Has good customer service taken a nosedive for anybody else?

[Confused Mark Wahlberg]

I've found if you are generally courteous to workers you will get the same in return. There are exceptions of course.

But, I seriously can't remember the last time anyone was particularly rude, and if they were, I wouldn't go back there anyway.

Hell, there was a old man yelling at the top of his lungs at some poor woman at the return desk at Target not that long ago because she left to get his change but didn't tell him that's what she was doing. Poor woman had to just stand there getting yelled at and couldn't do anything or she might be fired. I felt bad even though I had nothing to do with it.

[Cyno]

After working at Gamestop for a couple of years, I show a lot more courtesy and patience to cash register jockeys. Working retail was one of the most soulsucking experiences I've ever gone through.

As for the OP, I dunno, it comes off a lot like That Guy who writes negative reviews on Yelp.

[DSR]

Jan 8, 2019 12:46:39 GMT -5 realist said:

I have also been noticing a sharp decline in customer service. Cashiers used to smile and make small talk while scanning items. Now, many of them can't even bother to make eye contact. My solution is to always go to the oldest cashier there. I hate to say it, but the younger generation of workers are just way too self absorbed to care about the customer. The older cashiers always seem to outshine their younger counterparts. Many times, the older cashiers will even pass me a coupon to use to get discounts on items.

I'm part of the management team in a retail store, and by and large the older cashiers are solely cashiers, whereas the younger cashiers also work stock. So it's not that they're self-absorbed, it's that corporate demands that they get back out on the sales floor and move product as soon as possible.

I understand that's not the case everywhere, but still.

[IgnahtaSempria]

You know, once upon a time, workers got rewarded by management for going "above and beyond" for customers. Now, "above and beyond" is the standard, and anything less than that is considered "underperforming". So, you get customers who EXPECT, if not DEMAND, that workers bend over backwards and cater to their every whim, and receive ludicrous compensation for every little mistake. And they get it, because a key requirement for a management position seems to be "lack of anything resembling a spine".

Did you receive poor customer service? In the first instance, maybe, in he others, definitely. But you also sound incredibly entitled, which may be why you feel you receive subpar customer service everywhere. Because you expect more than you deserve.

[Chainsaw]

Honestly, I can't even blame customer service taking a nosedive. We've become more of a service industry society, and those people are underpaid and overstressed, even if they're working less than 20 hours a week. Any mistake, any customer complaint could result in you losing that job. A lot of these people work multiple jobs, have families they're struggling to support, and are being met with even more high demands, almost impossible demands, from corporate. And we're seeing even more breakdown in communication and systems in different areas of business that's making jobs even harder to do. I'm fortunate that I've worked in the service industry, and it's given me a greater appreciation of what people go through, and gives me perspective, and knowing that when someone acts shitty, sometimes it's because they're having a really tough day, and it's better to not heap on that if you're not happy with their performance. It doesn't always work, sometimes you get angry, but it's good to keep things in perspective when you're shopping.

[Bo Rida]

It's rare to find somewhere that gets the balance right these days. Either staff are told to be over attentive and keep bugging you when you're fine or it's somewhere understaffed where when you eventually find an employee they've been beaten down so much by their badly managed store/restaurant they don't care. Neither are the staffs fault though, if only they were given the chance to judge things themselves rather than a one size fits all approach.

Still better than most phone lines farmed out to the lowest bidder, if you can speak to a person at all.

I'd say the most notable good customer service I’ve got in recent times has been from hostel staff, there’s been quite a few that genuinely seem to care and go out of their way to look after people as individuals.

[Limity (BLM)]

I haven't noticed any change. Like many others, I worked retail for a time, and that gives me some insight and patience when interacting with retail employees.

[edgestar]

I am a cashier, and I do try to bring my best, every day. It helps the managers, and a lot of the customers know me by name. One experience I thought would be bad with a customer, ended up being nice (?) My blood count went low, to the point, where I asked her if I could take a break, during ringing her out. (She only bought 4 things). She asked for a manager. Not to complain, but to tell them to call my closest parent to where I work, and have someone call 911. It turned out that she was a nurse, and she saw that I was fading fast. I ended up in the hospital. Work gave me the rest of the week, off. The same lady came in, every day, to adk if anyone heard any updates on me.

There are also not so nice people. One lady called me stupid, because I couldn't read the change, due to the glare the sun was giving the screen.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

I've worked in call centres, including in cold-calling telesales.

