Where has customer service gone?
By asiatu
@asiatu (14)
United States
July 29, 2007 12:50pm CST
Is it just me or is genuine customer service a thing of the past? First I have an issue with those annoying voice recordings where you have to repeat yourself incessantly and it takes a good five minutes to get to a human!!! Then sometimes that human may be someone from a different country who doesn't understand what you are saying and/or makes you go through UNECESSARY steps to solve your problem. What ever happenend to people actually caring about their job and being enthusiastic about what they do aor at the very least having pride in their performance. People now-a-days act like you are a nuisance if you have more than one question. And the service standards has declined significantly over the years. What ever happened to "May I help you?" MINUS the attitude??? What ever happend to going above and beyond to make sure the customer was satsified??? What ever happened to the customer is always right??? It is just so frustrating to me.
What are your thoughts???
2 people like this
8 responses
@alibabatheace (53)
• United States
30 Jul 07
Theres no such thing as customer service. It's more like waste 5 minutes of your life getting no answer.
@rarrimalion (674)
• United States
29 Jul 07
There's no such thing anymore. Everyone is rude and snappy on the phone and it's always such a hassle to get through to get any help. All the phone prompts... I called Cingular wireless and they have like a "fake" person you talk to. Which i guess is fine if youre just paying something straight forward but if you have a more complicated question (like i did) they can't answer it cuz come on, its really just a computer! It was suuuuch a PIA to get a hold of a real person, and then i was transfered FIVE times between departments cuz no one knew anything. I was on the phone for over an hour!
@wifeofharvey (1156)
• United States
29 Jul 07
You said "everyone is rude and snappy", and will all respect I would like to offer up the suggestion that because rudeness is so prevalent we may be doing it also. I know I have been guilty of this, and I now make a real effort at being more pleasant to everyone, both on the phone and in person.
@cefaz_21 (2596)
• Philippines
30 Jul 07
Same here, I hate to have spmething to be repaired like a phoneline or sort of cause I knew How hard and tough to get someone from thier company to hear what you have to say and do the necessary repair.
Just this morning I reported our telephone line and you bet, It took me several minutes to finally get hold of a "human operator" only to be adviced to call again.
tsk..tsk...where have the "customer service gone"
@naadia (828)
• India
30 Jul 07
i have dealt with only one customer care service..that is from my mobile service provider.sometime i got irritated when i heard"all our customer care peopel are busy..please stay on line or call later".but sometime their response is too good.we can easily clarify any doubts.!
@wifeofharvey (1156)
• United States
29 Jul 07
I think the 'customer is always right" went the way of the dinosaur- long gone, never to return.
And while I too am disgusted with many of the call center procedures, I realize that in this huge world, a lot of people are calling them. And I know many of the callers are taking out their frustrations on the person manning the calls. There is NEVER reason good enough to swear at the person handling the call. We can clearly, and decently tell the person of our frustration, and explore with them the ways that we can be helped.
All of that said, I do have to admit that I have a real issue with the people manning the phones. I am very frustrated when dealing with people who don't have English as their first language. I wish there was some way that the calls would go to centers where people [adequately] speak the language of the country the call is from.
@wifeofharvey (1156)
• United States
29 Jul 07
Just want to add that I had an interesting contrast in reactions to a complaint a few days ago. Because of my mobility impairment I use an electric scooter for shopping [I use my own, not those supplied by businesses]. I had difficulty getting into a store as there was a display of lawn furniture blocking the handicapped access ramp. When I got inside the store I told the woman at the service desk, nicely I might add, that the ramp was blocked, she just sorta shrugged off my comment and continues doing whatever it was she had been doing, BUT a male employee overhearing the comment said "I am so sorry, I will go take care of that right now" [and he did]. I told him thank you, and I also checked out in the lane of the first woman, smiled and told her thank you also. No, she didn't help, but maybe next person with a problem may get a better reaction from her.
@egox2k7 (8)
•
30 Jul 07
The whole automated thing is really annoying. As normally its not clear which button you have to press to get the service you are wanting which just ends up wasting time. But what really annoys me is the amount of times the phone will ring lately and it'll be some call centre and will be someone from a different country who's hard to understand, trying to sell you some product or service. Although lately I just say i'm not interested before they get going on their sales pitch. Some days this'll happen like 3 or 4 times.
@drknlvly6781 (6246)
• United States
29 Jul 07
You are so right. I hate talking to machines, and I can't stand talking to someone who is "English Impaired." I work in customer service and I make sure I am professional to each and every person that I speak to. I will admit that I get an attitude sometimes when I get someone who is slow and needs things to be repeated several times, but I do my best not to display that attitude in my voice.
@nonew3 (1941)
• United States
29 Jul 07
I just got insulted yesterday by a customer service employee at a franchise grocery store because the store did not have the certified-organic store-brand orange juice that was on sale, and I asked her to please call a different franchise store that I was considering heading to, to see if they had it. This was after arguing with me for a while. After I insisted, she said, "Is that logical?" After she was finally done and had hurried on to the next customer, I spoke immediately with the store manager, who apologized for her behavior and said he would have a word with her.
Customer service, I am afraid, is a thing of the past.
