To think that since covid happened some businesses have 'got lazy and stayed lazy'

[Ilovechocolate87]

DH and i used to have an expression a couple of years back 'because covid' which we used when we thought a company was just using the virus as an excuse for not doing something properly or making unnecessary cutbacks.

But even now it seems that this is STILL continuing, but for no legitimate reason!

Some examples include;
-Our local bank shutting at 3pm...every day of the week.Crap for 9-5 working people like DH!

• No fireworks display at center parcs, which is a shame as it was really good and atmospheric over the lake.
• Soft play at our local sealife centre sitting there unused and wasted...such a shame as there is nothing wrong with it.
• Fitting rooms have been scrapped at sainsburys and asda (maybe elsewhere too?) so there is nowhere to try on clothes, resulting in either having to order online and have the expense and bother of posting it back if its not right (which it often isn't) or travelling to return it, neither of which are very good for the environment either, with all that plastic packaging and fuel!)

Has anyone else noticed that it just seems like SOME businesses/companies 'can't be bothered' anymore and are just doing the minimum possible? And the most frustrating thing is that as usual, they make the cutbacks, but the prices keep on going up!!

No it isn't. No solution that involves the employee paying from their own pocket because their employer has failed to provide adequate equipment is ever reasonable, and in an employees market it becomes ridiculous.

This is not a reason to have not attempted it.

Costs me more to heat the house, than it does to commute….. I’d be happy to be in 4 or 5 days a week, if there was a bloody desk for me.

If your bank are faffing around with readers to do simple things online, then you really need to change to a different bank. I bank with Halifax and Santander and don't have any of that nonsense - everything can be done online. I've not set foot in a branch of either for 10-15 years

Actually Santander is the last bank standing in nearby small town (!). They are popular for in person bank activity. We had to go in person to open account(s) for DC and it's nice DC could deposit their cash (paid in cash, many local businesses are cash only too) into their accounts. Also to upgrade DC's accounts from kid to teenager ... that was an in person appt.

It does feel little weird to do bank transfers on Santander App with just an extra fingerprint check. I think Barclays also rely on card readers still. I am loyal to Nationwide, they do good customer service.

Wow 900 a month and you don't get any better service than on the NHS! I thought BUPA were all about cossetting.

I strongly disagree. If they couldn't possibly know what would be achieved by bullshitting and making up an answer?

It’s not even about modest wages really. The conditions and expectations of work are daft now. Teachers, nurses, rail staff all get paid above the median but all are complaining. The whole overly complicated, poorly managed, box ticking stress before the work itself is factored in has spoilt many jobs.

A teacher starts on £28k. It can take a good few years before you get to median pay.

I completely agree with this. I feel like pointing out that if you have the time to create a special message stating that it is "unusually high volumes of calls" then actually it is not that unusual.

And what you really want to say is that "we are experiencing delays in answering calls due to high staff shortages and because we are not willing to increase our salaries we don't expect to fix anytime soon, so tough put up with the delay in answering your call "

@thenewduchessoflapland

"The holiday park we went to in half term changed its check in and out times to 5pm and 9am for "allowing extra time for cleaning" and I was standing in the kitchen when the cleaners walked in the door at 8:15am and had the cheek to ask how long we'd be as they had lots of u to clean that day."

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So actually this is really good example of what has gone wrong.

So let's assume pre covid that the holiday park employed ten cleaners at £100 shift to clean 50 chalets. This used to take 5 hours.

During Covid the extra cleaning required increased the cleaning time required but at the same time there was a drop off in customer demand, leading to say 2 cleaners being laid off.

This then left 8 cleaners post covid but one just quit work all together, one went home to Bulgaria and the other went to work in Tesco's for more money.

This then left 5 cleaners doing the work previously done by 10. Now the holiday park could hire 5 more cleaners but firstly no one really wants to do the job, second no one wants to do the job for the salary on offer and thirdly even if they are not bothered about the job, do a half arsed job and they will quit as soon as something remotely better comes up.

The solution of course would be to significantly increase the salary to recruit, retain and motivate their cleaners. But after taking the piss for so long this would have to be a major jump and secondly this will make your holiday much more expensive and cause inflation to further rise.

In summary instead you just get a shittier service for just a bit higher price, rather than the service you used to get but for a much higher price.

Median pay is £31k. Most teachers get to that fairly quickly.
If you look at jobs in public service, local government etc most are below £30k.

But that’s not the point. The point isn’t the money. The point is jobs shouldn’t be as miserable as they are in 2022. Teaching never used to be an all consuming miserable occupation.
Retail should be an easy job where you help customers, sort stock and take money. Workers shouldn’t have to miss every public holiday including Christmas for less per hour than someone on median wages, come in early, stay late and take breaks without pay and earn not enough to live on

This is exactly it imo, the employers that will survive are the ones who recognise their staff are their business and the way to provide the service their customers want, and take an initial hit to start and do that.
The employers that continue to stick their head in the sand, moan they can't afford it and treat their staff like a necessary evil and a barrier to profit instead of an asset will flounder - at least in today's climate.
And when employers start to value their staff and put a stop to customer bullying in order to keep the good ones, some customers aren't going to be happy at all, but overall it'll lead to the staff feeling valued, being happier and providing a better service, which will increase customer satisfaction.

