To think customer service is SHIT in the UK

[PMTsickandtiredofyourshit]

•All phone lines are automated and take up to an hour to get through. They usually have some nonsense excuse answerphone message about Covid 19 causing ‘higher than normal call volumes’ that hasn’t been changed in years.

•restaurants are increasingly taking ages to serve and give the impression you’re on a time limit at your table. Wait staff less charming/ less people skills/ less cherishing of customers.

•Today I went to mountain warehouse to get DD some snow boots. Every question I asked the staff they couldn’t answer. I asked if they’d had shoe fitting training because I couldn’t tell which size DD should have. The staff just shrugged and said they had no training. Finally found a good pair but it had a sharp bit sticking out of the inside. I asked if they had the same pair without the fault and was told no but they’d give me a discount! Obviously I wasn’t going to buy my DD a pair of boots with a metal shard sticking out of the interior!

•Then I went to Aldi where they had loads of new self-checkouts which I was heartily encouraged to use by one of the staff, despite the fact I had a full trolly of food. It was a fucking nightmare and took a good 30 minutes. Every other item didn’t scan, there was no where to fit my DD, my trolly and myself without being in the way of the people trying to get out, there were boxes and crap dumped on the floor in front of the trolly. It was incredibly stressful and made me resolve to stop using ALdi and just bankrupt myself by using a nicer, less stressful supermarket.

•Finally I went to Neros where the queue was its usual mile long glacial paced scenario with three women behind the counter, one who was having a huge scratch of her scalp then serving pastries. She got in a huge muddle when selling me two gift cards and was completely baffled by the fact that the two gift cards were to be given to two separate people so I would need two separate gift receipts. I have no idea if these £30 worth of gift cards have actually been credited.

Even trying to book an appointment with my Dr, I have to be given the Spanish Inquisition by one of the receptionists who seems to be qualified to triage the doctor’s diary in the most brusk, patronising non-compassionate way ever. I’m sorry if I don’t want to tell you the ins and outs of my vaginal thrush problem whilst stood outside my office in earshot of my colleagues having been on hold since I was getting dressed at home Janet! FFS. 🤦‍♀️

I just don’t know what has become of customer service these days. It’s as though people who work with the public actively hate them.

How can this be changed!?

I've noticed this and it makes me quite sad to be honest. Does no one take pride in their work anymore?

@43ontherocksporfavor
Yes, things have changed since the 90’s.

I would say at least 70% of calls I take per day are from people who could find the answer themselves online.

A good proportion of them already know the answer and just seem to call to check.

I have actually had a really good experience with customer services, especially the online chats. If there is a wait time, you go into a queue and your phone pings you when an agent becomes available. Saves having to go through the hassle of the automated services.

Absolutely love the scan and go checkouts, there is generally no queue and you are through quite quick, no having to pack the bags once the checkout person has scanned it. I also hated it when they had bag packers packing to raise funds, never packed it right to my standards, always ended up with something squashed. Would have preferred to just throw some money in a bucket without feeling they needed to do something in return.

Ordering a taxi is just beaut these days, your app tells you the cost and tells you how far away your driver is. No waiting around in the cold or having them peep their horn annoying the neighbours.

Same with school, they have an app that tells them what homework they have, what has and has not been handed in. Their timetable, all their reports. Beats a letter home and saves on trees.

I am sure there is some poor customer services out there and no doubt I have experienced it myself but I think technology is the way forward for a better customer experience, although speaking to a person should always be an option.

I work with the public too. I’m a teacher and believe me I get a real ride from certain parents more regularly than you might imagine.
But I don’t allow my politeness, helpfulness or professional pride in my job to be hindered by being treated sometimes appallingly by parents.
My interest is in the children. Rude parents are a bit soul destroying but my point is that it doesn’t need to turn you in to a bad person. —until I’m in the staffroom and can let off steam with sympathetic colleagues—

It's not limited to the U.K., I'm in Spain and it's hard to get served, shop staff seem bored and the lifeguard was looking at her phone continuously rather than the sea today!

