Have we lowered the bar that much?
Yesterday I had to call AAA for about the 5th time in two months to jump my car so I could take it into the dealership. I had to replace my battery two times now in a relatively new car and this whole process has been annoying just because I am lazy and hate to be inconvenienced in any way. However I have to say that each time I have called AAA and each time I have brought my car into the dealership the experience was awesome. Everyone was friendly, they cared about my time, and they wanted to make sure I was happy.
On my way home from the dealership today I was thinking how rare of a feeling this was. It is more likely that my goal in dealing with a business is to not feel ripped off or totally shit on. From flying, dealing with anything with my cell phone (Sprint has horrible customer service), to returning an item at a store I feel nauseated whenever I have to deal with customer service people.
As I drove I thought about my last few experiences with different places and how I felt satisfied from a transaction. The thing was what I was satisfied about was built around such lowered expectations. I shouldn’t be satisfied that when I go to Quiznos that I am happy because they didn’t mess up my order. When I fly I shouldn’t be happy that my bags actually showed up and I only landed a half an hour late. Or even worse I shouldn’t be excited that when I call Sprint I feel a good call is one that I don’t get hung up on when dialing in or being transferred, that I can understand what the person is saying at the other end, or that they don’t screw up my account.
How did the bar get so low? Furthermore is this seeping into other parts of my life?
Now when I go on the date if the girl has one leg and a lazy eye I will just sell myself on the fact that at least she was one good one of each?
When my landlord is slow to fix something in my apartment like my heat am I just going to say, “well at least I am not outside” and wait three weeks for them to fix it?
Or when it burns when I pee will I just be happy that something is attached down there? Okay maybe that one went a bit far.
The point is that I obviously wouldn’t stand for the above three examples yet I routinely lower the bar when dealing with people on a customer service level. I think that I have been beat down to the point where I don’t care anymore, which is a little sad to me.
What about you? Have you given up on getting good customer service?
I’m just happy when the person on the other end of the line can at least speak good english… Oh and customer service at Alltel kicks ass! ( if that line didn’t show my age lol)
My biggest problem with the non native english speaking call centers is that they speak “english” and not “american”. What I mean by that is if you use slang or any type of terminology that is mostly used in the states it is lost on them which makes me feel like there is a major disconnect.
I’m sure they know the slang,” Kiss my @ss!” lol
You can say ass here.
I live on an island where they think good customer service is sucking their teeth when you approach the counter because you have disturbed them from their important conversation.
Maybe you’re customer service people could give mine some lessons?
I guess it is a sliding scale.
I work in retail and I seriously get pissed off at some of the lousy customer service I receive from some places…so I take that in consideration when waiting on customers.
Yeah I have worked retail and I felt the same way.
I rarely have a good experience with customer service anymore. The most recent one was with dealing with a Doctors office. They wouldn’t see me because I forgot my referal slip and my primary care doctor said they wouldn’t write me another one until they saw me again. I couldn’t beleive it.
Also I think AT&T could give Sprint a run for their money in the bad service department, Oh the stories I could tell about AT&T.
I’ve always kinda thought of Customer Service in the same way as teaching. “Those who can, do; those who can’t, customer service.” Most people who work CS, actually want to do something else, hence the disgruntled attitude.
I can agree with this statement 100%, Thomas.
umm. A: fuck you. B: i work customer service for bare escentuals (makeup, not porn or lingere) and i actually like it most days…and my biggest complaint is the customers who constantly call in and have THE WORST! ATTITUDE. and treat us like shit, like i dont know what im talking about.
C:its extremly hard to be nice to someone on the phone when 2 seconds earlier someone was screaming at you because ups/usps lost thier package.
so honestly, when you get good customer service. and truly good service you should tell that persons supervisor. and when you get bad customer service you should report it, and maybe tell us why it was bad so it dosent happen in the future. because if people just keep treating people like crap the good associates quit. there is only so much you can take, and pretty soon nobody will fill the position and the company outsorces. so really customers are part of the problem. not every customer but some.
im going to say this is mainly because most americans dont fully understand warranties, return policies, billing cycles, etc. AND its not hard to find out this information and its a good idea to do it sooner than later……
Wait a second where did I say Gail from bare escentuals has shitty customer service? So go fuck yourself for “a”.
Second I totally agree with you that you give what you get. If I call up bitching and screaming well I know I am going to get shitty customer service. However I am a pretty laid back individual and I can count on my hand the times I have ever screamed at someone doing customer service over the phone. I’ve been in their position so I know how it is.
