Customer Service Is Going To the Dogs

By Phil La Duke?

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“This job would be great if it wasn’t for the customers”—Randall, Clerks

I’ve read a lot of late about what the new (and not so new) generation of employees want. I’ve also read about what employers want, and how the two differ. I have yet to read a direct article that specifically dealt with what the customer wants. So I decided I needed to write one myself.

In no particular order what I (and I expect a great many others) want as a customer are these things in no particular order.

Courtesy

When I am plunking down my hard-earned cash for some overpriced canned corn I want the cashier—not a kiosk where I am expected to check out my own groceries.? I for my part will be cheerful and extend the cashier courtesy. I want the cashier to be focused on me as opposed to chatting it up with another cashier or the endangered species called a bagger. Talking to someone else while conducting a business transaction is just rude.

While we’re on the subject of self-checkouts,? I doubt that it would surprise you to learn that when you go to a grocery store or to Walmart and see 50 self-checkouts to the one or two human cashiers (if any) that the incredible cost-saving of not having to pay actual employees does not go for better benefits and pay raises for the scant few human employees instead it goes for increased paychecks for executives and bigger payouts to shareholders.

I am not some Luddite who wants to smash the self-service checkouts with a sledgehammer—I simply don’t use them. But I have heard from plenty of people who say that they resent paying the same prices when they are doing someone else’s job and then are treated like thieves at the door; having to produce a receipt that verifies that they did in fact make the purchase legally.

When a company tries to save money and reduce its labor force by eliminating jobs it eliminates customers—kiosks don’t buy groceries, and I’m sorry but I don’t believe that there is a net gain in jobs when a retailer buys 30 self-checkouts but lays off 10 cashiers and baggers. The people who manufacture kiosks build them and write the code once, while cashiers may service 100 shoppers an hour,

Recognition

I have worked with the public and I can assure you that the customer is NOT always right.? Customers can be pushy, difficult, demanding, and entitled, but even though the customer is not always right, the customer is always the customer. Employees should not cop an attitude or become argumentative with customers. If a customer is asking for something that is beyond the authority of the employee to grant the employee should say in a genuinely pleasant tone, “I am not allowed to give you what you want, but let me call my supervisor (or manager) and see if we can solve this problem.” Notice I said “this problem” and not “your problem” the former is neutral and may help to diffuse the situation while the latter implies that I have a problem.

Appropriate Customer Service

There was a time when companies took real pride in their customer service.? They knew that the service that they provided to their customers was in a very real way the face that customers had of the company. Furthermore, customer service became a brand differentiator people would—and still do—pay a premium for excellent customer service. But more and more frequently, I find that how the customers feel about the organization overall and how people at the organization treat people is so unimportant it really feels like there is no value placed on customer service.

One of the most revealing ways to discern how a company feels about its customers is the increased use of Artificial intelligence.? It’s no secret that AI eliminates jobs.? I did a series on the future of work and a couple of dim-witted tech executives suggested that everyone learn to write code. Unfortunately, these “silicon valley sages” didn’t read the study that was attached to the questionnaire that predicted that coders and other tech jobs would be the hardest hit as more and more jobs were lost to AI, most notably coders.

Respect

Recently I purchased prescriptions from a Target pharmacy.? As I left the store a security guard stepped in front of me and demanded to look in my bag and at my receipt.? I cheerfully agreed, but as I handed the bag to the guard I smiled and said “boy, the damages I will be awarded for suing Target sure will help a lot!.” She stopped dead in her tracks and asked me what I meant. I took my bag back as she went to get a manager.? The manager explained store policy and I explained HIPPA regulations and that I was not going to consent to an inspection of my bag.? I further told her that if she detained me further I would call the police and have her charged for detaining me illegally.? She apologized profusely let me go on my way.? I haven’t seen a security guard at the door since.

Security checks at the door tell me that the establishment believes that I—and all its other customers—are thieves.? I don’t like being treated like a thief, and for the record, most people aren’t thieves.? The stores have video cameras, uniformed and plain clothes security, and other measures to reduce “loss prevention”. I wonder how many of these retailers have done the cost-benefit analysis by balancing the money spent on security measures versus the actual loss due to theft, and for those that DID such analysis, I wonder how many considered the reputational damage caused by treating their customers like criminals.

People who address my concerns to be fluent in English (Spanish if that is my native tongue)

I am not a bigot or a xenophobe, but AAARRRGGHH! When I get a phone call from someone who speaks English as a second language, who says his name is Kevin, and who is obviously reading from a script while butchering the English language it infuriates me.? On Monday I spent six hours on the phone with AT&T because of a problem with my television. I had to call eight times, and listen to a closed loop of a recording that told me—every 30 seconds—that due to unusually high call volumes wait times would be longer than normal. When someone finally did answer he took my account information and asked me questions about the problems I was having with my television and wireless internet.? About 45 minutes into the call, the customer service representative told me that he could not help me because he could only deal with my cellphone.? I told asked him why in the actual (expletive) he wasted 45 minutes of my time? He quickly transferred me to another person who was also in the phone department. It took me six hours to get to the right person who solved my problem in less than three minutes.

What I learned was that AT&T thinks that it is too expensive to have qualified people who speak the language of their customers.

Someone From the Executive Office to Take My Call

Go ahead and try to get someone in the executive offices of Amazon, AT&T, DTE Energy, Meta, or any of a score of other companies and you will find that you simply can’t.? The executive teams at these companies don’t believe customers are important enough to talk to.? Don’t get me wrong I don’t expect to call Ford and get the CEO on the phone, but previously one could be connected to someone in the executive offices.? I? just called Ford and asked to speak to someone in the executive offices. I was told that I would have to send a message in writing and that someone would get back to me in 15–30 days. This tells me that not only am I not important, but these companies are so arrogant that they don’t care what their customers have to say. These are companies that will inevitably fail as soon as their customers find a competitor that does care. What’s more, the failure of these companies will come as a complete surprise to their executives.

Companies to Listen to the Voice Of The Customer

One of the most important elements of business is a good relationship with its customers, but too many companies don’t care what the customers want.? Millions are spent on marketing, brand management, brand loyalty, and public relations, but more and more not a cent is spent on making an emotional connection with the customers. An emotional connection with a particular company is essential to brand loyalty, and without brand loyalty, people will always shop around and eventually find someone they like better than you. Corporations spend millions to get customers but are always looking for ways to cut the cost of keeping customers.

I could continue this list for hours and each of you reading this could probably add multiple expectations yourselves, but customers fuel the economy, and eliminating jobs eliminates customers. Insulating yourself from the customers is a great way to lose those customers, and by the way, stockholders as well. So while customer service is going to the dogs it is not too late to turn that around and become the behemoth of your industry.