I'm finding that calls or emails are not being answered.
I'm happy to accept 24/48 hours to respond but no response seems to be the norm now.

I know why but I don't have a hard hat .

I havent had much of an issue.

@thisfilmisboring I only phone a call centre if it’s something that isn’t on the faq/ chat bot as nobody wants to sit in a queue listening to demented music and repetitive faux sympathetic messages unless they have to.

Nero one is easy. If you purchased two gift cards you’d have two mini receipts that show the gift card balance. They automatically print out as soon as transaction is completed.
If you purchased two gift cards at a total £60 you should have two gift cards with £35 on each one. Maybe she was checking that had happened which was why it seemed like she was faffing about?

Pet hate: staff chatting and not acknowledging you waiting.

Im sick of it. Utterly sick of it

And yes I used to do retail and customer serving roles for years, before there was any such thing as NMW, sick of hearing about 'shitty wages' as a reason when there are tons of jobs that are not paying any more than NMW for admin roles for example and holding responsbility for things

Serving a coffee or answering the phone about my gas account is not onerous.

You'd think that, wouldn’t you?

I can assure you I speak to plenty of people who start with something along the lines of, ‘I read online ….. but then still call to check?! I mean… why?

Also, people who get angry with me because I’m not the person/dept they need to speak to.

Sounds like you are in the wrong line of work and probably the type to "accidentally" hang up as opposed to transferring to the correct department.

Things I have been screamed at for in retail

Explaining kindly that if the packing says "duvet set" you get the pillowcases with it if it just says "duvet" you don't.
There is no one available to help with your particular query until 4pm (I am not in charge of rotas or training in this particular role - did not say this!)
Customer wants to rip open another product to retrieve the bit missing from theirs to save bringing it back for a full exchange.
Ordered through head office and we are unable to amend, cancel or change the order.
We close in 15 minutes.

That's just the last two days.

I'm never anything but polite and professional but it filters from the top - lack of training, lack of responsibility given to the staff on the floor that allows them to deal with such issues, lack of planning from management, lack of incentive for employees to give their all even naturally conscientious workers reach of point of "I'm not paid enough for this bs"

Well I don’t . Should I have to wait 30 minutes in a call queue? Then I speak to someone, tell them everything, they take all my details then say they need to pass me in to someone else and guess what!? Yes, they don’t pass the info on. That is why people are pissed off and rightly so!

I've had shocking service and I've had good service over the last year or so.

• Bought my niece a coat at John Lewis when she visited and her's broke. My sister washed it a handfull of times and it came out with some teeth of the zipper missing. Sent several emails back and forth, with pictures, in everyone I stated that the coat was in Germany where I would not got to until Christmas. After three months, at the height of summer, we finally got the resolution that I would get £12 back as that was "the current retail price"

• On Friday night, I arrived at my local station, came outside to see the cigarette part of a bin was smoking, so poured my water bottle in. That wasn't quite enough so went into the station to ask for a cup of water at a Café in there. Response, I can give you tap water, but I have to charge you 5p for the cup. Even after I had explained what it was for.

• Flying home for Christmas last year, I decided to have lunch at Heathrow. Service was absolutely appalling. Half the food on the menu not available, but I was only told when I wanted to order. The food I did order arrived with cold chips, so was returned. Next time it came, it was lukewarm. Service was also extremely slow. The tables on either side of me had been empty for 30+ minutes by the time I finished, they still had the dirty plates on them. On the way out, the manager saw me, he recognised me as this is my breakfast spot in T5 whenever I travel in the early morning and he's usually on duty then. He asked if everything was okay and I said, not really. Slow staff, cold food, the whole thing. He was extremely apologetic and refunded me. Fairly sure the owner of said restaurant would have his work cut out if he visited that one for one of his Kitchen Nightmare programmes.

• Have to deal with UPS "customer service" on a regular basis, their call centres are in the Philipines and in Guatemala, very often they have to refer to the depot who may or may not call you back.

