Has excellent customer service become extinct?

Question

It has dawned on me recently that customer service is dead! Very rarely do I come across a situation in which there has been excellent customer service. It seems just doing the bare basics to get by has beome the normal acceptence of our socitey. Do you agree or disagree? Do you have a example of either bad or good customer service?

Answer 1

people just don't care anymore, jobs are paying less and are easy to find. people have no work ethic anymore...

Answer 2

Okay, here is an excellent opportunity for me to get on my soapbox! Poor customer service is a PET PEEVE of mine. I used to work outside the home as a secretary. It was also my job to greet clients and answer the telephone. I always made sure I did this cheerfully and with a friendly tone to my voice. Some days this was a challenge, especially if a client was rude to me, if I wasn't feeling well, or if I had some personal issue going on at home. People don't know (nor do most care) what's going on in your personal life, so you can't take your problems out on them. Anyway I, like you, have noticed good, not to mention excellent customer service, seems to be rare these days. Now that I am no longer employed outside the home, I recently started my own medical transcription business. Excellent customer service is definitely high on my list of priorities. Plus the fact that if I don't give excellent customer service, my clients will simply go elsewhere, and who can blame them? Here is an example for you: My husband and I are in the market to buy a home, and we recently went and looked at a new subdivision where the contractor is currently building new homes. We spoke with a gentleman at the sales office where the model homes are located. After handing him our application to get pre-qualified to have our home built, and spending about 30 mintues meeting with him, he assured us that he would do everything necessary to "get the ball rolling". He answered our questions, and told us that he would be e-mailing us some information within a few days. He also told us if we had any questions in the meantime, to make sure and give him a call. That was over a week ago. We have had questions in the meantime, but have not been able to reach him (after trying for 4 straight days in a row), nor has he returned any of our phone calls or replied to any of the voicemail messages we have left on his cell phone. So far, we have not received any e-mails from him either. We realize that we are not his only client, but do not feel this is an acceptable excuse to not take 5 minutes and return a phone call or send an e-mail. This has also caused us some concerns with respect to what type of customer service we will receive once construction has actually begun, as well as during the building process of our new home. Needless to say, we will be personally going out to the sales office this week-end to ask that our application be shredded, and that we are no longer interested in working with this particular individual.

Answer 3

I think it almost has but I think it has to do with many factors. A) Most people in customer service are paid very low salaries, there is no motivation to help out but for personal reasons BUT that is the job YOU chose B) The actual company/retailor's ethics, if all you care about is the bottom line and that is what is projected to your employees - what do you expect? This is the "trickle-down effect" C) Companies providing already poor quality, crap produces more crap and more complaints D) Poor supervision E) Poor training F) Modern day work ethic/loyalty there is none G) Companies forgetting that a customer will go to a competitor, use word of mouth, will complain to i.e. Better Business Bureau

Answer 4

In this age of consumerism, competition and quick product turnover, a new product becomes obsolete within a very short period. a company has the same set of people to service all the products and would like to direct people to try and buy the newer products. This same is applicable in case of services also, what was paid could have become a mandatory part of a bouquet of services or vice-versa.

This leads to the service personnel lacking in knowledge about the older products or services. Also high employee attrition has made the customer service employee very much in demand, and has resulted in an arrogant attitude in these employees, because they know that if their current employer fires them, they have someone from the competition waiting to offer them a job.
Life's Lovely! Love & Live Life!

Answer 5

Completely agree. I feel life is getting more stressful to people from all walks of life. Rarely do we hear something that makes us happy - as a people I mean. Its all about war, global warming, exploitation, killing n so on....... its the times we are living in that has deteriorated all kinds of people interaction. Customer service is also equally effected. Everything is so perfunctory.

There are a whole lot of bad experiences. It'll be a whole lot to key in what happened, but good customer service is definitely becoming a thing of the past.

Answer 6

This is an excellent question and worth a thumbs up from me!

Yes it seems to have fallen by the wayside. You would think that companies would train their service reps to be professional and courteous to people because it is a reflection on them!

I have gone to many a store and some businesses besides, and all I have gotten is a "bad attitude", from people, like I was really disturbing them or something! Also a not so nice look like a wasn't suppose to ask them to do anything for me! These episodes just left a sour taste in my mouth to the point that I would not go back to any of these places and take my business else where!

Answer 7

i have to say that you get what you give. if you go into a store with a bad attitude it is very hard for the associate to be nice to you. example you want to return a shirt you've worn and you don't have a reciept. the cashier says i'm sorry i can't take this back. you start yelling and causing a scene. then the associate is left trying to still be nice? if customers were nicer i'm sure the cashiers would be also. i've been in retail my whole life and i am very nice when shopping and rarely am i treated badly be cashiers.

Answer 8

It's an evolvement that has come about with "self service" establishments.
"Salespeople" are not "salespeople" in most cases. They have become no more than "order takers".

There are 4 basic divisions in business.
Merchandising
Advertising
Organization
Display.

Merchandising still plays a major role.
Following that, Advertising remains number two, for obvious reasons.

Display has moved up to third place, replacing Organization; regarding salespeople.
Display is synonymous with self service.

I think that there are very few instances where Organization, (salespeople), plays a major role today.
One, of few, that comes to mind.

Any woman who shops at a cosmetic counter, will see it at it's best. One of the few giant businesses who have not lost sight of that.

Answer 9

I do agree ! I could come up with way to many examples . I shop a lot and it happens most of the time , I would have an easier to pick a time when I had good service !

Answer 10

I don't believe excellent customer service has become extinct but I do believe as a society our standards regarding customer service have changed. Being in a highly technological age, we are no longer served by our neighbors or friends face to face, but from people all over the world or by computers. Our priorities have changed to regard things like speed to be most important...

Answer 11

I do agree. I'm in retail, so I try to I guess make up for other people's bad service and always give my customers 100% everyday.