Worrying trend

[Rapscallion]

We've got some finance training going on right now, and there's an external instructor we have hired from a local college to give it. He's a comedian, or thinks he is, but that's a whole different post.

You know how many people here are forced to call customers "guests"? He's under orders from on high to define students as "customers".

Rapscallion

[marasbaras]

I've heard that colleges are getting so easy that some may as well be diploma mills. Go there, pay your money, do some minor work, wait 4 years, get a diploma.

Sounds like dropping off your film. Or one of those do-it-yourself paint-the-vase stores.

[chainedbarista]

i wish it were that simple for me, but i didn't choose an MBA, the puppy mill style degree.

i'll be lucky to see my degree in six years, because i have to work to fund my tuition.

still, i agree with your point, masabras; some of these 'degreed' types make me wonder what genius figured that a degree in underwater basketweaving would have usage.

[Broomjockey]

Topic is: insane things that corp makes you say.
Topic is not: quality of education.

Frankly Raps, I'd be concerned with any place that values my money higher than my learning, as that's the image they're giving with this "Customers" bit. Call a student a student. Call a customer a customer. Call a pain in the ass a pain in the ass. Don't try and pretty it up!

[Gurndigarn]

[QUOTE=Rapscallion;317930]We've got some finance training going on right now, and there's an external instructor we have hired from a local college to give it. He's a comedian, or thinks he is, but that's a whole different post.

You know how many people here are forced to call customers "guests"? He's under orders from on high to define students as "customers"./QUOTE]

Got the same thing at the library. But when I switched jobs, the people visiting the arcade were "patrons".

[Andara Bledin]

Yeah, what's up with calling students "customers?"

^-.-^

[Geek King]

Yeah, what's up with calling students "customers?"

^-.-^

In college that's what they are. Customers are people who pay another for goods or services. In college, students pay for the services of experts to train them.

Granted, I think its still a little wierd to call them customers, except in a meeting about the finances of the college, maybe.

[marasbaras]

"Patrons" at an arcade makes sense. Just another word for "customer", isn't it?

For colleges, calling students "customers" makes it sound just a little too much like McD's for me. Here's what I picture in my head where I hear that:

College: Welcome to State Mill University. May I take your order?
Incoming Freshman: "Uh, I'd like a B.A. in Communications please."
College: "Would you like to add a minor to that?"
Incoming Freshman: "Yeah, how about a minor in TV Journalism".
College: "OK, that'll be $125,525.52. Please get into the Graduation Line to pick up your diploma. The kitchen's running about 4 years right now. If you drop out of line, there might be some additional fees should you wish to get back in line."

Call me old fashioned, I like "students". Just like I like "stewardess" (a "flight attendant" is someone who ATTENDS the flight ... a "stewardess" is a female steward ... far more descriptive of her responsibilities and authority), "actress", and other words that are more descriptive.

"Guests" ... I understand that at a hotel. But, at a bookstore or a clothing store? Just strange. Highly strange. I'm not your "guest" and this isn't a shopping "experience".

I'm a "customer" and I simply want to buy things from you ... quickly, easily, without a long spiel from your cashier about your wonderful corporate credit card. And, I suspect your staff wants the same from me: get what I want, pay for it quickly, get out.

Painless, efficient, and no silly fads. Wouldn't that be nice?

[DesignFox]

Hehe... one store I used to work at had us calling the customers "guests."

We'd be reminded of this fact if we slipped and said "next customer in line" rather than "I can help the next guest in line."

There is also a trend of referring to some businesses as "retail entertainment."

[Gurndigarn]

"Patrons" at an arcade makes sense. Just another word for "customer", isn't it?

Probably weirder for me because I'm used to hearing "patron" in it's older form, as someone with money sponsoring someone in an enterprise (usually in the liberal arts categories) that typically doesn't pay.

[marasbaras]

There is also a trend of referring to some businesses as "retail entertainment."

What? Crack-smoking management you say?

[boringscreenname]

When I worked at Target, we were supposed to call the customers guests, and received a lecture if we slipped up, even in the break room. We didn't have a customer service area it was known as "Guest Services." Shopping was also referred to as a "shopping experience".

[Victoria J]

We've got some finance training going on right now, and there's an external instructor we have hired from a local college to give it. He's a comedian, or thinks he is, but that's a whole different post.

You know how many people here are forced to call customers "guests"? He's under orders from on high to define students as "customers".

I can give a much more worrying example. My father worked as a social worker for many years, and his complete disillusionment came around the same time they did a similar change.

They went from having "clients" to having "customers". He was working in child protection and suddenly the people he worked with (the adults ! not the people in whose interests he really needed to act) were "customers" to be kept happy.

I think your example is merely depressing - I think my father's example is terrifying.

"Students" to "customers" is an interesting change though. I think it is worth remembering that students are customers and consumers (it really annoyed me when I was a student and some students went "on strike" because as people benefiting from the work of others that really doesn't work). However a change from describing them in terms of their responsibility (the need to actually, you know, study) to their rights (the customer is always right !) is depressing.

Victoria J

[marasbaras]

However a change from describing them in terms of their responsibility (the need to actually, you know, study) to their rights (the customer is always right !) is depressing.

I agree entirely. Sometimes the words chosen make a huge difference.

That's why I refuse to use the phrase "flight attendant". Sorry, but that makes it sound like they are attending the flight ... like one would attend a party or a funeral. Stewardess is the feminine form of Steward ... which implies responsibilities, duties, AND, most importantly, authority.

I am no fan of many of the stewardesses flying today ... I've had too many of them grumble at me for having the gall to ask for a WHOLE can of Coke (um, I paid $800 for this ticket and you can't give me the 25 cent Coke?). Although, in their defense, most seem more burned out than anything else. Quelle surprise, eh?

Still, battleaxe or friendly, if a stewardess barks an order at me ... I'm going to follow it. They are the Captain's representatives in the cabin and, as such, thoroughly outrank me.

[LibraryLady]

A similar disturbing trend is happening in libraries. "Patron" may be appropriate for a public library where people borrow music and movies in addition to printed matter. Here, even if people who visit us are doing research on the net, they're still reading. So the old term 'Reader' seems a better fit. A popular term for library visitors now is "client" which doesn't seem to fit at all.

In a related instance, cruise ships are moving away from the term 'Passenger" to the term 'Guest". In a way it makes sense because almost everything a passenger sees on a cruise ship is related to hotel operations but, to me at least, "Passenger" still better describes the experience of a voyage. ( Passengers or Guests, people who pay to ride the ship are internally known as "Pax" which I think rather humorous).

On a crossing from Genoa to New York some years ago John Maxtone-Graham made the fine distinction.

"On this voyage there is no question that we are passengers because we are passing from one port to a quite different one. We are not making the round trip of a standard cruise".