• Barclay's locally. Tried to pay in some bagged coins a few months ago on a Saturday. That requires counter services, but the counter is not open on Saturdays. Finally managed two weeks ago when I had the afternoon off. It took 15 minutes to pay in three bags of coins. Yes, I know I could pay those in at a coinstar or similar, but I am not paying for depositing coins.

Good

• Had a trip booked abroad with BA holidays, got Covid, couldn't travel. Took half an hour in total to re-book for Easter for not much of a difference. Staff member not only based in the UK, but also very "on the ball" and genuinely there to help me.

• Lovely staff member in Tesco who re-opened her till for me when she saw how long the queue for check out was and saw that I only had 4 items, all of which were the same

• DHL technical customer service two weeks ago. Suddenly had an issue booking something, rang customer service who had no clue but gave me the technical number. TCS were so, so good, helpful, friendly and figured out in seconds what the issue was.

Customer service is really hit and miss at the moment, and going for dinner now happens only when I feel very, very patient or I go to a couple of restaurants I like who always have enough staff on rota.

Couldn’t be more wrong.

Perfect example of a scenario of someone complaining about ‘bad customer service’ when I don’t actually have the facility to transfer calls. I need to give the tel number … but for some people that’s not good enough and it’s somehow MY fault they haven’t called the correct dept.

And when you get to that point, preferably before you get to that point, find a new job, hand in your notice and give feedback to your manager explaining exactly what the issues are and why you are leaving.

The more people complain, the more those higher up the chain can address complaints. When everyone sits around and can't be bothered to take responsibility, we all get a shit deal, customers and employees alike.

I think it often boils down to workers feeling sick and tired of supporting others who choose not to work.
The thought of having to work full time at 67 is soul destroying.
And for what? To fund the lifestyle of those who haven’t slogged their guts out. Plenty of people seem to do just fine letting others do all the work.
It really is just a job.
The cost of living is so high with many people fearing they will never get out of the poverty trap. Never own their own house, not be able to have the family they would like, and yet still these people are expected to enjoy working for ‘the man.’
Others can spend time with their family, have children and they get this by living off the hard work of others.
I don’t blame them at all.

I agree and would totally agree until I went into a pub yesterday to wait for a lift as it was freezing. I bought a soft drink and sat down by a log fire, there were empty glasses on the table. A waiter came along, “Madam, would you mind if I cleared the empty glasses!” then a bit later a waitress “Madam, would you mind if I put another log on the fire”. For a 70p line & soda I felt like royalty.

It's not just answering the phone though
Yes it's not physically onerous but I've done a lot of different jobs and call centre work is hard

Every call is recorded, and screens as well. You are pushed to get through calls quickly as there's 100 in the queue, losing your voice because you've answered 170 calls in 8hrs and you're still being screamed at by customers because there's a queue
Following a script exactly so you don't get marked down on your audits whilst being yelled at by customers
Having a customer say "you could be more cheery" after you've been crying because you've been called a cunt on the previous call
Email enquires that you don't have time to deal with
I also deal with spreadsheets daily and outgoing calls that automatically dial the customer
Your breaks and lunch are timed to the second, and often you will lose bonus if you're marked down on an audit or late back 45 seconds from a break
Remembering 1001 things so you don't get errors on your audits/calls listened to
Trying to grab a mouthful of water in the 10 seconds you get between calls
Systems going down regularly and nothing you can do about it

And that's every single day, for 40hrs a week. I finish and my brain is mush and I don't want to speak to anyone

A lot of customer service issues would be solved by increased staffing levels - but then people would complain that things were more expensive.

I worked in retail at somewhere that prided itself on customer service, with knowledgeable staff who were trained regularly on all products. I would say over 80% of people who came into the shop and engaged with staff (so not just browsing) would use us for for our expertise and then freely admit they were going to the big brand down the road renowned for awful CS that was cheaper…

I tend to find UK’s customer service quite good to be fair with some exceptions. You should see Spain’s and Mexico’s. Appalling…

I notice it in many places besides the Uk. I guess it’s the new norm.

But it’s not my job! It’s her job!