The Decline of Customer Service
So........on my mind today are automated answering services - we all deal with them on a daily basis. The never ending recorded voices telling us to choose 1 for payments, 2 for account information, 3 for this...and there never seems to be the option to speak to a "live" person. If you are lucky you can bypass all of this by saying "representative" or pressing 0. Many do not allow those options immediately, so you have to listen until they become available. If I didn't need to take care of whatever issue I called for I would hang up immediately. Being told every few minutes that all agents are assisting other callers and that they will be with me in a few minutes between the elevator music is maddening. Thanking me for my patience does not help alleviate my declining mood as more and more time passes on hold.
I know I am dating myself when I fondly remember getting a real person on the other end when I called customer service. My issue was handled in a timely manner and I could move on with the rest of my day. There was no dread in making that call and I knew it would not take up a good share of my morning.
Now I have to get all my supplies together to prepare for perhaps 20 minutes or more before anyone comes on the line. I make sure that the phone is on speaker mode, and then I can move about the house to tackle other projects while I wait. Multi-tasking is the only way to endure what seems an eternity before speaking with someone who most likely is not having a great day by the time they reach the 20th caller of the morning. Although I try to be very patient with them sometimes I do admit I start to lose my cool when they cannot resolve my problem. My most used phrase is "I know that this is not your fault and you are only doing your job, but you are the only one I can express my frustration to."
It's time companies realize that consumers are extremely important and without them they would go out of business. They need to hire enough people to give real customer service, and to make sure their employees are not overwhelmed. Stop being greedy trying to keep all the profit for you and the shareholders. Spend a little more to hire enough employees to ensure a good customer service experience. In the end not only will your customers be happy, and your employees, but you may just be more successful by doing so.
Just give me good old fashioned customer service once again.
I know I am dating myself when I fondly remember getting a real person on the other end when I called customer service. My issue was handled in a timely manner and I could move on with the rest of my day. There was no dread in making that call and I knew it would not take up a good share of my morning.
Now I have to get all my supplies together to prepare for perhaps 20 minutes or more before anyone comes on the line. I make sure that the phone is on speaker mode, and then I can move about the house to tackle other projects while I wait. Multi-tasking is the only way to endure what seems an eternity before speaking with someone who most likely is not having a great day by the time they reach the 20th caller of the morning. Although I try to be very patient with them sometimes I do admit I start to lose my cool when they cannot resolve my problem. My most used phrase is "I know that this is not your fault and you are only doing your job, but you are the only one I can express my frustration to."
It's time companies realize that consumers are extremely important and without them they would go out of business. They need to hire enough people to give real customer service, and to make sure their employees are not overwhelmed. Stop being greedy trying to keep all the profit for you and the shareholders. Spend a little more to hire enough employees to ensure a good customer service experience. In the end not only will your customers be happy, and your employees, but you may just be more successful by doing so.
Just give me good old fashioned customer service once again.
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