"Best Western Inn" Desk Clerk in City of Beaver Dam, WI

http://madison.craigslist.org/csr/2873750724.html

"Job Title: Front Desk Clerk

Accepting applications for part time front desk clerk having smart personality with excellent customer care skills. Candidate must be able to work flexible shifts including weekends and most holidays.

Apply in person at:

Best Western Campus Inn

815 Park Avenue

Beaver Dam,WI

Compensation: part-time"

Considering how many job seekers inquire at hotel desks in a given week, it speaks volumes about management’s distaste for existing applicants. I suppose the Beaver Dam manager tired of the same chronically unemployed applicants month after month and hence decided to advertise as far away as Madison (about 40 miles away), a city which has plenty more hotels to hire front-desk workers before they contemplate an hour commute to Beaver Dam.

I understand the requirement of a top-shelf attitude towards helping the customer because when did admitting to having only “great customer service skills” ever suffice, outside of pizza places having a minimum wait time of 20 minutes? However, the job poster asks for not only the typical “excellent customer care skills” but also for a “smart personality.” There are clearer phrases to communicate the intent of the job poster such as “intuitive sense of decorum” or “readily notices customers before they try to get your attention.”

As worded, the job vacancy might be interpreted as being intended for “smarty pants” or otherwise sarcastic individuals. I believe this is what most people think of when hearing or reading the phrase “smart personality.” A requirement of above-average intelligence would be a waste of human capital because there isn’t much for a desk worker to learn once he or she has memorized hotel policies, which should nonetheless be written in an easily accessible manual and tend to change anyway. I hence believe that “common sense” is the meaning intended by use of the phrase “smart personality.”

Irrespective of descriptive semantics, the job poster and many other human resources staff believe they can accurately assess applicant adequacy (alliteration aside) via a snap judgment or once-over of an in-person applicant. (It’s a good thing those HR folks aren’t court judges!) The requirement to apply in person is supposed to be a behavioral interview in itself. The hiring manager would do well to act like an angry customer when someone requests a job application because how someone responds to people who act like jerks is a fairly accurate measure of how the applicant will act behind your back when hired.

To truly test for whether the applicant embodies savoir faire, esprit de corps, and a bunch of other personality concepts clichéd into French terms to sound more sophisticated than they are, it would be wise for the manager to act out some scenarios in real time to see the responses and composure of the applicant. While typically only luxury hotel managers actually use the aforementioned French terms, I apply them to this job vacancy because many hiring managers of economy chains such as Best Western Inn hold the same cavalier attitude, as evinced by including the obnoxious term “smart personality” in the job description for a doormat position such as desk clerk.

I know that hotel maids are technically below desk clerk in terms of authority, but those workers have the privilege of requesting the room occupant to leave for a room cleaning or to skip a room until the occupants leave. Hence, the desk clerk is least sheltered from customer demands and hence should not have a “smart” or skeptical attitude but instead believe the customer and kowtow to whatever extent necessary.

"JC Penney" Cashier: No Experience Necessary if a Happy Bot

http://jobs.jcp.com/job/Wauwatosa-Customer-Assistant-Job-WI-53208/1683761/

"Job Title: Customer Assistant Job

Date: Jan 25, 2012

Location: Wauwatosa, WI, US

Job Description

- Wauwatosa, WI---11800 W Burleigh St, 02852

Job Title: Customer Assistant

The #1 priority of Customer Assistants is to provide the best customer service possible whether or not the customer chooses to make a purchase.

Training is provided on how to give effective customer service, how to operate our cash register, and how to maintain merchandise so it is appealing to customers.

Pay is based on a competitive rate based on what other similar employers in the local community are paying.

Successful associates are friendly, enthusiastic and like working with people.

Associates must read information and follow instructions, for example on labels of merchandise they sell.

New associates must learn how to operate our cash register and be able to work with money and numbers.

These positions offer flexible hours of work, which may include weekdays or weeknights, and weekend time (Saturday or Sunday). [If there are particular times you are unable to work, please tell your interviewer.]

