Customer Service

Out of curiosity, I would like to ask a question. Has anyone else out there noticed that 'customer service' is becoming a dying art?
Personnel either rude or act like you're a bother?
Have 'thank you' and 'you're welcome' vanished from our vocabulary?
This topic was added because I noticed that there were no entries since 2008. I wonder why? With common courtesy seeming to more and more nonexistent, one would think more people would like to voice an opinion or just to vent.
Please let me know what you think.

i have notice in grocery stores, and some department stores.

younger generation's attitude act like they want to be some else, they be there. weather they like talk more or sit or stand around to do nothing to than service you.

ask them a question or ask to show where item is too much for them to handle.

there is more poor management that doesn't to care for you, and they like to hide in back than face you as a customer.

it isn't economy that is destroying business is poor customer service and poor management.

Twilite, you make a valid point. If this attitude is possessed by management, it will be picked up by employees. (If my boss doesn't care,
why should I?)
I've been a server for about 40 years. If I can't get to a table right away, I at least acknowledge them and tell them I will be right with them.
I still wrap their 'doggie bags'- not just handing them the container and
letting them do it themselves (unless they want to). I get positive reactions to this. They don't see this too much any more. I jokingly tell them, "I was trained OLD SCHOOL-you did everything for the customer except cut their food and feed it to them".
I worked in one place that had a poster on the wall that said, CUSTOMERS
MAKE PAYDAY POSSIBLE. All personnel of an establishment should heed this.

i was a butcher for 34 years in east st. louis , it was a family business. my grandpa told me or his motto was and most business would agree that "customer always right. "

that doesn't mean, they know what they are talking about. the motto is right attitude for any sort of business. in a long run, somewhere down the long line, the " me " is important, than the customer or the right attitude to go to work.

i admit that i was " me " catalog department, i didn't care for my customers. i try to tolerated and to be nice them. i am kind of person that try to care for people, are listen to them at work. most of time, i care, but a lot of time, i try to kill time to get in my work hours that day. i found customers are really stupid, in general, i would if my customers were drop on their heads, where they were babies.

your attitude or took along time, over years, i was taught or discipline by my grandpa, my brother, and my uncle were my bosses drilled in my head. regardless, how the customer's attitude or even, you don't deal with the customer at all, you have service, you best you can. or, put a good act in doing it.

i found out that if keep your mind on something else. act i am like on a stage, i play a character or think of a character on tv or movie, when dealing a customer or working help the day through fast. i usually had about 2 to 3 hours in 6 hours day three days a week. i know how drag a day. the trick, as long , you are moving around not stand around, you won't be caught by your boss. you are not fooling the boss, but your boss see your trying to keep busy.

we had a lot of winoheads and homeless come in, most of time, they are ok to be with. i listen and talked to them, but, that's my job.

these days, you have a young generation, who have nobody to teach what mean " old school ". they only taught about " teamwork " and work up to management. somewhere, or maybe, these days, management is much younger than old.

seem like if employees are the same age as management, they are not old enough to be mature enough. this attitude, you see in stores now, is the end result.

how to incorporate " the old school's attitude ", when these days, it is obstacle ?

I agree that it has changed. That’s why I do my best to provide it at work. So far my managers say that I receive a lot of compliments.

I notice the difference when I go back to London to visit family.

In Penzance, we have a lovely atmosphere with a number of High Street shops still run as family businesses. For example, the bakers where we get our bread has a small bakery at the back with the shop out front. Every day, the bread is fresh baked and delicious. The shop staff are friendly and we're on first name terms with them. When the bakery boys out back bring the bread through, fresh from the ovens, they'll sometimes be a bit cheeky but that's bakers for you. It's all good humoured.

One of them always stops and jokes with my daughter that he's going to have to make bigger loaves because she's getting so big now. She goes shy and hides behind me and when we get outside she says what a silly man he is, but she always smiles for him and laughs when he makes his jokes.

