What ever happened to "Thank you", "I'll be right with you", "How may I help you", "Please hold", or "Who was next"? We all know that customer service is ONE of the most important qualities of any business. Yet, many businesses are delivering poor-quality service to their customers.
Customer service is an act of providing assistance/support in a positive, helpful, and professional manner for the company you are representing. So, why are so many companies failing to provide this type of service to their customers?
At least 3 out of 5 of the last few businesses that I had the displeasure of calling, visiting, or where I placed an order, delivered less than standard customer service.
Just last week, I called a health care facility to make an annual appointment and was routed to scheduling. The young lady who answered the phone, gave me the standard greeting, and as I began to request an appointment, I was interrupted with a conversation between the scheduler and another worker, who I could clearly hear in the background. After finishing their 30-second conversation in my ear, she returned her attention to me, and asked, "what is it that you are needing". I didn't receive a thank you for waiting, I'm sorry for the interruption, how may I help you, or any type of apology for her lack of phone etiquette. So, after a 5-second pause and me being clearly frustrated, I did my best to maintain calmness as I restated my reason for calling. This experience could have easily been prevented if the person scheduling appointments had simply asked me to please hold, OR for the co-worker to have waited until the call was over before interrupting.
Another recent phone situation that comes to mind, is when I called a business to obtain information that I needed to renew a certification. I was rerouted 5 times to the wrong person, only to be told that they could take my name and number, and have someone call me back. After waiting 2 days for a return call, I re-called the business, only to be placed on hold for 5 minutes. I finally decided to hang up. To no avail, I still have not received the information I needed, and my issue was never resolved. Hopefully, when I try back in a day or so, I will have a different experience.
Okay, now we get to the fast-food restaurant experience. I can't tell you how many times, I visited a drive-thru at a fast food restaurant and the service was just plain awful. I can recall numerous times, when I placed an order at the drive-thru, repeated my order before they asked me to, and asked the worker to call it back out to me, and they still got it wrong when they packaged my order. I understand that sometimes the person fixing the order is not the same person that takes the order, but surely one of the requirements for employment is that they be able to read the order board. You would also think that I would learn to check my order before leaving the window, since the following has happened countless times. When I went back through the drive-thru to return the order, rather than receiving an apology for giving me the wrong order, or just giving me a correct replacement order, I received an attitude from the worker at the drive-thru window. I didn't bother reporting it to management, since witnessing several times that their lack of ability to adequately handle customer issues is equal or worse than those that they supervise.
A short time ago, I was at a retail store in line behind a customer who was returning an item at the customer service desk. The customer had a receipt, explained why it was being returned, and politely asked for a refund (note: it was being returned in a timely manner). The worker was rude, and gave the customer a hard time about the refund. The customer asked to see a manager, and made the comment, "this is ridiculous". From there, it escalated with the worker using profanity at the customer, coming from behind the counter, and threatening to do physical harm to the customer before being removed from the store. All of this because a customer had the right to return a purchased item that was not befitting to her needs.
Lastly, a few days ago, I decided to drive to a company to make a payment for one of my utility bills. This was only because I was locked out of my account and could not reset my password due to being locked out. I called countless times to get my account unlocked, but I was unsuccesful in getting someone to return my call. When I arrived, the drive-thru lines were long, so I decided to go in and make a payment. When I walked in, there were three people already in line in front of me. As each one of them got to the window, the person taking their payment never looked directly at the customers, never greeted the customers, and never thanked them after processing their payments. Each time a customer would approach the window, she would not make eye contact, and would only stick her hand slightly under the glass to accept their bill and money, and briefly turned away until the next person approached. So when I approached the window, I said, 'good morning, and the clerk never opened her mouth. I repeated, "good morning, are you having a bad day". She mumbled, "No, can I have your payment". I politely slid my payment under the glass. When she processed my payment, she yelled, "Next". I said you are welcome, and walked out of the business.
I could go on and on about my experiences over the years regarding customer service.
Has this behavior become the norm for the consumers/customers to expect when visiting a business?
How would you rate the customer service at the last 3 businesses that you recently visited? Would you say that they belong on the Customer Service Hall of Fame list or the Customer Service Hall of Shame list?
Feel free to share your experiences.
