Irritating Customer Service Practices

[Somethingthecatdraggedin7]

Does anybody else find the various modern customer service scripts hugely annoying?
Why on earth are waiters and waitresses told to go and interrupt customers enjoying a good chat over their meal to ask if everything is OK? If it wasn’t OK we would be telling you so this seems entirely unnecessary and borderline rude butting into a conversation.
Then there is the perennial How are you today at the start of a phone call to a utility company or whatever.
You don’t give a toss how I am and we aren’t in a social situation so cut to the chase with How can I help you instead.
Also the use of first names as if we are friends is extremely presumptive. They then go on to repeat my name as some sort of bizarre punctuation throughout the conversation in a misguided attempt to make me feel this is all a personalised interaction and they really care.
Which idiots train staff to behave in this way??
I have reached the stereotypical grumpy old woman age and this twattery really gets on my tits.

Do you prefer to be called miss/Mrs.....?

I think there was only time in all my calls where someone said they preferred to be called Mrs rather than first name. In the end I gave up asking cos everyone else wanted to be called by first name

Normally it does not bother me but at the weekend I got may hair done. I paid a bit extra to get a 20 minute head massage as was quite stressed. Tried to zone out but was constantly disturbed by the hairstylist asking me was the water temp ok or was I cold. I told her that I would tell her if things changed but no I was asked every 120 seconds. I ended up counting.

Well the "is everything ok" with food is not modern at all has been in place since I have been eating out (40 plus years) and I like that one. If something is wrong with your food in a busy restaurant, I don't want to try and get a waiters attention while my companions food goes cold. The rest of your post I agree with.

When I worked as a waitress back in the day, the "is everything ok?" was a tick box exercise. We couldn't move their check (cheque?) into the 'complete' pile until it had been asked and got the OK. I assume its part customer service and part an assurance thing to deter later stage complaints.

I agree that it can be an irritant if you've just taken a mouthful of food and need to mime that all is OK but equally, it's a good opportunity to request more drinks or point out that your extra portion of chips hasn't arrived yet.

I'd prefer that rather than turning up to ask just as I've put in a mouthful of whatever, so I have to chew fast and respond, that they were just 'available' ie. being decent serving staff, walking around, monitoring tables, so you can catch their eye and ask. Waiters/Waitresses resolutely refusing to meet my eye as they swoop by is very annoying.

I too hate the scripts on calls - but I understand why they're there, it's so that the call staff don't get tongue-tied - they just say what's on the screen.

My hate is the recorded message, often fuzzy, often cutting into the music so you get to hear the same 3-4 bars from the start over and over, and just saying that my call is valuable, but they are currently experiencing high call volumes. Just play the music, and if you can, tell me where in the queue I am occasionally. I don't need to hear the same recorded message over and over.

I absolutely hate being called by my first name but have no idea how to (politely) get them to stop. Most friends/relatives call me by a shortened name, the only people who call me by the full name is my mother and complete strangers. I find it very discombobulating.

Is there anything else I can do for yourself?

Does anybody else find the various modern customer service scripts hugely annoying?

However irritating you find it, I promise you it’s a million times worse for the poor bugger who has to stick to it. They know they’re annoying you but it’s either that, or getting a rollicking from their boss because they deviated from it. I’ve worked in more than one call centre and you could end up losing your job if you deviated enough, even when the customer realised you were working from a script and asked you to stop. It was painful. The last one I worked in gave out ring binders with a literal script in, not just guidelines. That really was awful.

The only way to stop it is to complain to Head Offices up and down the country. But I’d be willing to bet that they’d still blame the employees for not being bright and bubbly enough to distract you from noticing you were being herded through the sales process.

I actually like being asked if everything is ok, it's called being attentive which to me in good customer service and it also means the people who might not otherwise raise an issue have the opportunity to do so

When I get asked “is there anything else I can do for you today” I sometimes say yeah I’d like a weekend with Tom Hardy please

Scripts aren't there to stop you getting tongue tied 😂

"Take care" aaaargh.

It's all made up shite.

What really pisses me off is when they ask that after they have failed to help you with the thing you called about in the first place.

