What happened to basic Customer service? Is it gone forever?

[Anonymous]

From the pharmacy, to the doctors offices, to calling my ISP when the internet is down, What the actual crap has happened to any customer service? I don't mean being treated like the Queen of England I mean like people doing their basic job requirements. What has happened? HOW are they getting pay checks for not doing the work? If I just stopped my job I'd be fired pretty quickly.

If customers revolt, leave businesses will regular (not great, just basic) CS come back or is this permanent? How are these companies functioning? I just can't wrap my brain around this. Maybe this is mostly an issue where I live I don't know. It's so bad.

[Anonymous]

I think standards really tanked during Covid and have never gone back up. It’s frustrating. I would be happy to pay a little bit more to get better service but it’s not an option in most industries. It’s all bad.

[Anonymous]

Learn to leverage the chat feature thats the new way forward, I've gotten a lot of stuff done w/ it. Sometime even AI will give me exactly what i want which is often a refund.

[Anonymous]

Customer service is expensive. The kind of "good" customer service people expect requires training, knowledge, professionalism, empathy, and emotional regulation. People are too used to sitting behind a keyboard; they don't know how to interact with other people. When business propose a model that uses good customer service, like a concierge doctor, people complain about the cost.

[Anonymous]

Customer service at clinics, retail, fast food, and stores in Wash DC are the worst and always has been.

Even my European husband has noticed this and said what’s the deal? We go to Florida or the Midwest or even Boston and the worker culture, vibe and response time is good.

Here it’s like no one wants to work, and so they just sit there scowling.

[Anonymous]

Are any of us willing to pay more for better service?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the pharmacy, to the doctors offices, to calling my ISP when the internet is down, What the actual crap has happened to any customer service? I don't mean being treated like the Queen of England I mean like people doing their basic job requirements. What has happened? HOW are they getting pay checks for not doing the work? If I just stopped my job I'd be fired pretty quickly.

If customers revolt, leave businesses will regular (not great, just basic) CS come back or is this permanent? How are these companies functioning? I just can't wrap my brain around this. Maybe this is mostly an issue where I live I don't know. It's so bad.

People re friendly and do chit chat with their waitstaff, check out person, greeter, or show owner in other parts of the country.

People here are doomsday and wallowing in negativity and catastrophizing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are any of us willing to pay more for better service?

Doesn’t work that way.

Just move or vacation more. To a happier place. Like we saw on winter break. Happy grateful people, working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Customer service is expensive. The kind of "good" customer service people expect requires training, knowledge, professionalism, empathy, and emotional regulation. People are too used to sitting behind a keyboard; they don't know how to interact with other people. When business propose a model that uses good customer service, like a concierge doctor, people complain about the cost.

You’re talking about customer service phone lines and call centers.

Other people are talking about in person service industries and how bad that is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the pharmacy, to the doctors offices, to calling my ISP when the internet is down, What the actual crap has happened to any customer service? I don't mean being treated like the Queen of England I mean like people doing their basic job requirements. What has happened? HOW are they getting pay checks for not doing the work? If I just stopped my job I'd be fired pretty quickly.

If customers revolt, leave businesses will regular (not great, just basic) CS come back or is this permanent? How are these companies functioning? I just can't wrap my brain around this. Maybe this is mostly an issue where I live I don't know. It's so bad.

The k-12 public education system auto-graduated too many people with 4th grader skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think standards really tanked during Covid and have never gone back up. It’s frustrating. I would be happy to pay a little bit more to get better service but it’s not an option in most industries. It’s all bad.

It’s all bad AND everything is more expensive.

OP, I posted a similar thread about degraded service in restaurants a few months ago. The consensus seems to be: yes, it sucks, and there’s nothing any of us can do about it.

🙃

[Anonymous]

I don't know what you're talking about. Yesterday I called CVS pharmacy because my new medicine refill looked different than what I'd gotten in the past. The guy who called me back was very nice and thorough. Last week I called a theatre about an actor in a play and the person I spoke with was lovely. Today I called a store to ask if they had something in the size I need that I saw on their website. The person asked if I could hold while she finished with a customer and then she'd check. She came back to the phone breathless and apologized for the wait and had the item and offered to hold it until Thursday when I can get there.

Maybe it's you?

[Anonymous]

I think business execs regard customer service as an undesirable and unnecessary overhead. Their priority is their bonuses which are dependent on the company’s numbers. Abysmal customer service is everywhere, but I’m not sure if there’s any worse than Verizon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Customer service is expensive. The kind of "good" customer service people expect requires training, knowledge, professionalism, empathy, and emotional regulation. People are too used to sitting behind a keyboard; they don't know how to interact with other people. When business propose a model that uses good customer service, like a concierge doctor, people complain about the cost.

Not really. I worked in restaurants for years and had all of the above qualities and no one “trained” me on customer service, I was just bubbly and helpful and polite. I actually enjoyed being of service. I think we just have way too many excuses to remain rude (as a society). Customer service is not hard!

[Anonymous]

Honestly OP, I think if you experience this often, you are the common denominator.

While I hate phone prompts and bots, once I get to a human, I rarely have poor service. But I don't treat people in the service industry like they need to solve my problem - and approach it more like "hey, let's see if we can figure this out together." It's all in the approach, and always being polite and kind in your tone.