UNITED STATES—I have worked in the customer service industry for quite some time now and I have always prided myself on treating people the way that I want to be treated, but I am seriously starting to question if actual good customer service actually exists in this country anymore. It seems that no matter where you go there are people with bad attitudes and I mean that in the worst possible way.
I know what some of you are thinking, you’re referring to the service industry. Not quite. I’ve had a few bad experiences at some fast-food, fast-casual and actual dining establishments, but I’m seeing more of a trend in the retail industry and in the provider industry. When I say provider, I’m referring to your streaming services, cable, internet, TV, electric, gas, insurance and cell phone.
It seems those providers that we pay on a monthly basis just don’t care as much about the consumer as they should and I’m going to tell you why. I recently had to reach out to a company about services that I pay for and it baffled me that I called numerous times in a single day and left several messages and guess what? I could not reach a live person, not a single person returned my phone call, and their excuse was the fact that they were overwhelmed with inquiries. I’m sorry, but that is NOT a solid excuse. You have customers trying to reach you and if they have a problem, what are you just going to ignore them?
That is not right, and it shows the customer that you don’t value them, you just value the money they’re loading into your pockets, and I have a massive issue with that. This same trend happens with my cable and internet provider. Every single time I have an issue with my service and I need to speak to someone, it is near impossible and I mean impossible to talk to a live person.
They always want you to utilize their stupid app or a chat agent. Here’s the problem with that, if my internet is NOT properly working how can I utilize your app or the chat bot/agent without being able to connect to them? That’s the key I can’t, but that is something they are failing to understand or comprehend to say the least. Then when you finally get a live person and explain to them the issue with not speaking to a live person it goes in one ear and out the other. I get frustrated with this because it feels like these companies, some which are monopolizing on their popularity just do what they please and they are never held accountable for their actions.
That is like my electric and gas providers that are trying to raise rates yet again, after just raising rates a few months ago. Their excuse, “We’re trying to upgrade the grid.” You mean the same grid that whenever it goes down it takes you days to restore the service and you can’t even provide a single update to the consumer via TEXT or by phone?
I believe in that mantra of treating people the same way that you would like to be treated, but that doesn’t seem to be the same sentiment that other people or companies have. If they have a bad day the entire damn world hears and has to deal with it and that is not fair. If you need a moment take a moment. If you need your co-worker to step in to give you an assist while you collect yourself so be it, but you don’t want to start pushing customers away to the point where they don’t come back and plenty of companies are beginning to do that with no remorse.
What is the issue with that? When you deliver really bad customer service and it can hurt your overall bottom line and when a customer finds top tier service elsewhere they are not willing to return to somewhere where it is mediocre no matter how much you promise them.
Written By Jason Jones
