Sales assistant at work with Aspergers

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I work part time in a store that sells books and stuff, I enjoy working there but there times that no matter how hard I try to be as 'normal', confident and professional, I hate it when obstacles happen in the job like problems at the till when serving a customer and needing help from other staff to do and I feel like a useless idiot and feeling I can never get things right when I've been told over and over again, I can't always stand having difficult, impatient and irritated customers make me look like more an idiot (for example: one person said it was like talking to a brick wall because I was hesistating what to say them and walked off), I feel like the only one and its always me who has several formal meetings for mistakes I've made. I do sometimes think Aspergers is behind it when it possibly isn't. Why do the sales assistants have to take all the brunt of people's unhappy customs ? It sometimes makes me look stupid, they probably think I look stupid and think I must be weird by the mannerisms, body language and eye contact I make. I sometimes think I do feel that people are judging me negatively. I want all customers to be happy with me and my service I provide even if I make a mistake and leave the shop happy and satisfied. Its probably happened to me when I've been a customer, I've been in long queues and waited patiently and never told the person behind the counter to 'hurry up'.

I feel like I've been in customer service related jobs all of my adult life.

Customer service jobs for anyone, NT or ND are difficult. While it can be rewarding at times dealing with people, no question it can be challenging to downright awful other times. It's said that Aspies can be blunt or offensive. There is PLENTY of that behavior among NTs. Shame on some people and how they behave toward others.

When I learn something new and it involves a computer or some sort of electronic equipment (cash register would qualify) and requires multiple steps, I absolutely must write down the process step by step and refer back to that until I've memorized the steps. I don't care if others are able to commit steps of a new process to memory. I can't. I think the biggest reason I can't memorize steps of something new is that there are far too many pleasant and entertaining things for me to think about during the day. Why would I want to devote mental energy toward trying to memorize some boring process that I very well may forget a step or two on anyway unless I write it down?

I carry a small pocket notebook in my shirt pocket and a pen. I use them to write myself notes or lists so I don't forget things.

Might you write down notes in a pocket notebook and refer to them when needed?

Example:

"How to issue a refund on a book return"
1) Key in code 12345
2) Press the [fill in the blank] key.

etc.

You could then forget about that process completely and whip out the notebook when you need to complete the process later.

Just a thought.

Well, it is unfortunate, but you are the face of the company, the first contact people make. Don’t take it personal & try not to let it get you down. They may belittle you, but look at it as them belittling the company instead.

I used to do voluntary work in a charity shop and I hated being put on the till. Some customers made a huge fuss about things like paying for a carrier bag. To avoid the fuss some people made, I let them have carrier bags for free, but that got me told off by the manager several times. Despite that, they still forced me to be on the till, even though I told them that I didn't like being on the till and would rather be upstairs, with the other volunteers, sorting through the donations. I enjoyed sorting and putting tags on them. Being alone on the till made me feel like I had a lot of pressure on my hands, and I felt that if anything went wrong I would be responsible. I wasn't trained properly on the till either, and I was only young too, so I didn't have much confidence. Some customers were friendly and easy to talk to, but some were very unfriendly and also annoying. And I got (silent) panic attacks if there was too many customers in the shop at the same time.

I felt I wasn't treated very nicely after a while at the voluntary job, so I left. Most the volunteers were nice, but one of two of them were friendly with the manager, and the manager was the one who didn't treat me nicely. She was just unprofessional, had favourites (I wasn't a favourite, of course), and was bitchy and mean.

I am not sure if this would work for someone in sales, but it is the way that I have learned to respond to the clients I work with. I am a pattern learner. That means that I usually have a very long lag phase during which I am absorbing data, and then suddenly I see the patterns and that there are certain types of client and I have learned how to respond. I don't mean that disrespectfully at all. Everyone is individual. But there are patterns in what people want or need from me and once I see that, I can better help them get what they want. .

I wonder if that would work for you. Can you see the difficult, angry person coming? If so, have something ready in mind. Big smile, How can I help you? Oh, I see you've been having a terrible time., etc. And, the customer is always right. Not fair, but that is the way it is. And if you don't know, assure the customer you will find someone who does know. This is something else I have learned over the many years. There is nothing wrong with not knowing something. No need to be embarrassed. This comes with experience. Or at least, it took lots of experience for me.

Not sure if this helps, but I'm a canvasser for the local Democratic party(that part isn't important though) and I deal with as*holes all the time. I guess it helps that I tend to be methodical and generally knock on each door and interact with each person in more or less the same way. And yeah it can really suck being completely alone and dealing with really annoyed people.