I am sorry.

What?

TK, what's wrong?

I'm sorry if that surprised you.

This time, I would like to write about the phrase "I am sorry."

When you hear the phrase "I am sorry.",
what do you imagine?

It's a situation where something bad has happened and someone is apologizing to someone else, right?

That's the situation, isn't it...

I went shopping with my family at a supermarket and discount store at night.

At night, they only have self-checkout registers there.

Maybe the sensors are weak, but it didn't scan right away, and I was getting frustrated until I finally reached the payment screen.

I was going to charge my prepaid card and pay, but at that moment, I judged that I was 4,000 yen short.

I put in 10,000 yen and selected to charge 4,000 yen, but for some reason, it wouldn't proceed.

Huh, was it not enough?

Thinking I might have misjudged the charge amount, I went back and changed it to a 5,000 yen charge, but when I proceeded to payment, even though I hadn't received my change yet, it showed that the initial 4,000 yen had been charged, and it displayed that 5,000 yen was being deducted from 6,000 yen, leaving 1,000 yen in change.

This is wrong! I called a store clerk.

My husband was drunk and was crouching down by the cart looking unwell, and I said,

"Are you okay?"

I waited for the clerk while saying, "Excuse me."

I explained the situation to the first female clerk who came, but she couldn't handle it, so another female clerk came over, and I had to explain everything from the beginning again.

Since it was a complicated story, I think it was difficult to understand, but she eventually understood, and we decided to reset the transaction and ring it up again.

"It's hard to get it to scan. It wouldn't go through."

When I said that, she scanned it for me.

She took the sensor that the cashiers use, held it right against the barcode, and scanned it quickly.

"So there's a trick to it," I said.

"It's all about the angle," the clerk replied.

So, it turned out that the 4,000 yen charge was correct, I received 6,000 yen in change, and I was able to pay successfully with the money I had inside.

Was I just jumping to conclusions?

Because the register wouldn't scan it and I had to explain the same thing twice, I might have used a slightly harsh tone.

And with my husband's demeanor added to that.

From the moment the clerk came over to us, she was constantly...

"I am very sorry."

repeating it over and over.

Deep down, I felt a little sorry for her.

However,

Repeatedly saying "I am very sorry" is dangerous ⚠️

・It makes the customer even more irritated. ・It implies that the store is at fault. ・It makes the customer think that the store believes an apology is enough to settle things.

"I am very sorry" is a last resort.

You should not say it lightly.

If you say it too often, when you really need to say it,

"I am sorry"

will not be effective.

I spoke based on my experience working as an [operator] and what a friend told me.

It is important to listen to the customer and make the right judgment.

"I am sorry"

should be used only when it really counts, almost just once.

Timing is everything.

It varies depending on the customer, so handling them is difficult...