😂

Myself would like yourself to speak in normal english for a start

I hate the pre-recorded messages when you ring any phone line that usually take 1-2 minutes to listen to, and are presumably to filter calls but are always utterly irrelevant. Really poor customer service. Oh and the automated phone menus that says "tell us in a few words what you need to do today" but they never actually understand the problem (if it was a simple problem I wouldn't be phoning I'd self-serve) and either repeat the question over and over or send you round and round irrelevant automated menus because they misunderstood.

Oh and when you finally get through to someone and they can't actually sort your issue out and they still finish the call with "is there anything else I can help you with?" when they never actually helped with anything.

Well asking if your food is okay is a way to ensure you don’t finish it, then start complaining, as you said it was so you haven’t got a leg to stand on. How are you today is just pleasantry and figure of speech really, the name thing is a psychological tactic used to signal that you are engaged with the conversation and widely used, not just in CS.

I don’t think they’re necessarily trained by idiots, or are idiots for doing those things. For every person that finds this irritating, I can assure you (working 10+ years in customer service), there will be 20 people that will pick up on someone not doing this and have a strop.

Less than 20 posts and there's differences in how people perceive it, it's almost like everyone is different and you're never going to please everyone when dealing with a vast number of people!

For every person who dislikes it and demands it should stop, there's someone who would complain bitterly if it didn't happen.
Some people want to be left alone, others want to feel fussed over. Unfortunately the few minutes you're being seated and then orders taken isn't really adequate time enough to discern every single person's complete personality and preferences around every aspect of the 'experience'.

You can pick up on certain cues but in general a complete stranger can't actually read your mind.

I was asked in butchers, what I’d like ,6 cats and a nice man I replied 🤣

I don’t want to lose my job or end up on a PIP for not following a script. We hate it as much as you do but it’s quicker if you just say yes/no rather than complaining about the stuff we have to ask

My oh works for rbs on phones and they are monitored so there are certain things they have to say. The have to use positive language, ‘connect’ with customers and loads of other stuff it’s ridiculous. Meanwhile he’s being screamed and shouted at by people all day long and they can say what they want. So it’s not always the persons fault, they get monitored and told off if not doing things correctly. Praying he gets a new job soon, he’s a lovely man and this job is awful

Ive posted this before and got my arse handed to me but I’ll give it another go….

When you walk into a shop and the second you put your foot over the threshold ,the assistant asks if they can help you.

I know they will be told to say that and its nice to be offered help BUT I dont know because I have literally walked in !

Of course I smile and say Im OK thanks ( to all those who lambasted me last time I posted about this) but it annoys me because its such a meaningless interaction for us both.

I hate the first name thing too. It's too informal and presumptive. But there's no way to address it without sounding like a complete lunatic.

I also hate letters/emails from companies addressed to me with "Hey Leggy!" followed by some really informal, chatty nonsense vaguely disguising them squeezing me for more money.
Like: "We're reaching out today to let you know about our super offer - if you download our app, we'll give you 85p worth of carrot peelings when you next spend £1,800 in-store. How cool is that? Slide into our DMs for more information".

FUCK OFF.

But all the waiting staff need to do is be visible, so that if there is a problem, you can call them over. They don't need to interrupt you, usually with a mouthful of food, so you can't even answer them. If they've got time to come over and interrupt you, then they've got time to "hover" around somewhere central scanning their tables in case anyone wants to attract their attention.

If, as you allude, they're busy with other customers making your food go cold, then they wouldn't be having time to come over interrupting you, would they?

Asking if everything is ok is often marked on mystery diners so that’s why they do it, and also because people won’t complain about food if not asked, or they might want another drink
You should try and do it when they’re not mid mouthful though!
They won’t want to get marked down on scores for not asking

Yep, hate that too.

Then you get to the till and are asked, "did you find everything you were looking for today?" What's the point? If I hadn't done then by the time at the till it's too late to be helpful. If I hadn't had the gumption to ask someone prior to that then that's on me. And if I couldn't find what I was looking for because I've walked into a card shop hoping to find grout then that's also a me issue.