Finally I shouldn’t talk to a supervisor when someone does their job. What is this whole thing with constant praise people need. At this point I can’t even get an acceptable level, which is where the problem is, not that I am not getting an amazing level.
I totally agree with this.
First off, I stick by my original statement that most people are transitionary for the most part. So, I will give those people the smallest of passes. And yes, here’s the obligatory (but true) “I also worked a CS job at various points in my life” comment. And I also approach CS people with a cordial, polite attitude. Having said that, I could give two squirts of rat piss about your hurt feelings from your previous call/customer. At the risk of sounding callous, I don’t care what the previous fucktard said to you. That was them, this is me. So if you need to take a moment, take a fucking moment to clear your head. Otherwise, treat me as a different individual. And if this is too much to handle, try this cliche on for size: find a different job. There is no excuse for me to have to deal with your surliness for no reason. Customer service is just that.
The lowered bar comes largely from three decades of depressed wages. Most companies are not willing to pay enough to get superlative people. There was a period in the 90’s when a number of companies realized that regular people were willing to pay a premium for a good experience but that usually translated into decorating the store and creating false pretenses of community involvement rather than in acquiring dedicated and competent people.
It is sad that competency ranks so low on the list of things companies think are important.
Yea, I recently experienced pretty horrible customer service from a company called D-Link. Not only did the TWA on the other speak horrible English, she was rude, and stupid to boot. She hung up one me once, and transferred me without asking the second time.
As someone who has to make his living in customer service (because I’m too much of a lazy pothead to get a real job), it pisses me off that “my” industry loses jobs to these people. Wow, that sounded racist. Oh well.
Yeah the “these” people line is kind of bad but you make a valid point. Companies feel that it is a good cost cutting move but when the service sucks it hurts them more than paying someone more money to take care of the problem.
Ha! If they made a training video for customer service reps they could use the people at Sprint as the bad example or “what not to do”.
The number of times they have screwed my account up is mind boggling.
I have had BOTH Sprint and AT&T and I’ll go ahead and say if they were conjoined twins, and were joined at the septum, I’d offer to do the surgery for them myself, then shove a pair of chopsticks up their nostrils and slam them into a wall.
I remember being a foreign exchange student 10 years ago and realizing how good Americans have it with customer service. That was 10 years ago, and once again Europe is about 10 years ahead, because nobody but online dealers give a crap now.
Our waiters are much better…
Oh, I have T Mobile now, and even though I get crappy reception in the mountains (where I live,) I keep them because their customer service is good.
T Mobile by far has the worst coverage in the US. But it is good to hear about their customer service.
It’s the old chicaken/egg scenario. Do they suck because people suck to deal with, or do people suck to deal with because they suck?
i honestly think there is a good mix of people out there..there are some customers that listen, understand and take the time to let you work through thier issues.
and then there is the opposite, people that act like its a huge inconvience, dont listen, and nothing can ever be thier fault. and they dont take the time to go through the steps to get thier issues resolved. instead they bitch and moan loud enough to just make things worse.
so my advice, help us help you. and accept the fact shit happens
I think that I accept shit way too much
I’m going to be completely honest. When you get shitty customer service, 9 times out of 10 it’s not because of anything anyone else did, it’s just because that person doesn’t give a fuck about you or your problem.
It’s hard to be good in a sea of incompetent assholes. Everyday I hear the conversations of the knuckle draggers around me, and I’m amazed that these people have made it at least 18 years without getting themselves Darwinned.
Or do I suck because I am hard to deal with? Too much thinking… must eat oatmeal
the pharmacy at wal-mart is so horrible, I had to switch to Rite Aid.
Sprint is terrible, so i went to US Cellular.
your right returning things is the worst experience.
seems to me like anyone can be a customer service rep. ANYWHERE.
I think they must take a test to make sure they don’t have too much personality before being hired.
I like my pharmacy, Walgreens. I used to like my car dealership – they went out of business. Verizon makes me want to cry in pain from the hell they put me through. Nothing like needing three months of back and forth arguing and one whole day on the phone wated to convince one ignorant woman in Baltimore that my entire town wasn’t fostered inside a post office and thus eligible for DSL modem delivery.
I have a tendency to become angry before I even have to deal with customer service. Then when they barely speak english I get even more angry because not only do I have to deal with a moron, but I have to deal with a moron who I wont be able to communicate with.
I just figured you were angry all the time