I've seen some of the worst humanity has to offer, and people, it's definitely the customer, not the service staff. To be extreme here, staff can get fired. You can't fire a customer from reality itself.

But honestly, the amount of shit I have had to grit my teeth through before. Whatever service staff member may have given you a tiny bit of attitude during that five-second window you saw them during, you are only five seconds of their eight-plus hour day of dealing with people. And the more people you see, the higher chance you get of being talked down to, patronised, ignored or downright abused. And if I'm being totally honest, from the server side of things, I would rather be abused, because that's something I can respond to, do something about, respond to deal with - being patronised I can't. And hell, I'm lucky I could ever do anything about such things, because in America, your service culture is INSANE.

Like, our service staff are underpaid, but at least they don't have to f***ing wipe your seat for you and shine your shoes and babysit your daughter during their one day off a week to try and get a tip in order to achieve minimum wage.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Yeah, leaving snarky comments instead of a tip is just a dick move. If you want great customer service, maybe don't treat minimum wage part-time workers like crap by making their already exhausting job even more frustrating. It doesn't even make sense to refuse to tip the waitress because of something the cooks clearly did wrong. ESPECIALLY if you know she's usually good and that was her one bad day. And while we're at it... why exactly did you expect half-price for getting exactly what you asked for? Yeah, the first plate had a hair in it. But they replaced it, and you got what you want in the end, there's no justification for demanding both a replacement AND a 50% discount.


Look, I can't even really disagree that customer service has generally-speaking lowered in quality, but instead of whining at hard-working employees because of other people's mistakes, you might wanna consider the reasons for it. I work customer service (specifically, customer support for an airline), I'm lucky enough to have a full-time contract (still minimum wage, though. Wooo!), and I always make sure to be as polite and professional as possible. However, between the stress of a hostile, poorly-managed work environment and customers who treat you like shit even when you ARE being nice and polite to them, and you get no bonus for going the extra mile for your clients (and in fact may end up penalized if you don't meet your quotas as a result of having the audacity to try and do your job right), it quickly gets very difficult to justify doing anything more than the absolute minimum to yourself.

Why should I ruin my physical and mental health for a company that views me as nothing more than a tool and doesn't value extra work (or regular work, for that matter)? Why should I do anything special for a client who considers it revolting to not get more than what they specifically asked for? Why should I have any regard for people who think customer service people are punching bags whom you can do and say anything to, and who will blame us for shit we have no authority over, like prices and company policies? Why should I continue to put on a smile when literally the first sentence I see when working social media is ladden with insults, or when I am told by a client on the phone that they hope our company sinks and we all end up in the streets?

If you want good customer service, customers and employers alike should start by treating workers in a way that gives them any motivation to do anything more than the bare minimum. And looking at my paycheck, I can assure you, were NOT paid to be way too nice. And we are certainly not paid to take the kind of abuse we do on a daily basis. You'll notice that the companies that have the best customer service tend to be the ones that also treat their employees the best, or at the very least well enough that they don't dread coming to work. It's also why when I do get especially polite and understanding customers, I always do everything in my power to give them the best service possible (which admittedly still isn't much because again, and it's something customers need to get through their skull: customer service workers have little to no authority on anything, especially not prices or company policies. And most of the time, managers really can't do much more either).

Jan 7, 2019 12:05:04 GMT -5 Spider2024 said:

Jan 7, 2019 11:56:31 GMT -5 @legendstar said:

What explanation are you looking for exactly? There is a hair on your mashed potatoes - it's not a very big mystery, is it? I agree that an apology is in order, but like you said, that day wasn't her day, and I'm sure there are days where you aren't performing at your best wherever you work. Maybe she was slammed because it was rush hour? Maybe she brought the dish back and the kitchen staff told her to f*** off because they were slammed.

You chose not to tip her, and you have every right to do so - so why are you still complaining?

You keep expecting explanations when the most logical solution is right in front of you, and still, you think you are entitled a written speech about who, what, why and when - come on guy. Someone got your order wrong, and you get "seething mad" - you might need to look within to figure out why you are so angry to begin with.

Pretty sure you also had a bad day at work yesterday.

Thus... this is pretty much my point made exactly.

Wait, khouz khouz is working the FAN customer service?!

[Dub H]

Jan 8, 2019 15:02:23 GMT -5 Cyno said:

After working at Gamestop for a couple of years, I show a lot more courtesy and patience to cash register jockeys. Working retail was one of the most soulsucking experiences I've ever gone through.

