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Bookstore employees provide the best service they can
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Every once in a while, Jerel Thomas actually manages to make a few points worth consideration.
The sad thing is that he is unable to do so without making an inflammatory statement sure to increase the membership of the swiftly growing “I hate Jerel Thomas” club.
Such is the case with his article published on Jan. 17, in which he makes the argument that competition would do BSU a world of good. Despite having an interesting solution to the financial woes of Boise State, Mr. Thomas made a few comments that I must take issue with.
Mr. Thomas makes the claim that “The bookstore would be forces to offer better service if they were faces with a competitor.”
Now I don’t know what benefits or shortcomings would come with competitions for the Bookstore, but I am a bit insulted by Mr. Thomas’ implication that the Bookstore doesn’t provide good customer service, as I have been a student employee at the bookstore for nearly two years.
From what I can see in his article, the only thing that Mr. Thomas takes exception to is the Bookstore’s buyback system.
Whatever Mr. Thomas’ definition of customer service is, mine is probably far different. Customer service, in my opinion, has nothing to do with the numbers and everything to do with us, the students who work at the bookstore.
The buyback period that comes every semester on the week of finals is probably the most trying time of the entire term for me, both as a student and as a bookstore employee.
Not only must I study for multiple upcoming exams and prepare, I must also go to work and tell hundreds of students every day for entire week that the accounting book they paid over $100 for is only being bought back for $10, or possibly not at all.
My job is harder still when I consider the fact that, eventually, I too will stand in that person’s place, wondering which books I can get some money for, and which ones are mine to cherish for the rest of my days, whether I like it or not.
The customer needs us to be there to give reassurances as best we can, to give input on whether or not the price might go up and when, or point out alternatives like the internet or the book swap. It’s our job to smile and let students know that we’re doing the best we can to get them as much as we can. If you ask me, the students I have the pleasure of working with every day do the job very well.
Mr. Thomas would do well to remember that most of the people he’s likely to deal with at the bookstore are students themselves. We pay the same prices for our books as everyone else, and we get just as much (or little) back at the end of the semester as everyone else.
I hope that, the next time Mr. Thomas finds himself in the bookstore, we are able to make his experience a little less painful, emotionally, if not financially.
Brian Sherman, Guest Opinion