This is the sort of personal service that I like. Familiar and friendly. There is a very strong "community" feel to our high street.

London now. When we go into shops there, it's far less open. Not "unfriendly", but a sort of "here's a customer, let's just serve her and get it over with then deal with the next one." It can feel like being on a conveyor belt. In, buy, out, done.

My daughter doesn't like London.

I typically don't wait for customer service personnel to be nice to me...1st.

I start the ball rolling by trying to be pleasant to people. It doesn't always works, but I find it works a lot of the time.

Once when I had been in a line for service and it was finally my turn, I noticed the customer service person had a little sign that read: Smile. I've been at the end of the line all day.

And it really isn't just the youth of today. Today's youth have learned their behavior. I have seen, and sadly know, many older people who do not treat customer service personnel well....it is as if the customer service personnel are there to be "our" slaves.

When I was young (many years ago) I was a waiter...for about two years.... customer service... I hated it. Why? Because people...a lot of people...were rude... So many years later, both of my sons have been waiters. It is the same now as it was then...many people are rude.... both the customer and the customer service personnel.

Courtesy starts with the man in the mirror.

PS
In the USA tipping waiters is normal or standard procedure. I mention this because this not true all over the world.
I don't hold bad food against a waiter, as that is almost never their fault. If a waiter is in the weeds (aka super busy and clearly trying hard), I don't hold that agains them either. If they forget my water for a few minutes, I don't hold that against them. However, if a waiter does not show me common courtesy, they don't get a tip from me.

I take your point Chaski and agree that there are times when the customer makes unreasonable demands, or feels that they have a right to be, shall we say, abrupt. I think it's just rude.

I made the point in my last missive that there is a familiarity to my personal shopping experience at home and that comes from living in a small community where quite often the same customers shop at the same places and are served by the same staff. We see each other regularly and everybody gets on. It makes shopping quite enjoyable actually.

I contrasted that with South London and perhaps the atmosphere I described there comes from customers who have a variety of retailers they can shop at for this or that product (say, bread) and it can make some customers demanding and aloof.

I'm afraid the British are not good at tipping. It's not in our DNA as it is in yours. I'm not knocking it, just saying that we're not used to it and the very act of tipping can make some of us feel uncomfortable.

As I understand it, in the US, waiting staff are very poorly paid and rely heavily on tips to supplement their income. That sort of policy doesn't work here and staff are accordingly paid just enough to not have to rely heavily on tips.

For ourselves, when we eat out, we don't pass the tip directly to the waiter or waitress, we usually pay the bill and then leave the tip on the table. As waiting staff who serve at a table always clears it when the diner leaves, we know it will be they who find it. We always tip, by the way.

This is a fascinating topic by the way.

Agree.




Still believing what I posted, I have to say there are a lot of ass-tards in South Florida. In the USA, or at least some places within the USA, the service industry seems to be (or seems to be viewed as) a sort of second rate job. "Serving" is like "slavery" and is "bad".

Still I try to present a good face (sort of kill them with kindness), but there are so many jerk customer service people!

Millennials do seem to have their own brand of I don't give a s***.

As Jennifer1084 stated, "This is a fascinating topic".
Thank You. I'm delighted to know that this has given everyone an outlet to voice their opinion.
I agree, service jobs are considered second-rate. My only experience in this field is waiting tables. Some customers look down their noses at you. They think they are better than you. Then, at the same time, they think you're infallible. We are human and mistakes can be made. The intolerant should wait tables, or any service job, for one day. Then they would experience everything that's involved. There's more behind the scene going on than they would ever realize.
Yes, people can be rude. I've found the percentage is low.
Yes, ridiculous questions are asked (EG: What's the difference between fried chicken and broiled chicken?). You must take this all in stride.
Chaski, You mention not holding bad food against the server, You'd be surprised how many people do. They have to hold someone responsible. The house still makes their money, but the server pays for it-hence BAD TIP.
I hope the discussion continues.

I had to go to the High Street this morning and with this thread in mind I thought I'd put some shop staff on the spot a little.

