Whatever happened to customer service?

[BookstoreEscapee]

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5279734&page=1

Article from the other day on ABCNews.com.

(Hint, if you click the Print link at the bottom of the page, you can read it all on one page.)

[ditchdj]

Personally I've noticed a decline overall in service when I reflect on the past 15 years. I've been to local businesses here that have treated me like scum-of-the-earth and barked orders at me, been to "recreational places" where staff breathe down your back and demand to "prove" you're supposed to be where you're supposed to be, and been screwed out of money. In fact, I'm gonna be spouting off a complaint to the Attorney General over Best Buy screwing me out of 30 bucks to "fix" a laptop that I ended up exchanging in the end.

But yeah, when I flew Iberia from Madrid to Chicago there were a couple of rude Spanish stewardesses that treated us like cattle. But I think companies do this because they know they can get away with it. If more people voted with their pocketbooks and stopped doing business with companies like that instead of taking the "just grin and bear it" approach things would be forced to get better.

[powerboy]

It is because employers and breathing down the necks of the employees for every little thing they did or didn't do. Also they have customers treating the employees like shit, just to save 5 cents.

[marasbaras]

I think it is a big mistake to blame the customer for a lack of service. Service, in my lifetime (I'm 41) has definitely gone downhill.

[Anriana]

I'm only 20 so I don't have any experience with what customer service was, but looking at the comments to this article and stories from this site/my job, it doesn't seem like anything these people are complaining about are actual customer service issues.


I would define customer service as getting me (the customer) the service I am paying for in a reasonable amount of time. It's not having people I don't care about fulfill my social needs or pretend they care about my problems. Some of the "customer service" things other people seem to find so important annoy me.


Things that I don't define as customer service that other people seem to:
making small talk (my favorite comment is the one that says "I ask clerks how their day is and THEY ACTUALLY TELL ME!!! horrible customer service!!")
saying please and thank you
smiling
having a perky voice
letting the customer make late payments with no penalties
using the first name multiple times
using a title + last name (and no one ever seems to use my actual title)
breaking ToS with no penalties
being able to instantly fix every problem
not hiring people with accents
always having enough staff available to avoid a queue
free stuff
apologies
ESP


"The biggest problem, IMO, is that too many consumers equate good service with getting their hiney kissed. I don't need or want a hiney kissing, I just want efficiency and expertise when I need help. That's it, that's good service to me. No need to suck up to me or stroke me. But a lot of consumers do want the sucking up and the stroking - they consider that good service. They are insecure and have that need to feel special and important and superior to someone. "


I agree with this comment completely. I mean, if I go to Wal*mart and the clerk doesn't smile, ask how my day is, and say "thanks for shopping with us!" I don't care, because I'm there for cheap stuff, not social interaction. I even try and avoid especially chatty people - I don't go grocery shopping at 3am because I want to talk about the weather.


One reason I think may be responsible for this perceived trend is the change in retail environments. There's no longer Mom-and-Pop on Main Street who you've had an account with for years, there's just chain stores that most people aren't at as a career.

[lordlundar]

I think it is a big mistake to blame the customer for a lack of service.

I agree. The real issue is the corporate mentality from higher ups. Like it says early on in the article, corporate, to maximize their profits (and as such, increase their own paychecks) decide to set the bottom line to zero dollars. With that perspective, they can justify any pay cuts they can legally get away with, budgets that look like they underwent a slash and burn operation, and unless they will face a lawsuit, will refuse to authorize any maintenance. Meanwhile, they want to appear like they are providing top quality service, often times with a price tag attached. As a result, the staff are overworked, underpaid and abused. Their morale is nonexistant, and they are told that they mush push this "quality" service for fo real benefit for them.

So customers seeing these broken people pushing stuff that even they think is crap, take on a perspective that the entire company is out to rob them blind, so they fight back by having attitude (SCs) or refusing to do business with the company. This means the field staff have to deal with the nasty attitudes and corporate sees the lower profits.

Now instead of realizing that the policies are flawed and that quality environment gives quality staff which gives quality results, they seem to think that the staff are the problem and are not giving their all. So to maintain their profit margin, they take even more cuts to the field staff and get closer to the zero mark, while demanding that the remaining staff raise their quality of service to higher levels than they were before. And the cycle repeats itself until either the company changes or it implodes. No company is immune to this, even walmart will implode eventually because they won't be able to expand anymore to attract new people.

It's not to say the customers are totally without guilt, as the adage "you get what you pay for" comes to mind. The staff are miserable because they see almost nothing of the profits the company makes. The lower prices that the people pay for are so low because the gross margin that's cut for this purpose comes out of the staff budget and maintenance. The places that are more expensive often have better staff and properly maintained stores. The problem is that everyone, corporate and customers alike only look at the dollar sign and the customers will not buy at the more expensive place. And the staff pay the price for this destructive equation.

I seriously doubt just raising the margin of all products that a company sells and devote it to staff and maintenance will kill a company. In fact, I think it will improve business quite well. But a non-greedy attitude like that is why I'm not in a corporate office.

[ditchdj]

I'm surprised nobody has commented on this comment left on their message board....

"Here's how to get back at rude customer service at a fast food restaurant...when you are finished eating, don't take your tray to the garbage, leave it and turn what's left of your drink (save at least half) upside down on the table with a cardboard under the cup so it won't spill yet. Pull the cardboard from underneath and there you go! When they come to pick up the cup it will spill all over the table....ha, ha, ha!"