's BF was given a free pheasant and cooked it up. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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