As for the OP, I dunno, it comes off a lot like That Guy who writes negative reviews on Yelp.

After growing up observing how my mother treats then...you are damn right I will be very nice to cashiers and costumer service.

[willywonka666]

I don't work in retail, but have in the past-in my daily and personal life, I hate to disappoint people. I go out of my way not to. I don't really have "bad days" where I can't keep my emotions in check, so I wouldn't dream of half assing anything especially around the public

We can all learn from this

[lionheart21]

Jan 8, 2019 14:49:32 GMT -5 crowley1986 said:

I Worked as staff and manager in retail for 12 years, It should be mandatory for everyone to do at least 1 year in retail....you can see most of the whingers have never been in retail and expect to be treated like the Queen of England

Preach it, man!

[edgestar]

I got employee of the month, for last month. I found this out, yesterday.

[Malibu Stacy]

Jan 8, 2019 16:06:22 GMT -5 Chainsaw said:

Honestly, I can't even blame customer service taking a nosedive. We've become more of a service industry society, and those people are underpaid and overstressed, even if they're working less than 20 hours a week. Any mistake, any customer complaint could result in you losing that job. A lot of these people work multiple jobs, have families they're struggling to support, and are being met with even more high demands, almost impossible demands, from corporate. And we're seeing even more breakdown in communication and systems in different areas of business that's making jobs even harder to do.

This. In addition to customers acting more entitled and less forgiving of minor mistakes, management/corporate increasingly gets in the way of employees being able to do their job by things like basically expecting one person to do the work of five but in half the time. At least from what I've experienced first-hand. Doesn't help that part of the reason for customers' dissatisfaction is also due to corporate advertising promises there's no way those actually on the floor can keep.

For example, the store I used to work at. I was lucky enough to come in when current store runner actually knew how to run a store, and that one way to increase the quality of customer service was to, you know, actually have employees available to serve customers? Unsurprisingly that store had the second highest ranking in the area for that chain. But that person left, and the management team that took over immediately focused on slashing labor costs to feed their bonuses.

One of their tactics was to not schedule any dept associates until afternoon, expecting logistics to run them while somehow also doing our actual jobs. Which we were also now expected to get done in half the time. As you can imagine, it led to a lot of employees dodging customers and try to get interactions over as soon as possible. Just to try to finish our primary duties in the time allotted. Of course we were never disrespectful to a customer's face, and we never blamed them for management's stupidity, but I bet catching glimpses of shadows darting about in peripheral while the depts resembled a barren wasteland made that cold comfort.

Store ranking plummeted from second best to second worst.

[Chainsaw]

Jan 9, 2019 11:47:19 GMT -5 edgestar said:

I got employee of the month, for last month. I found this out, yesterday.

Congrats, you absolutely deserve it! <3

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

Expecting the meals comped make you sound entitled. Shit happens. And that waitress will absolutely remember that note, so I probably wouldn't bother going back there for awhile. Also, there's a difference between shitty service, and not getting a 10 minutes, detailed break down, with powerpoints and pie charts, how a hair found it's way onto your potatoes when a girl is run off her feet.

[Paul]

Jan 9, 2019 11:47:19 GMT -5 edgestar said:

I got employee of the month, for last month. I found this out, yesterday.

I am sure you earned it! You should be proud and they are lucky they have you working there.

[Spider2024]

Like I said (mostly in the paragraph about my occupation) I like to think I always try to be nice and courteous and fair. If I do anything that seems mean to anyone, it's only reactionary. An eye for an eye I guess.

So if that makes me a dick or an asshole, fine. We agree to disagree.

I should not have to suffer for other people's bad days rubbing off on other people's bad days, and so on and so forth.

Jan 9, 2019 15:43:41 GMT -5 The Summer of Muskrat XVII said:

Expecting the meals comped make you sound entitled. Shit happens. And that waitress will absolutely remember that note, so I probably wouldn't bother going back there for awhile. Also, there's a difference between shitty service, and not getting a 10 minutes, detailed break down, with powerpoints and pie charts, how a hair found it's way onto your potatoes when a girl is run off her feet.

Finally went back 3 months later, Same waitress. Zero problems, for either side. (Full 20% tip btw.)

[chazraps]

I'll say Comcast's customer service became much worse to deal with once they merged with Xfinity.