Educating Customers (Rant)
(Semi-vent/rant so feel free to just ignore)
So I am one of those employees that makes sure the customer is fully educated on an animal and knows what it needs *before* I sell it to them because I want to ensure the animal is going to have a good life and not get thrown into some home where they neglect it and the animal suffers silently the whole duration of its life.
I don’t push people away from the store, and I always try to help them choose stuff *in store* that will be suitable for the needs of the animal, but sometimes there are things an animal needs that the store just doesn’t carry. I never send a customer to another store (online or in person), I simply state that we don’t carry all the necessary products and then prompt them to do the research to find out what those things are so they can get them for themselves and come back prepared and ready for their new pet.
As I assume most of you know, it’s already hard enough to convince a customer to do their research and come back, and so when I’m able to and it’s well received, I feel really proud of myself. I don’t expect anything out of it, just trying to uphold my responsibility of making sure the animals are going to receive the right care, something I hope every person strives to do, and something I thought would be a priority to managers, considering the whole “Animals Always Come First” motto.
I’ve done this many times, my managers have even gotten on board with it. I’ve always felt backed up by them which is part of the reason why I love my job so much. But recently I’m being told by the same managers that I shouldn’t do that and I need to stop. It’s really thrown me for a loop, especially when they’ve backed me up in the past on educating customers. I thought our job was to make sure people are not only excited about getting the animal but excited about taking care of it the right way.
I’m at a loss and I don’t know what to do. I’m not confrontational in the least, so it would be hard for me to even have a conversation with my managers about this without bursting into tears probably. I just feel really diminished and a little frustrated and assume others have likely experienced something similar since we all work at PetBelow - where animals apparently never come first unless they’re dogs or cats. Okay, rant over.