WHILE MAKING YOUR DECISION, CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:

Can You Do The Job and Do You Want To Do The Job?"

Uncharacteristically for a retail chain, JC Penney touts that it will train the successful applicant not only on how to operate a register but also on how to position merchandise and otherwise “provide excellent customer service.” This lets pretty much anyone without any major criminal convictions (or too many minor ones) truthfully certify himself/herself as qualified to do the job. The lack of prior customer service experience implies that gaps in employment are not disqualifiers because no employment history seems to be necessary to be seriously considered for an interview. However, I’m certain that JC Penney is aiming for a particular appearance (no gaps in the teeth or over-large eyeglasses), so unfortunately those with prior customer service and cash handling experience will not necessarily have an edge over the 15-year-old applicant.

Although the duties of this job are deceptively simple, the job poster attempts to psyche out the reader by questioning not only the applicant’s ability to meet such minimal qualifications (add and subtract coinage to give proper change, realistically greet customers with small talk and a smile without overdoing it) but also his/her motivation. An online assessment should eliminate most who doubt their own qualifications and desire to position merchandise and operate a cash register for minimum wage. That sounds less hectic than a typical food service job, so I can only infer that most of the turnover in this position is due to qualified applicants being hired for other retail jobs offering better compensation rather than due to people quitting out of frustration.

It could also be true that JC Penney fires associates for not being “enthusiastic” enough about customers and clothes, or perhaps some service assistants garnered complaints from customers for being too flaky. I bet many employers anticipate the day when they can just buy a bunch of “Happy Bots” to perform customer service, eh? These blasted humans don’t always feel enthusiastic or happy, and we can’t have that! I suppose the solution for customer assistants who are no longer enthusiastic is to get a different job which deemphasizes enthusiasm.

If the customer assistant job has been truly irritating to a substantial portion of new hires, then JC Penney should merely state, “Masochists are preferred.” There may be another connotation to the disbelief that the applicant wants to perform the job: A scarcity of promotion opportunities might make the job into a career, and so those who apply for it out of desperation must be prepared to grow into it as a career because they aren’t going anywhere within the company anytime soon. Again, JC Penney could easily dissolve this ambiguity by saying, “This is a career position which starts at minimum wage and permits cost-of-living raises. You must remain cheerful despite changing policies and business conditions.” That would immediately discourage many applicants and save HR a lot of time.

"Quad Graphics" Order Entry Clerk w/ Phone Duties

https://us1.i-grasp.com/fe/tpl_QuadGraphics01.asp?s=EXgIfLQnAyPBgDdPyv&jobid=39828,1423569861&key=18513229&c=879887026576&pagestamp=seqwdtodpclyytkika

“Job Title: Customer Service Representative

Job Description: QuadDirect – a Quad/Graphics subsidiary that offers concept-through-delivery services, including just-in-time marketing strategies, creative development, and creative and workflow solutions, as well as online communications deployment and comprehensive print production and distribution, all driven by data is seeking a Customer Service Rep. The Customer Service Representative acts as a liaison between manufacturing, sales and the customer. The CSR initiates jobs, through order entry, into the production cycle and expedites answers for the customer and manufacturing. CSR's are responsible for the customer's job throughout the production process ensuring that all requirements are met.

Qualifications: The successful candidate must have exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, good organizational skills with attention to detail, and have the ability to oversee and follow through all jobs. Ability to develop mutually profitable business relationships is required. Must be able to work flexible hours as required by the client. A college degree, printing experience or experience in a related field is desirable."

The stated preference for a college degree for such a rudimentary job seems counter-intuitive; why would Quad want to pay the CSR any more than what a high school-only graduate would earn? Maybe the vacancy writer intended to post, “Technical college degree in printing,” but I guess writing isn’t his/her forte. An applicant with printing experience but without a degree will beat a degreed applicant without printing experience anyway. The first sentence in the job description is such a monstrous run-on that it really detracts from Quad’s professional image. They could use a editor for all these online job postings, which seem to be uploaded by individual staffers but not checked for stylistic consistency or grammar.