Is good Customer Service getting harder to find?

This is very much a consumer-based, first-world type of problem, nothing revolutionary here. If that’s not for you, don’t trouble yourself with the following...

In the last month, I’ve had a few cases where I’ve received what I would call poor customer service. I could now go on to moan about those incidents and believe me, I want to (I probably still will).

Instead, I’d just like to say that what made it worse in each case was the way the organisation that had ‘failed’ me in some way responded and dealt with me, either face to face, over the phone, or via email.

In each case, I actually didn’t complain initially. For example, I just asked for clarifications or asked that they provide what had been promised or tried to deal with their lack of comms, or tried to get a refund for a product that didn’t work, etc, etc.

The people within these organisations at this point then either went on the defensive (even trying to wrongly blame me) or simply said something along the lines of ‘that’s above my pay grade so I haven’t got a clue.’

From my point of view as the customer – each interaction basically said I don’t care, and I don’t want to help you – I’m not even sorry that I can’t help you. Actually, how dare you take up my time with this, you're just one customer, you don’t matter.

Each time has left me annoyed in the first instance and sometimes just angry. I’m not an angry person so they have achieved something to get me in a rage over things that really are fairly small fry in the grand scheme of things.

So I’d like to say that to those who work with customers and respond to their enquires, requests, returns, amends, issues, etc. I get that it can be hard and sometimes probably annoying but I can guarantee if you respond well then these customers will be far more likely to be forgiving, because in my view…

Stuff will always happen, it's how you deal with it that matters.

So with that in mind, my noddy guide to customer service would be:

Acknowledge the ‘thing’ the customer is talking about. I hear what you’re saying, I understand your concern. Simple words, but they are better than the alternatives I’ve heard recently.

Apologise for that ‘thing’ happening. In my view, there are two types of apology in this context.

One, this isn’t an admission of guilt or a sign of weakness, it's human compassion. You’d say “I’m so sorry that has happened” to a friend who had a hard time – but you are not responsible for them having a hard time, you are just showing you care and that you wish the ‘thing’ hadn’t happened to them.

Two, the other side of the apology is when it is the organisation's fault. Well then, people working in customer services are their representatives so they should own the fault and apologise on behalf of the company for getting something wrong.

How easy is that?

In most cases that’s all I wanted, a bit of acknowledgment and then some compassion and/or ownership of the problem – as they then naturally lead into resolving the issues in most cases, or at least being seen to try to resolve them, which is just as important.

I think that’s AACOTR – the worst acronym ever?

In some instances lately, I have received refunds and been told it’s as a goodwill gesture, i.e. they didn’t acknowledge, or apologise, or own the problem, or even resolve the problem. Instead, to get me to shut up and go away I can have some money back. That to me is just as enraging – they are trying to buy my silence.

I should say that I don’t tweet organisations, or bad-mouth them on trip advisor if I have an issue. I want to talk to someone directly and discreetly to solve the problem. I’m not trying to get something for nothing, I just want to get what I paid for and was told I could have.

My role is entirely customer-facing and is based on building relationships that have trust at their core. The customer service I have received in the last month or so hasn’t lived up to this at all.

I’m not sure if this is due to rapid post-pandemic growth meaning customer service people are not getting trained as quickly as they should, or if the kind of people doing these jobs has changed dramatically due to changes in the job market. Not everyone is built for customer service and that’s fine, do something else.

Actually, if people who are not interested in helping others did do something else I think they’d be happier and less stressed. Customer services people who are operating in a defensive mode all day can’t be having fun – it must make them stressed and more prone to making others stressed.

Just to close I want to say that 99% of interactions with organisations over my lifetime, up until the re-opening of the economy this summer, have been positive and there are some great people out there in customer-facing roles.

I wrote this as a bit of catharsis for myself more than anything so apologies if it’s a ramble – I’m also happy for others who know more about the subject to give me their view. I’m sure customer services experts and psychologists out there will have different views from myself.

Thanks for reading.