When working in retail you constantly deal with misunderstandings with customers. A “misunderstanding is confusion resulting from the misperception of another’s feelings, thoughts, or beliefs as expressed in the other’s verbal communication,” (McCornack, Pg. 207). Misunderstandings at work are anywhere from why a coupon isn’t working to trying to figure what fabric they should use for a project. A recent misunderstanding I had with a customer occurred the other night at my place of employment. I was called to assist a new cashier with a customer and her transaction. The customer’s coupon was not deducting the discount. She wanted to purchase five items that are always excluded from coupons. When I explained to her that these items are excluded from any coupons, she had then used “you” language, blaming me for it not working. “You” language being “communication that states or implies the pronoun you to place the focus on blaming others,” (McCornack, Pg. 207). I then explained the coupon details on the application and she then become defensive but understood that I was telling her the truth. She had a misunderstanding of the coupon and started to use “you” language when the transaction was not going her way.
However, not every interaction I have at work has been bad. That same night I had encountered a man trying to buy three items. These items were not scanning the price that a sign had said that they were. When I asked if he could show me the sign, he was indeed correct that there was a sign and another coworker had forgotten to take it down. In that instance he had used the cooperative principle. Cooperative principle is the “idea that we should make our verbal messages as informative, honest, relevant and clear” (McCornack, Pg. 205). He was informative about the price, honest that there was a sign and relevant on showing me where the sign was at. I believe that you learn key communication skills when working in retail because you learn how to communicate differently depending on how the customer responding. I know that ever since I started working when I was sixteen years old, I have learned some valuable lessons about communication.
D, J. (2017, April 27). Fabric and Crafts[Photograph]. Dallas.
Reflect & Relate: An introduction to interpersonal communication. Retrieved June 2, 2019, from https://shelf.brytewave.com/#/books/9781319116910/cfi/6/2!/4/2/2/2@0:0.00
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