To wonder why customer service is so awful?

[PlomBear]

Is it just me or is customer service in the UK crap?

In a department store - huge queue, two cashiers. I appreciate that it’s management who roster staff. Waited ages to pay. I said a cheery “hello” and the woman just pursed her lips at me. She only spoke to say the transaction amount. I said “thanks” and she just looked at me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

On a train, the conductor checking tickets. Showed him my ticket “need your railcard too, you need to have that ready for me you know.” I smiled and said sorry, he proceeded to ask me why I was entitled to that railcard! And yes, it was my railcard and in date with my photo. Then just kind of grunted at me and walked off.

Post office - posting a dozen cards, some overseas. The clerk actually shouted at me that it wasn’t her job to stick the stamps on, I didn’t even ask her to! Considering there was nobody behind me in the empty store I thought it was a bit weird. She wouldn’t let me stand there to put the stamps on. I had to take them home, figure out which one was which (different countries needing a different number of stamps) and then go out again in the rain to post them.

I have worked retail many moons ago. I get that it’s minimum wage and that customers can be rude. But I really am always smiley and polite. Yet I am often met with downright hostility from staff. Everybody (staff and customers) seem so miserable.

YANBU. I worked retail for almost 8 years and the whole job is to provide the best experience for the customer, be that by ensuring there is sufficient stock for them to buy, being able to answer basic questions about products and services and having a simple pleasant interaction at the point of sale.

I don't buy all this frazzled from being busy at Christmas stuff; it's where the shop makes the money that keeps the staff in a job. I would rather have had that than a graveyard Sunday morning shift any day.

Forcing yourself to smile and be cheerful generally puts you in a better mood anyway and makes people more likely to be nice you so it's win win.

I always try and turn this around, walk up to till/reception get looked at no hello etc. I say hello then wait, the how are you? Throws them completely then I resume my transaction/reason...

MereDintofPandiculation - there was no space (tiny branch) and the woman was clearly pissed off for whatever reason. Went home for a cup of tea instead.

. I found the manager and she braced herself for a complaint ha ha I did this exact thing once on a Lufthansa flight - when I found the boss she looked worried until I said I appreciated the good service we’d had

As a teenager, I can think of a couple of times when staff were nasty to me too, thankfully as I’ve got older that doesn’t happen.

One occasion, lost property at a London station. The man smirked at me as I cried, visibly distressed as I had lost something. He then shrugged and said it was nothing to do with him. And laughed. Just nasty.

Waiting for my mum at her spa in the reception area. Again, something has happened that day, I was in tears. Receptionist told me I couldn’t stay as I wasn’t a member. I explained politely that my mum was and I was waiting for her. She was whispering and smirking to her colleague at the desk. Again - plain nasty.

I have had a couple of times when train managers have been really kind to me though when distressed. Think having the wrong ticket, me apologising and saying I’ll pay the difference and them just being very understanding and letting me travel without paying more.

Dealing with a stakeholder is different than general customers. My job does both. Stakeholders, whilst they might disagree with you or want something done differently, they are mostly professional and acting in that way. Which means they aren’t outright hurling abuse at you. Customers are emotional and will not be professional. They will hurl abuse at you and not feel bad about it. Stakeholders will not yell at me that I’ve ruined their Christmas, customers will. You are comparing two different scenarios.

As I said, the first announcement is made on the tannoy. You won’t be the first that hasn’t listened to the train manager but you he will have already said it. Just because the post office was empty then, doesn’t mean it wasn’t filled with arsehole customers 30 minutes earlier.

There are good and bad in all walks of life. I tend to think if absolutely everyone you come across is rude/unpleasant/wrong then maybe actually the opposite is true.

The thing is with a lot of posters on Mumsnet is that they just want to take the opposite view.
OP there's no excuse fir poor inter personal skills from people who are in a job to deal with the public, basically they are not doing their job very well.
I work in healthcare . We are polite and caring despite pressures, varied demands and rudeness from relatives !

@Insideimsprinting I don't know what you do and maybe it's different for you, but these were clearly social chats, including laughing and chatting about having not seen each other for ages and having a catch up. I think it's rude when a patient is clearly waiting. If it was a professional conversation then that's different

The post office thing is just silly. You didn't need to go home! Just do it away from the counter then post them

Our local KFC literally grunt at you if you're lucky. Our local mcds though, they're fab! One young lad that works there he's just soooo lovely, he can't do enough for you and he's so lovely and polite. I must admit though, I've got used to most staff being miserable, so much that I only notice the friendly ones now! And I am like you op I'm friendly and nice to everyone.

If I posted “isn’t customer service great” I would get comments saying I was BU.

Maybe if I posted here saying I was an angry post office worker who hated all my customers I would get “are you okay hun, love you xxx” type comments.

Oh Mumsnet, never change. 😂 Full of contrary Mary types.

Here are some reasons my customer service is not always excellent:

1. You swore at me. As soon as someone swears at me, my employer allows me not to serve them, because it’s abuse. Swearing includes blasphemy. I’m from a religious background. I’m more offended by Christ than by fuck.

