Resolve a pricing complaint and manage a difficult customer

What is going on

It is Sunday at the Frankston supermarket and you are supervising the front end. A customer who was overcharged on a catalogue cereal special last week has returned and asks for a supervisor; the difference was refunded but she is unhappy that the same ticket was still wrong on Friday. Later, a customer whose card is declined at self-checkout becomes loud, swears at the team member and refuses to leave the terminal. Tom Abernethy has reinforced the respectful customer behaviour steps at every site after an abusive event at the pharmacy. The customer feedback register holds the original pricing complaint and the point-of-sale procedure covers price overrides.

Your brief

Resolve the pricing complaint fairly and record it, support the team member and de-escalate the customer at self-checkout using the respectful behaviour steps, decide when to end the interaction and involve security or police, and complete the incident and feedback records with a debrief for the team member.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the customer service and respectful behaviour policy, the refunds procedure and the point-of-sale and cash handling procedure, and list the steps for a complaint and for an abusive customer.
• Open the pricing complaint in the customer feedback register, listen to the customer, apologise, check the current ticket and the promotion file, and offer a remedy within your authority.
• Record the outcome in the register, raise the ticketing problem with the department supervisor and tell the customer how to escalate if she is not satisfied.
• When the self-checkout customer becomes abusive, step in beside the team member, state once that the behaviour is unacceptable, offer a solution for the declined payment and ask the customer to lower their voice.
• If the abuse continues, end the interaction, ask the customer to leave, and call centre security or the police where there is any threat, without touching or blocking the customer.
• Complete the incident and hazard report form and enter the event in the WHS and security incident register within two hours, preserving CCTV.
• Debrief the team member before the end of the shift, offer support and record that the debrief occurred in the register entry.
• Write a note to Tom Abernethy recommending whether a written ban is warranted and what the team learned.

What someone in this role would produce

• Updated customer feedback register entry for the pricing complaint
• Completed incident and hazard report form
• WHS and security incident register entry with the debrief recorded
• Note to the People, Safety and Loss Prevention Manager