I had to go into the Greengrocers to get some fruit and thought I'd ask a couple of questions about this and that. The greengrocer was very helpful and knowledgeable about what he was selling. He told me where his fruit was sourced from and when I asked about a variety of apple I haven't tried before he told me that it's quite a crisp apple and in early season has a tendency to be a bit sharp, but is at it's sweetest right now. I bought a couple and enjoyed one with my lunch today.

I then had to pop into the supermarket and while in there I asked one of the staff about fruit on the display and all she could tell me was that it had been delivered by the lorry that morning. She knew nothing at all about the product at all.

This is hardly surprising really. One trader specialises in fruit and vegetables and makes his living exclusively out of that. The other was a shop assistant who only has to stack shelves and gets paid whether they sell or not.

The supermarket girl wasn't rude or unhelpful, she didn't know about the fruit for the simple reason that she didn't need to. Just stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap. That's her job.

I think this is where a lot of poor customer service begins. The corporate strategy of just putting a lot of product out there and people will come and hoover it all up, versus the small trader who has to give something more in order to compete and stay in business.

As supermarkets become increasingly powerful and squeeze the small businessman out of the market, the skills of personal service and "knowing your onions" becomes lost and those who never experience this as a customer from a young age have no knowledge of what personal service is, and are disadvantaged in customer service skills when they go into service industries (eg waiting and serving) themselves.

In an earlier post I mentioned the baker who is friendly and jokes with my little girl. By default, she's gaining a positive understanding of vendor / customer interaction.

Perhaps those waiters and waitresses mentioned above had parents who shopped exclusively in supermarkets and never experienced being served by staff who took time for a little joke or a friendly comment, or who knew them by name, or even did something as simple as give them a smile.

Thoughts anybody..?

I get much better service when I start by addressing anyone helping me with the word "sir" or "ma'am." If I am walking through a grocery store and someone is looking at something on a shelf, if I need to walk in front of him/her, I always say "pardon me." I hold doors for everyone, men, women, young and old because it's just something nice to do.

As vulgar as I get with humor at times, I am actually extremely polite in person and put effort into being decent to whomever I'm around, and it usually ends with me being treated better.

And rudeness gets you food with spit in it.

For the first time in years, I went to a Wendy's (fast food joint in midwest USA ... not sure how widespread) to pick up dinner. For whatever reason I was in the mood for a "taco" salad (many places - Wendy's included, just dump chili on a salad and serve with corn chips and call it a Taco Salad)

Ordered two taco salads (one for spouse) and some other stuff.
I get home - And They Forgot The Chili!!??!! WTF!!
I called and they said I could either come back to pick it up, or have my name put on a list for freebies the next time... I may go back for the freebies, or it may be another few years before I try again.


I've stopped tipping for the Car side to Go, or restaurant pick-ups because they (multiple places) screw up the order probably close to 20% of the time.


As I understand it, waiters/waitresses are "expected" to receive so much in tips so their hourly rate is (can be) lowered accordingly. .. at least when I was a peon in the restaurant industry.

Why the low hourly wages paid to servers by employers?
This is based on a couple of things.
It is a combination of the wage with the percentage of an estimated total of sales (before sales tax) that must be, by law, claimed as income. Together, this amount should be reasonably close to the legally mandated minimum wage.
Granted, tips are generally more than this percentage that must be claimed. However, if we get 'stiffed' (no tip), we still must claim this percentage as income, though not received.
Cash and credit card tips differ. Paying check and tipping in cash-only the legal percentage is claimed. Paying check with credit card, and adding tip to the credit sale, 100% of that tip must be claimed. If only check is paid by credit, and tip is in cash, only the legal percentage is claimed.
The hourly wage and claimed tips are added. This sum is the taxable earned income. All withholdings (State & Federal IRS, S.S. and Medicare) are deducted from the hourly wage.
Remember, cash tips are, and always will be, KING to your favorite server.