1. I have been physically threatened and called a fucking cunt by a complete stranger who I haven’t even spoken to, because of something someone else said to them that they didn’t like. Average in retail for threats and abuse is every two weeks according to USDAW. So I’m a little distant from customers.

1. You keep demanding something from me that I can’t answer, because the actual answer is that you’re wrong, but I can’t tell you that because it would cost me my job. So I attempt to skirt around the issue.

1. You demand I do things at my busiest time (when I’m tidying up the entire store before closing) because you think you’re the busy one despite the fact that I am at work and have a whole task list to get through as well as helping you.

1. You ignored all the tannoy announcements to go to the till as the store is closing because the rules don’t apply to you.

1. You called me across the shop floor like I’m a dog rather than approach me like a person.

1. You asked me a question and then answered your mobile phone when I tried to answer you.

1. You asked me a question and then walked off half way through the answer.

1. You open packaging and then take a sealed one, but nobody else wants the one you opened or damaged, and the planet is dying because of that selfishness.

10. You want a servant not a sales worker, and you concern troll that I’m the one having a bad day.

11. Because you make a mess for no reason like you’re the misogynist husband and I’m your wife.

12. Because you are buying a product for 1.25 but think you should get 20 minutes of my time when my employer pays me £9 an hour. You do the maths.

13. Because I’m helping another customer who is just as important as you.

14. Because you think your behaviour is normal, and it isn’t. You are one in a thousand. If everybody behaved like you, shops couldn’t operate. And every minute I spend with you is time I could be spending on a nice customer who has a legitimate need.

The post office is tiny. There is one window and ledge space. There is NOWHERE else to stand apart from in front of grumpy lady at her window.

I think zero contract hours, min pay and the way staff are treated is to blame tbh.
Treat your staff well and they will be loyal and happy, treat them badly and they won't give a shit.
I'd hate to work in retail, but especially at Christmas, when it's not only the company treating them badly but customers too.

Plom If you want the sort of thread where everyone is agreeing on a subject, don't post it in AIBU - because in AIBU you are asking people whether they agree with you or not.

Post in chat and call it 'Thread to moan about poor customer service' or something similar. You might still get some dissenters but they're likely to be fewer.

Am I missing something here? If someone is nice to you, you’re nice back?

I come in your store and am friendly, spend my money and want a nice experience but come away feeling shit because you’re overworked? No wonder so many people buy online now and the high street is dying!

I agree OP - customer service is generally poor (and not just this time of year when you make more allowances for it).

I never complain as I don’t know what happened before I arrived to make it so, and I wouldn’t like it if someone complained about me in my job (who would?), but I do get annoyed.

Shopping the other day. Just a friend and I in the shop. Lady at the till folding some jumpers in the quiet period. I go up to be served. Nothing. No recognition. Friend wanders over and male assistant appears and says to her he’ll serve her at another till. Err, I was there first? Obviously I was with my friend and I was more bemused then anything. Lady suddenly decides to look up at me. Then asks me to move to another till. No matter, no big deal. I know it’s minor, but the lack of common sense or shits given makes me despair.

Countless other examples, but there are lots of nice customer service people as well and I appreciate that. Sadly it’s the crap experiences you tend to remember.

Because customers are awful. If I had to put up with moaning, rude, condescending, entitled customers day in day out I'd be miserable too.

What is contrary are those posters that say 'maybe the person in customer service is having a bad day/issues with previous customers/ poor manager etc'
But as someone who worked in a customer facing role, I always gave the same benefit of the doubt to my customer. Maybe they had a horrid fight at home and they are distracted, maybe the phone call is from a hospital where their sick family member is being treated.
It works both ways. But in a customer service role, your job is to put on your best face, and remember this customer is always right (even if it feels like they are being the most awkward twat).
Then you go round the back with your colleagues and have a moan or laugh at the customers ignorant expense.

Similarly, customers this time of year can be rude bastards, to put it bluntly. You don't know who's been before you and what they've said. There's shitty customers and shitty staff. Also lovely customers and lovely staff. Works both ways.

@mindfulmam with all due respect, there's plenty of medical staff who shouldn't be in a public facing role, either. My own experience of rude midwives/HCA's as well as hundreds of us on here who have shared our stories about how we have been mistreated, etc. There's nice people everywhere but unfortunately the few prize cunts that sneak through the net ruin everyone's reputation. Patients and staff alike.

I find it really bizarre that people think it's unreasonable to expect decent customer service - and I've done my time in retail so I know what it's like on the other side. I do think these days retail jobs are often poorly paid with shitty 0 hour or very part time contracts though. Generally, I've found that you get the best customer service in places where employees are treated reasonably well. Perhaps there is a general decline in good customer service because there is a general decline in decent working conditions and pay.

I’m with you OP.
It’s becoming so common now that customer service is a fast disappearing quality.
Staff are often frazzled and fed up. Yes , customers can be surly ( more and more these days) but that isn’t an excuse to be short with customers.
And yes, I worked in retail for a few years.

I work in retail and the majority of customers are horrible and think they can talk to you like shit (some are lovely ones too). While I try to be polite and helpful I work in home shopping and we have very high targets, checkouts also have high targets. If you stop and chat even briefly you fall behind target and get in trouble with management. So sometimes they aren't being unfriendly but are under pressure from management