Customer service — an oxymoron in America?
Over the past year or so I have become more and more conscious of people in business not doing what they promise they will do.
Is it lack of caring? Lack of training? Lack of understanding of why performance is important?
My motto: Under promise and over deliver. Do that and people will be happy. It is not that hard.
In recent weeks, two of my medical providers failed to forward records as I had requested them to do, even after I had reminded them after the initial request.
A mail order company promised delivery by a given date, the product arrived three days late. (Not Amazon, which is freaking amazing.)
I call an 800 number and get put on an interminable hold, only to be cut off.
Try to find the phone number of a business online and all you see is an email address. The message: We don’t want to talk to you. Impersonal service.
Mistakes in your order in restaurants, trains that don’t run on time, people who just don’t listen.
WTF is going on? Is half of America already on drugs, or drinking stupid serum?
But let’s be fair, not all is bleak. I have had some good experiences, too.
Apple’s telephone tech support hit a home run for me. I called the other day, everyone was busy, the robot gave me an option of a callback at 8:30, which I took. At precisely 8:30, my cell phone rang. It was Melissa in Florida who took all the time in the world to resolve my issue.
Closer to home, although I am in their loyalty program, the Staples at 15th and Chestnut never recognizes my phone number. It didn’t, as usual, the other day. The associate I was with seemed baffled, so he called a supervisor.
Rob went through the motions, got stuck, but then pulled out his phone and went online, to navigate a way through the maze.
I noticed his screen saver was a Batman logo.
“Is that Batman?” I asked.
“I am Batman,” he replied.
Ka-POW.
In about five minutes, Batman/Rob straightened out the tech problem so that the computer recognized me, and he gave me a $10 discount on the printer ink I just bought, because Staples couldn’t give me the discount the last time I was in.
That last time, when things went blooey, the associate gave me a Staples 800 number to call from home, but the 800 people said the fix had to be done in the store.
The old run-around that makes you want to kill someone.
Conversely, Batman/Rob took the extra couple of minutes to fix a problem, joke with a customer and make everything right. It is not that hard.
I’d like to introduce him to Melissa. They’d make a great couple.
Any more Stu, it seems that, at least as you describe customer (dis)service, it’s become a case of Expect the Worst; Hope for better. I know I find myself, any more, saying to myself, “What are they smoking today?” Same sort of drug reference as you just made above. My basic motto is to “spread the honey around” as best I can to elicit decent customer service, but, alas, it seems to go continually downhill as time marches on.
As you have noted, there are small oasis of good help out there from time to time, and I know I go out of my to either praise them directly, or to their supervisor. It can’t hurt.
And, as Captain Obvious, you have brought up a subject that should be discussed more often – not that we can infuse the general populace of what should be an inane, basic human trait: naturally wanted to help out another fellow human being. Of course, I sometimes wonder about some of out there that purport to be of the human race. I know, that’s a topic for Stu for another day.
HAPPY TUESDAY !!!
Pallie,
You touched on the cold cruel reality of today. Because we are ( almost extinct ) dinosaurs, we remember when customer service was exactly ….CUSTOMER SERVICE ! In today’s world, civility pretty much was thrown out the window. Commonly speaking, the hired help are not trained in customer service relations. Why, you ask. Simply because customers are no longer valued. When companies are here with the idea of being around forever, they relish serving there customers. Again you ask why. BECAUSE THEY WANT THEIR CUSTOMERS TO COME BACK !
Tony
P.S. notice how short this reply is, compared to my volumes…………………..
Anthony, first – no comment on the volumes LoL. You hit on the other point I forgot to post above – the customer is valued way below the almighty BUCK. And too many businesses are forget where the buck starts (as opposed to stops).
Meant to say “forgetting” above. Damned auto-fingers, err, auto-spell.
I’m laughing Stu. You’re funny. It was the WTF that got me, because by not saying it, I had to!
Service today in general is poor. I don’t want to blame the youngsters, but they are behind the counter. I’ll not waste space here, so one example:
The purchase of this phone in October. A 40 minute wait, second in line…Best Buy, another oxymoron. Other employees must’ve mistaken me for a mannequin.
Bottom line, after a 2 hour purchasing experience with all my questions answered I thought, I’m still being overcharged monthly after being told it would take two to three cycles to work out, also would get full credit then…we’ll see?
And then 2 months later I called about it and after a trip half way around the planet I was told, could not be handled over the phone, must go in person to BB….WTF?
I know it will get resolved, it’s just a pain having to go back.
Great subject matter. Thanks
The reason I will never EVER use Comcast, or never EVER buy a General Motors automobile is because of the very thing you touched on: customer service. Both companies had my business, but drove it away through lack of caring about THEIR company, not MY being a customer. If you want to see GREAT customer service and GREAT training, go to any Chick Filet outlet.