People also need to remember that prices haven't risen to pay staff more or improved service, they've risen to cover the rising costs everyone, business included, are facing.

Expecting service to improve because prices have is unrealistic, that's not what the rises were to cover, in order for service to improve - costs will increase again.

Or, if we follow your logic
-the holiday park could pay its 5 remaining cleaners double the salary they used to be paid
-no financial difference for the holiday park
-happier cleaners, cleaner rooms, no recruitment problems for holiday park

It's not dreaming, yes in a perfect world blabla...it's perfectly possible and cost effective, but no one would ever do it. Why? because of this low cost culture. Everything is so formulaic, unimaginative, sausage factory-like, creative solutions are not encouraged are they?

@Maverickess

"Expecting service to improve because prices have is unrealistic, that's not what the rises were to cover, in order for service to improve - costs will increase again."

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A good summary, unfortunately consumers in the current economic downturn are unable / unwilling to pay more again.

So the company providing a shit service but not increasing their costs as much will out compete their competitors who do provide better customer service but have seen their costs rise much more because of this.

@marmerdeeltje

"
Or, if we follow your logic
-the holiday park could pay its 5 remaining cleaners double the salary they used to be paid
-no financial difference for the holiday park
-happier cleaners, cleaner rooms, no recruitment problems for holiday park"

+++

ThT would all make perfect and rational economic sense. But I fear the reality is instead:

1. Pay the 5 cleaners 10% more - often as a one off lump sum ( so doesn't have to be repeated next year) branded as a "thank you for your loyalty in these unprecedented times and to help with the cost of living crisis. In reality it is a bribe to please stay.
2. Charge customers more and give them less and make more profit
3. Blame the whole thing on Covid, unprecedented times, once in a generation pandemic, unexpectedly high call volume etc etc.

Use of fireworks have been in worldwide decline for decades too, I know living in Europe 30 years ago there was a lot of movement and feeling against them, on environmental grounds, as well as safety. I think they are certainly on their way out, nothing to do with covid.

You’re kidding, right? 30 years ago is approximately when we were in Austria at New Year for the first time and were astonished to witness fireworks travelling horizontally through the streets with crowds of people around in a way that would never have happened at that time in the UK.

Our town has more public firework displays than it has ever had, and if you think the use of fireworks is dying out in Europe, attendance at more or less any Spanish fiesta will give you food for thought.

Time for you to be back in the office then. Terrible service. Do you not have Skype or teams or whatever 99% of organisations use to take calls via their laptops. You seriously don’t think that all of us working from home give out our home number????

There isn't any "they" - just many individual workers and individual companies who are perfectly entitled to offer what they want to offer and no more
I think the issue is the unreasonable entitlement among customers, more often than not

So expecting good customer service is "unreasonable entitlement" - seriously?? Many individual workers and companies still offer the best service they can, and those that don't may well find their clients moving on to the former. And once they go, they won't come back. Their loss!

Most professions are like that. Low pay at first and then it rises with experience. Accountancy and law are the same. Not sure why you think a new teacher without experience should start on higher than average wages.

So you think it's unreasonable for customers to expect phone calls to be answered within a reasonable amount of time (i.e. not have to listen to inane messages for an hour or more), and for the person finally answering it to be able to do pretty simple tasks?

If you arent prepared to do the basics in a customer facing job such as answer the phone. Be polite to customers, answer the odd question etc perhaps dont take a job in customer service. You know what it entails when you apply. You can't accept the wage, you can't accept the role then complain. Your beef with management isn't the customers fault.

And I say that as someone who's worked in retail for nearly 20 years.

None of the shit my company has done is the customers fault. And refusing to serve legit customers with a basic level of the service expected doesn't achieve anything. Except maybe the sack.

I strongly disagree. If they couldn't possibly know what would be achieved by bullshitting and making up an answer?

To clarify, I'm talking about the things we did know at the time, and it's just plain incorrect to claim that we couldn't possibly have known about eg the impact on hospitality sectors. It was not some unknowable factor that whole sectors aren't going to be preserved in stasis if we close them and that people will leave, so no bullshitting or invention would be necessary, and it simply won't do to pretend that we couldn't possibly have known. It was also quite clear that the money was going to have to come from somewhere. But this was not spelled out in the same way as eg SAGE modelling on the impact of not having restrictions was.

It's about all of it. The modest wages haven't risen to match the costs of commuting and childcare, so there are people who could've afforded those things on a call centre wage a few years ago who can't now, but also yes the jobs are just becoming shitter in many sectors. And as well, people have more choices than they used to because the labour force has shrunk. It's a combination of factors.

Center parcs went cashless because of covid and hasn't brought it back. I can't send my kids off for an ice cream.

Qr code menus. I don't want to have to scroll through various lists to work out if a restaurant will suit the needs/tastes of a family of six. I just want to have a quick glance as a paper menu where I can see it all in one go.