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

[Anonymous]

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

I do and am happy with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hear you OP!

I have experienced horrible customer service as well many many times.

And it always puzzles me how businesses do not prioritize this more.

At least now we have Yelp as well as other online review choices where people can post about a business who do not treat their clientele well.

LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s gone because we keep lowering the bar and it’s pretty much rock bottom right now. There are many apologists for bad behavior.

I went to Bath and body Works and one of the sales staff was sweeping and talking on the phone. She was the only one around and I needed help. She turned her back to me when I asked for help. And before anybody starts apologizing and speculating about why she was on the phone, she was making weekend plans with her friend and talking about her nails.

Ugh I had to go to ulta to pick up a gift for my mom. I had a stroller with a baby and toddler. Couldn't get the door open so struggled while the chick stood there looking at her phone. Then asked "Can you tell me where x is? I've never been to this store." She waved me in the general direction still on her phone. Came back because I couldn't find the right product and she said "just order it online. I don't know."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I agree. It’s so much worse in this area. I wonder if it has to do with the huge wage gap between hourly workers and those they are providing customer service too. Not sure, but customer service is much better if you leave this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

I was a waitress for years (this was before COVID) and I was shocked at how bad some of the servers were. I agree, it’s not hard to be good at that job, but they just sucked and then couldn’t believe how much I made in tips and complained that the hostess gave me all the good customers. Nope, I just gave the customers good service.

You won’t find rude people working at Chick Fil A but you will find them at any other fast food joint where they probably get paid less. If the establishment places a priority on good service and pays its people well they are incentivized to do a good job. But some people also just suck at customer service (and therefore don’t get hired at places like Chick Fil A).

I do think it has tanked since Covid and unless the businesses decide to make outstanding customer service a thing, it will likely remain terrible there. And you do have a choice to a certain extent - we frequent the restaurants and stores where we know we’re likely to have a pleasant experience. The others can either step it up or go out of business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I’m a tax lawyer and I end up on the phone with the IRS quite a bit. I can tell you from the large sample size of my calls over the last five years that I am not the problem. I can call five times on the same issue and have five different experiences, many of which will not be pleasant. I know you catch more flies with honey than vinegar but some people are just rude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

You must be an exec if you use the term “leverage”. Horrible word. Maybe you can write a post using the word “synergy”.
Chat bots are generally useless and are only capable of basic things. Most times they tell me you need to talk to a person.

Chat bots are not the same as chatting with a live person. Chat bots are useless. Chatting with someone can be super effective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Treat everyone with respect and kindness.

I wish this worked. It doesn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I try buy anything in first place in order to avoid customer service. Some things I just have to do like buying a car or anything medical.
I'm not going back to the car dealership as they messed up 7+ different things during my car buying. It's mostly paperwork and they just don't know what needs to be done nor do they care.
Anything medical is always a mess in DC.
Now I simply collect stories about what when wrong, how, how to fix it, or how to avoid it.
I did quite well not buying too much from Amazon last year after broken table was sent to me. They didn't take it back or give me a discount.

Interesting. I find Amazon customer service to be excellent once you can talk to someone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Treat everyone with respect and kindness.

I wish this worked. It doesn’t.

I think it often does, and if it doesn't, then you know the other person is the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

You must be an exec if you use the term “leverage”. Horrible word. Maybe you can write a post using the word “synergy”.
Chat bots are generally useless and are only capable of basic things. Most times they tell me you need to talk to a person.

Chat bots are not the same as chatting with a live person. Chat bots are useless. Chatting with someone can be super effective.

+1

I regularly use the chat function to deal with a 100 percent online business we use, and it's a real person. Excellent service every time. (It's 1-800-Contacts website for contact lenses)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I try buy anything in first place in order to avoid customer service. Some things I just have to do like buying a car or anything medical.
I'm not going back to the car dealership as they messed up 7+ different things during my car buying. It's mostly paperwork and they just don't know what needs to be done nor do they care.
Anything medical is always a mess in DC.
Now I simply collect stories about what when wrong, how, how to fix it, or how to avoid it.
I did quite well not buying too much from Amazon last year after broken table was sent to me. They didn't take it back or give me a discount.

Interesting. I find Amazon customer service to be excellent once you can talk to someone.

Yes and no. I returned an item that Amazon didn’t receive. But I had the tracking slip and they could see that it had been scanned in. I was getting nasty gram emails saying I would be charged for the item if it wasn’t received by X date. When I called Amazon to tell them I had returned it, I was told they could see that and they were happy to help but they “couldn’t do anything” until I was actually charged for the item. And that I would need to “call back” once I saw the charge for the item. So I had to keep tracking my credit card and make TWO different customer service calls for something you already agree is not my fault?

I was already cutting way back on Amazon purchases and this only motivated me more. I couldn’t believe she couldn’t just take care of it then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I agree. It’s so much worse in this area. I wonder if it has to do with the huge wage gap between hourly workers and those they are providing customer service too. Not sure, but customer service is much better if you leave this area.

I’ve had excellent customer service right in Foggy Bottom!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I agree. It’s so much worse in this area. I wonder if it has to do with the huge wage gap between hourly workers and those they are providing customer service too. Not sure, but customer service is much better if you leave this area.

I’ve had excellent customer service right in Foggy Bottom!

I’m sure you did. There will always be isolated cases, particularly at higher end establishments with higher prices. But when you leave this area, even the overnight clerk at the Holiday Inn Express is friendly and helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to Asia, non China.
Everyone cares about being on time, professional, caring, accurate, clean, and prompt.
And many are smiley, happy cultures too- Malaysia, Philippines, vietnam, Thailand.

It’s refreshing.

It's because wages are low and tipping is not a thing overseas. the minimum wage hikes have caused a major problem in the USA. Businesses have also leveraged the tipping culture to underpay. The solution is to eliminate the minimum wage and tipping so that people will quit and businesses will respond with better pay and services.