25 things vanishing in America, part 2: Customer service

[SoulManX]

A day in modern life-
Drive-thru at the coffee shop. Attendant shoves change, receipt and coffee at me simultaneously. Hurry hurry.
Stop for gas. 10 customers are pumping their own, while the single employee is inside selling lottery tickets and smokes. Never even glances at me as I spend $40.
Call my Doc to double-check the time for my physical; ninety seconds wasted listening to a menu.
Check email. More unsolicited messages from companies letting me know about all the wonderful new programs they have to suck cash out of my wallet. One, Dell, charged me $49 just to talk with them the last time I had computer trouble.
At lunch, pop over to K-Mart for some toiletries. Ten aisles, two open, with boxes stacked on either side of the cattle chute leading to the register. The clerk shoves my purchase in a bag, which she leaves lying on the shelf for me to pick up. At least they don't use the merry-go-round bag stand that WalMart does; I've left purchases behind, lost on the bag carousel, several times.
After work, settle in to watch the local "news." I wrote the station a month ago suggesting they quit using the phrase "You won't believe what happened next.," because the story is never unbelievable. Did I receive a reply? You won't believe what happened next- they ignored me.
The doorbell rings. I respond in seconds, just in time to see the UPS truck drive away. My package lays on the stoop for any passerby to see.
I pop into my online banking account to pay off my credit card balance before I"m dinged with a $39 late fee. Like many people, I like to pay my bills monthly, and resent the 28-day (or less) billing cycle used by banks to suck up billions in late fees.
My wife and I decide to go out for dinner. The waiter looks my wife in the eye and asks "How are you guys tonight?" The menu states that the restaurant won't provide separate bills for large parties, and automatically charges a 20% gratuity to parties of 8 or more.
We stop at Kroger's on the way home. The checkout person is engaged in conversation with the person on the next register and barely makes eye contact with us. I once wrote to the company suggesting that an attentive clerk at the cash register is crucial to cultivating customer loyalty. You won't believe what happened next. They never wrote back.
I'm not one who believes that the old days were better days, but I do sometimes long for a time when people in commerce were more aware of who provided the money that paid their salary, and acted at least slightly appreciative.

In that respect, have I told you lately how much I appreciate your reading WalletPop? I do. We all do.

http://digg.com/d1oKIP

 

[SuperFerret]

I'm iffy on this. I try to give good customer service in the jobs that need it, but I avoid sales people like the plague.

 

[I'm Old Greg]

because the workers make there crappy wage from billion dollar corperations that treat them like crap...

why should they care? its a crap job where they make crap salary. have no health insurance...

every retail, food, chain store i worked at treated there workers like garbage...the managers wanted to make more and took advantage instead of hiring more employees...

its a joke.

 

[chaseter]

I hate calling customer service and you get some foreign country where the people there love to speak bad English.

 

[thedeadite]

A big part of the decline of how customer service reps treat the public, is proportional to the decline in how the public treats customer service reps.

That's my opinion anyway.
as for the other things mentioned...i have no comment on them...yet. (just finished an exam and my mind is jello).

 

[Immortalfire]

Service is vanishing at a lot of places for sure, but I go to Chick-fil-A, and see that at least one place still believes in the customer first.

 

[the_ultimate_evil]

i work in retail, and try and be nice to the customers. but honestly it's hard when most treat you like something off the bottom of there boot.

you want good service then treat the person serving you with respect

 

[BlackLantern]

I work in tech/office support and we are big on the customer service....people are surprised when they call us and we tell them we are based in the US....and ultimate evil nailed it.....treat the person how you'd like to be treated....if you're being nasty, I WILL give you a hard time

 

[The Original Bamfer]

I've worked in retail, and many people have thanked me for being so kind and helpful. It baffled me because I thought I was just doing my job.

 

[El_Citrus]

I hate calling customer service and you get some foreign country where the people there love to speak bad English.

You use Hughesnet too?!?!..............

 

[Cosmic]

Everything is being made to be faster, and more efficient. The cashier is becoming an extension of the cash register. Most of the time, they just scan my items, tell me total price (which I can already read on the display), and hand me a receipt. They greet me, and say "thanks" and/or "have a nice day" when I leave. It's nice if you're in a big hurry, but I'm usually not in so much of a hurry that I can't spare a moment to show a little extra kindness to the person in front of me. One quick solution to this is giving someone a tip, if you can.

I worked at KFC in highschool, so I've been there. Except, I had to ask most customers a ton of questions to complete their order. So it was a more personal experience than the average experience I have with most cashiers at restaurants and stores, these days. Also, every time someone offered me a tip, I had to check with my manager before accepting it.

More often than not, I'm impressed by how good customer service is from people working these particular jobs, considering how hard they work, and how little they're paid. I try to cut them a little slack, even when the service is not so great.

 

[SuBe]

I was hoping SoulManx wrote that, then I was going to tell him how well it read, you won't believe what happened next. He didn't write it.

 

[The Guard]

I work in insurance, in a customer service capacity, and I've worked retail. Even over the last few years, things have changed dramatically.

The old days are long gone, and for many reasons. There are more people in the world now, more demanding and overly sensitive people (read: passive aggressive customers) in the world, and corporations are also more demanding of their employees, often timing or regulating heavily what they do, and then labeling it as a "customer service" initiative, when really, it's usually just about productivity.

Most of the time, blame the corporations, not the employees. Most of the time, a happy employee will give good service.

