Mourning the death of customer service.
Thanks to Hugeness for inspiring a rare blog post here at Digital Arcana.
We gather here to mourn the loss of an old friend: Customer Service.
Let us bow our heads and remember a time when you could walk into a store or restaurant and be greeted in a friendly manner by a store employee that did not assume that they were automatically entitled to your contribution to their paycheck.
Lovely wife and I have been in several stores and restaurants lately and been greeted by the now-common employee on a personal phone call. I’ve only just become aware that chatting with your BFF on your cell (or on the phone line paid for by their employer?!) is a marketable job skill. I’m not entirely sure how this contributes to overall sales, especially in this economy, but it’s apparent that there are thousands of these skilled professionals employed in all areas of retail, food service and technical support. They are joined by other skilled professionals who have been trained in the fine arts of looking bored or total incompetence.
The worst part is that we’re being conditioned to accept this as normal behaviour. I was recently in a local store looking for fire logs. An employee noticed me looking and asked what I was looking for. At first I was confused. Normally only employees working on commission in electronics or car sales ask (assault?) me with questions about my needs. I recovered and asked about the location of the fire logs, expecting the standard answer: “Yeah, man… I think we have those somewhere. That’s not my department.” What I got was the precise location of the fire logs. I was so stunned, I don’t remember anything after that. I found myself standing in the parking lot with a box of fire logs, a receipt and a terrible urge to run back into the store, find a manager and demand that the employee be promoted immediately for actually doing his job. Yeah. They’ve got me trained.
I think it’s about time we do a little training of our own. There are many reasons to regret our current economic situation, but I think it affords consumers a unique opportunity. More than ever, the consumer wields the power and it is our responsibility to use this power for good. Remember: we are revenue and employees are expense. Allow me to make a proposal. We can remind businesses, employers and managers that bad service can still result in the loss of a sale. If you’re treated badly, you can and should just walk away after letting someone know that a sale was lost and why. Here are some ground rules to keep everyone honest:
- This might be inconvenient. You might have to take the time to go to another store to follow through on your vow to take your business elsewhere. This is probably the hardest part. (The part that the worst offenders are counting on.) We are all so busy with work and family that it’s hard to take the time to stand up for ourselves, but it’s worth it in the long run.
- Be prepared for the fact that the manager might be just as rude as the employee. It might be necessary to take the time to work your way up the chain of command.
- Be polite. It doesn’t have to be an argument. It’s far more effective to calmly inform someone that they have a problem with their business and walk away. Your credibility will be improved if they can’t just dismiss you as a raving lunatic. (This is the hard part for me.)
- Pass it on. I know I don’t have a large readership (any readership?!). One consumer is an anomaly, ten or a hundred are a reason to change a policy. If you read this and it helps you feel better about the money you spend, tell a few people and contribute to the resurrection of our dearly departed Customer Service.
Most of us work hard for our paychecks. When you go to spend your hard-earned money remember that you deserve to be treated like someone who isn’t getting paid just to talk on the phone.
January 29th, 2009 at 12:58 am
Can I add one more suggestion? As someone who spent a lot of years (as you know) working in retail, people bitch all the time. If someone DOES actually go above and beyond (and I think the guy you ran into yesterday qualifies. He didn’t just give you a vague “they’re in X department” answer, he told you an aisle number AND where in the aisle they were), how about telling the manager that, too? Let’s acknowledge the people who are doing it RIGHT, too.
January 29th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Yes! I have to agree with Lovely Wife: positive reinforcement is also good for the cause. Excellent customer service is just as much of a reason for comment as lousy customer service.
January 29th, 2009 at 8:09 am
I haven’t dealt with any store employees (except maybe at Taco Bell) who were talking on their personal cell phones. What I can say is that when someone is really good, we do seek out the manager and tell them so.
Like the guy at Lowe’s who spent 15 minutes on a busy Saturday morning to help us (OK, me) figure out what rocks I wanted for the backyard. Jason actually called the store after we got home to tell them, and tell them his name.
And if they are bad, I tell that, too. Well, except at Circuit City the other night, when the cashier was having a discussion with someone else…I didn’t bother. I was getting a $200 19″ LCD TV, and the store is closing, so I doubt they cared.
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:03 am
As a whipping post in the retail industry (against my own will, I remind you) I can say that I make a very concerted effort to give as much service as possible. That seems to be rare, and based on your posting, it’s not imagined either. I genuinely enjoy helping people that want my help, that don’t have entitlement issues, that do not summon me with “hey you” or snapping their fingers to get my attention, or try to act like there’s no one ahead of them. Of course, I’m not perfect, but I certainly am not one of those whiny little teeny boppers who IS on their cellphone while ringing up your transaction and 97% of the time I like to think I know what I am talking about.
The fact that Macy’s is shutting down 11 more stores and putting 7000 jobs on the chopping block today and Circuit City is virtually no more means (with all things being equal in this economic downturn) that either the lack of customer service in either store has driven the public to spend their $ elsewhere at say Nordstrom, where CS is a priority before the cash register even gets touched (well, most of the time anyways) or CS really is dead. I prefer to think that it’s the former but who can really say?
February 4th, 2009 at 10:13 am
okay, please forgive my tardiness in commenting on this. It took a few days for the shock of seeing a post on here to wear off enough to allow for normal activities to resume.
Man-o-man do I agree with you dude! As if my normal happy self wasn’t enough to make my family want to disown me, they totally don’t get it when I don’t suffer fools well. I’m the guy who lets other drivers know when they did something stupid or dangerous, I make it a point to say thank you when employees at whatever store I’m do a great job (tipping 25% is a nice way to say thanks to a wait staff), and I sure as hell make it a point to identify slugs to their supervisors.
My point is this – we all complain about this or that, but who does something about it? How do you ever expect that bad situation to get better (maybe not even for you but for the next guy on the road or the next table your waiter serves) if you don’t stand up and say something? Good for you for wanting to vote with your wallet, but by all means make sure the chain of command knows you are doing it. Your small purchase won’t even make a blip on their radar but your letter of commendation or complaint will certainly grow legs.
February 5th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Karin and I mourned the death of customer service when we lived in MD, we thought it was a new pandemic… we were pleasantly surprised when we found out it hadn’t yet hit Pittsburgh (besides a few isolated cases). We used to joke about Macy’s employees and others in maryland who would look annoyed that we were interrupting their phone call!
we vote with our wallets and even pay extra for customer service. (those whole foods folks have got to be slipping some sort of drug in the employee refreshments… i didn’t even know there was such a thing as a pie-bag:-))