Has anyone else noticed the lack of friendly customer service these days?

Question

Lately when I go to Wal-Mart (especially), or fast food places all I get is rude associates! What happened to the smiling faces and "hi how are you today" and "have a nice day" All they do is tell me my total--No eye contact, no nothing! I worked in retail for 5yrs and friendly customer service was a must. No matter what was going on in my personal life--I didn't take it out on customers. I know how holidays are and all so I don't see why management lets them get away with it or why they hire these people int the first place! My question: Am I the only one annoyed by this?

Answer 1

once i threw change at a mean customer when i worked at a grocery store, sometimes customers are just as rude HAHAHA

Answer 2

Hey,
I totally understand where youre coming from. However, I work in retail and therefore I can understand where some associates are coming from. It is very irritating being callled a liar even though I know for sure we do not have something, and being yelled at simply because the price is too high or some other customer put the product in the wrong spot, or even because we are out of it. I do not and am not allowed to order things and/or change prices, and these things are my fault how? And how about when I am one person and I have 3 other customers yelling at me for my help?.. It can get very stressful and irritating and sometimes its hard to keep your cool. And not to mention, management these days and companies (all) are cutting hours and cutting associates. Therefore, they want us to do more customer service and more work in less time with less people. I try very hard to be friendly to eveyone I meet, but just because I am on the other side of the counter, does not mean I should also get treated poorly. I wish you a merry christmas and I hope your shopping days go a heck of a lot better

Answer 3

Nope, your not alone. It's really annoying. I work for a living and although it's not retail, I still am nice and polite and say thank you. I don't get why people act like this. I really don't tend to go back to places where I had rude people waiting on me. And more than once I've gone to the service desk to tell the management about the way and employee acted. In most of those cases though, I got a manager who didn't really care either. It's a strange world!

Answer 4

I see your point, but here in this small Tennessee town I live in everyone is friendly, saying have a nice day, Merry Christmas. It's very refreshing. I suppose at this time of year, people get tired and some of the customers are not the nicest people I've seen. I just say thank you and go on about my business. Two people being rude won't make a difference.
Merry Christmas!

Answer 5

I agree! It is something that you might consider contacting a manager about. You don't have to rat the person out specifically if you choose not to, but you can call the manager and say that you're a long-term customer and that you have noticed this trend happening lately and wanted to bring it to his/her attention. If you are polite and appear concerned for the betterment of customer treatment as a whole, chances are the manager may bring it up at the next staff meeting. That's the ideal scenario, of course. Sometimes I am saddened to find that the most miserable and unapproachable sales people have the title "Manager" on their name badge. :-( It's not okay, and points to the bigger problem of the dehumanizing character of our corporate-focused society.

Answer 6

I work at Kroger part-time and just being there ruins my holiday spirit. People are so crabby and ill and it makes me so irritated. I think that dealing with that has made people a little more short and decreases the quality of their customer service. I try my best to be polite to everyone and give everyone the benefit of the doubt to be nice and polite but you get those scrooges who just wear you down and put you in a bad mood. It is required where i work to be nice and courteous but I think in a place like Walmart it is nearly impossible to find that, even if its not the holiday season. My suggestion would be to find a better place to shop where people will treat you the way you are suppose to be treated.

Answer 7

People who work at walmart and in other customer service positions usually start off as very cheerful people who go out of their way to help. That's the reason why they are hired. The problem is that they deal with large volumes of people throughout their workday, and often at times for very little pay. The general public expects customer service workers to go above and beyond to make them feel special or well taken care of, and demand for them to be treated in high regard for their business. In return the average customer either disregards the customer service worker, or treats them rudely.

High volumes of rude customers, low pay, and few breaks during the workday don't leave workers happy. Customer service workers get paid the same and don't lose any business when a customer walks away upset. They don't get paid extra to make someone feel special or that their business is appreciated, and they definately don't feel like going out of their way when the general public is being extremely rude, confrontational, and often times neurotic. What I have observed is that, Americans vent all of their frustrations on customer service workers without realizing it. I am at times very shocked by customers behavior, and I don't even work in customer service. American's need to be more patient and cheer up. What's the big deal with waiting in a line?

Perhaps customers should try to cheer up customer service workers. They are the ones Americans are venting their frustrations on. They should change their job titles to, "Having to put up with Crap from High Volumes of Overworked Disgruntled Americans and Expected to do so with a Cheerful Outlook and a Smile Service Associate."

Answer 8

I'm 21, and I must say that I have had more expierience with rude customer service personel than polite individuals. To me it is more of a surprise to see someone who actually cares about their job enough to smile and say thank you. So every now and then before I leave somewhere, (primarily convienience stores) where there has been negative interaction, i tell the cashier to have a good day and thank you for allowing me to shop here. Thr funny thing is---- they usually don't get it.

Answer 9

in many cases, the human beings engaged on those jobs did not %. that activity as their first determination, yet they want a paycheck, and for a myriad of motives, they're stuck there taking your order on your Frosty for now. Secondly, those quick foodstuff eating places have rigorous criteria on assembly time aims for foodstuff out of the window, and the employees are in many cases preoccupied with that: get your order, get your dough, provide you inclusive of your foodstuff, and get the heck out of steer sparkling of. The more beneficial time they waste, the more beneficial their service ranges flow down. So, they sacrifice some kindness as a fashion to fulfill employer metrics.

Answer 10

Well I can understand where you are going, and yes it used to be alot different. I moved from a Mid-West State into California last year, and the people here are the rudest I have ever seen. Mabe its the Ocean Air (Not for sure).

Answer 11

Service is bad. Not to make excuses, but remember that these people deal directly with the customer everyday and whenever you deal directly with people you catch a lot of crap from them as well. It is just a vicious circle.