At some point, people started expecting a ridiculous amount of "service" for their dollar. Why would anyone want to hear some half-ass or overly enthusasthic nonsense like "We really appreciate your business" every time they go into a store or place of business? "Thanks for your time today", "Good to see you again", sure, if it's genuine. But the fake, corporate-mandated stuff? Why would anyone need that kind of reinforcement? I can understand wanting a measure of politness, but with me, customer service is sort of a gray area. Far too many people seem to think it should equal being "fake attentive" or unrealistically cheerful. Those should be exceptional experiences, not the expectation for the norm. Personally, I find people who need that sort of reinforcement while they're grocery shopping, or anywhere, for that matter, somewhat pathetic. It's fine if you like to have people smile and ask about your day, but to expect it all the damn time? I myself, having enough experience to know that it's simply not as easy as delivering "good customer service", expect people to do what they're paid to do. That is, a cashier is supposed to ring me out. If they bag my groceries and leave them within reach, so much the better. A waiter is supposed to take my order and bring my food. And so on and so forth.

 

[Tyrinus]

"The customer is always right" is one of the biggest ******** phrases around. People want you to bend over backwards for for what amounts to chump change. The sense of entitlement in people these days is ridiculous.

 

[Hotwire]

"The customer is always right" is one of the biggest ******** phrases around. People want you to bend over backwards for for what amounts to chump change. The sense of entitlement in people these days is ridiculous.

This I can personally attest to. I've worked in sales for the last 8-9 years. I've been asked for rediculous deals that's I've told the customer several times I can't give. When it comes to making a sale, I understand that I'm not going to sell everyone, but is it too much to ask to just hear me out?

 

[SuBe]

How here believes we need Universal Healthcare?

 

[Hotwire]

How here believes we need Universal Healthcare?

I vote, yes. And we can start some of the funding by taking away the paychecks of every member of congress, the supreme court, the president and everyone in his cabinet.

But somehow I feel this is a trick question that should belong in the politics forum.

 

[squeekness]

Every time I go into my comic book store I have to wait for my sales guy to stop playing World of Warcraft on the computer before he'll ring me up. I can't even read on the production floor at my job or I'd get fired. You'd think he'd at least stop playing while I was there... Good thing I get a good discount or I'd leave.

 

[Darthphere]

I work customer service at the retail level. 9 times out of 10 everything is good. Amazing, it's not hard to be nice. It's that one person who comes in ready and looking for a fight that causes problems. I'm not going to say that there aren't some straight up *******s working customer service, because there is. But sometimes you gotta look back and see what you're doing wrong. The customer is always right, until they're wrong, and they hate being wrong.

 

[WolfCypher]

The doorbell rings. I respond in seconds, just in time to see the UPS truck drive away. My package lays on the stoop for any passerby to see.

I truly f"""ing hate this. And on the rare occasions I do get to the door before the UPS guy can even leave, he has an attitude!

 

[Neto Magnus]

In the last 15 years I worked like 30 or so jobs, most of them having to deal with customers. In all my experience you know what I learned? ALL customers are A-Holes. Worst job I have had was being a cashier at a supermarket. Currently I work at the post office and sometimes i bartend on the weekends. People going to the post office and bars are pretty much the WORST customers.

Now of course there are times when I am the customer. Today I was shopping at Walmart and the cashier was soooooo effing slow. I literally had to go around and stand next to her to bag my own **** so I can get out of there.

Um, I had a point to this rant but now I lost my train of thought. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we're all a-holes in a busy world.

 

[Manic]

I worked as a Driver Helper for UPS this past winter. Their policy is to get those residential packages off the truck as soon as possible. I kid you not, my training video told me how to leave packages on the porch, drop them over the fence, and leave them in an open garage. They told us to basically doorbell ditch the customers. UPS only needs to stop to get your signature if you're a business, you're getting something very expensive, or you ordered something along the lines of medication or alcohol. Otherwise they drop the package, ring the doorbell, and walk away.

Well, the official policy is to walk briskly, but there's an insane amount of running involved.

 

[Neto Magnus]

I worked as a Driver Helper for UPS this past winter. Their policy is to get those residential packages off the truck as soon as possible. I kid you not, my training video told me how to leave packages on the porch, drop them over the fence, and leave them in an open garage. They told us to basically doorbell ditch the customers. UPS only needs to stop to get your signature if you're a business, you're getting something very expensive, or you ordered something along the lines of medication or alcohol. Otherwise they drop the package, ring the doorbell, and walk away.

Well, the official policy is to walk briskly, but there's an insane amount of running involved.

yea same with the post office and we don't even have to ring the bell. And if your package gets stolen while its on your doorstep it doesnt matter because it sez 'Delivered' in our records so it's not our problem anymore.

 

[Manic]

At UPS, if your package gets stolen... too bad. You can fill out a form and request that all packages delivered to your house be signed, though. But if UPS misses you 3 days in a row, you have to go to pick it up. And not at one of those UPS Stores. You have to go to the nearest dispatch, and there's a good chance that's a few towns away. My delivery route was about 30 minutes away from the dispatch.

 

[Neto Magnus]

At UPS, if your package gets stolen... too bad. You can fill out a form and request that all packages delivered to your house be signed, though. But if UPS misses you 3 days in a row, you have to go to pick it up. And not at one of those UPS Stores. You have to go to the nearest dispatch, and there's a good chance that's a few towns away. My delivery route was about 30 minutes away from the dispatch.

hey between you and me(and anyone else reading this) do you to get to keep the unclaimed packages?