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!?

My friends were all on salaries of about 12k -16k, entry level. My bf at the time was on 20k l was paid a bit more, but not lots.

The thing with the self serve checkouts, that poor member of staff is only doing what she's told. It's not down to her that the decision for self service checkouts was implemented yet all she will hear day in and day out is disgruntled customers constantly complaining how much they hate them whilst the person who actually made the decision is sat up in his ivory tower miles away and couldn't give a shit.
Retail work is absolutely shit, customers only see a tiny snapshot of what retail involves. Most retail workers are praying for the day it all goes online.

Can't say I blame them. Numbers of employees have dropped since brexit so everyone else is doing twice the work for the same pay. To have uc screw them over for not working hard enough.

Then there is the cost of living, miserable wet weather of January.
I'm always more surprised now when I see an employee who doesn't have the weight of the world on their shoulders.
Everyone is ground down.

My theory is that universal credit sanctions are so harsh that we are forcing people into jobs they really hate and don't want to do.

Employers have a labour shortage so are having to take on & keep unsuitable staff.

Added to that the cotton wool/ mollycoddling/helicopter parenting that has become the norm generating young people who are entitled brats who see service jobs as beneath them.

Schools aren't helping either...

I always knee our service was a bit grumpy in the UK but thought that was standard until I went to the US 20 years ago for the first time- and omg what a pleasant shock ! Such service , such solicitude!

I don't know where and how people are trained in hospitality in the States but we need to import it.

'Knew'

I agree, we could learn a lot from the US.

Every time I suffer the grumpy security staff checking bags and patting down as big events in the UK, I think back to Florida's theme parks where the security guys would actually make eye contact, smile, crack a joke, etc whilst they were doing their searching - made such a difference. Especially one guy who constantly sang Disney songs, like Zip-a-dee-doo-dah to "entertain" his queue of people waiting for him to search them.

Same in bars and restaurants - service with a smile even though they were very lowly paid, and even petrol pump attendants.

All we get in the UK are grumpy people, won't make eye contact, will only talk if they have to, and then usually barking instructions.

Customer service has gone downhill since Covid. We put up with rubbish service because of restrictions then and so people not reverted back.

I don't condone abusive language, but if a supermarket opens at 9.30am, I wouldn't expect to have to wait 30 mins before I could buy anything

That is v poor service

People do get grumpy with the way they are spoken to by customers and no matter how much you try not to let it affect you it does sometimes
I got yelled at the other morning for ringing someone at 8.05
I don't choose to ring them at that time, I can't alter having to ring them, and if you don't want to answer then use DND on your phone. But they answered just to tell me I was a fucking disgrace
Great start to the day!

I'm good at my job, pleasant, polite but I have to stick to the rules and people will often say it's bad customer service when what they mean is I'm not giving them what they want
I'm not talking refunds etc, stuff like they want an appointment today and we don't have anything for 3 weeks. Nothing can alter that

@NeedToChangeName it's browsing time and advertised everywhere and most places offer it on a Sunday
They can't sell anything until 10am but you can go in and shop/browse/fill your trolley, you just can't check out until 10am

@WiddlinDiddlin
Millbrook have major problems and our local council have got rid of them.
We had various issues with them installing mobility aids took nearly 4 years and we are still waiting for things to be completed. Go over their heads and complain they are horrific.

Lots of customer service was crap before covid. People have short memories. HMRC, for example, was winning crap service awards for years before covid, as were firms such as banks, insurance firms, Sky, BT, Virgin, utility firms, etc. I remember crap service in shops, restaurants etc before covid. You really can't blame everything on covid. I took Thomson holidays, Currys and Argos to court for shoddy customer services over 25 years ago (and won!).

Does the Management know or care about what goes on on the shop floor ?

I think a lot of the time they just don't care. Everything is pared to the bone to increase profitability. The people who could make changes - such as more staff, or not forcing staff to follow ridiculous scripts - are high up enough, and therefore well paid enough, to be able to shop/get services elsewhere.

Of course, they could just make smaller profits rather than hike prices in order to improve services, but that would never do, would it?

I've worked in a service role, I know what it's like to be treated like a servant and be talked down to. I'm polite to those who are trying to help me or whose fault the situation isn't. But when you get staff being rude to you before you've even opened your mouth or just being "Computer says no" without any modicum of thought as to how they could actually help then yes, I will point out that their service is wanting. And there are those who work in customer service who think that they should never be criticised.

It's only on Sundays because of the six hour rule. They open at 9.30 but can't staff the tills/allow self-checkout until 10 if they close at 4.

Does the Management know or care about what goes on on the shop floor ?

I think a lot of the time they just don't care. Everything is pared to the bone to increase profitability. The people who could make changes - such as more staff, or not forcing staff to follow ridiculous scripts - are high up enough, and therefore well paid enough, to be able to shop/get services elsewhere.

They can shop elsewhere, but surely they experience the same sort of crap service in other places. You'd think they'd want to make their shops/services better. It used to be the case, but now the overpaid millionaire shareholder is king (or queen).

Ah, I'm not in England. Not familiar with a 6 hour rule

Still, I can see why customers are irritated if a shop is open but you can't buy anything!

I suspect that, in the past, prices were higher and customer service better

In recent decades, all the focus has been on reducing prices. So, something had to give

In future, when the economy improves. perhaps customers will be willing to pay higher prices for a better service

I'm in retail for a store you would imagine are red hot at staff training.

I've had no training, i mean none, just put on a till and left. I make decisions that impact people every day that have spent a lot of money and I'm totally winging it. It causes me real anxiety and i earn less than 10p above minimum wage.

Retail has gone to pot where i work and the management refuse to listen.

They are just waiting for redundancy.

Agree there are a few remaining pockets of good service, but overall I find it's the "why should I?" mentality, both from providers who can't be bothered and users who seem to think it beneath them to use courtesy

In other words, just a general coarsening of experience

No this is common to work around Sunday Trading

Can't serve before 10am so let people come in and get what they want ready to pay at 10...

My friend works for an airline and she's finding the newer staff are always complaining about having to do their jobs. For example in business class someone ordered a cocktail. The crew member who took the order was saying things to the other crew like its going to take ages to make this stupid cocktail. Why should I have to spend ages doing this when they could just have a wine instead. We shouldn't offer these types of drinks it takes too long. Etc etc
Basically being asked to do anything is considered too much. She's also finding newer staff on their phones a lot. One even had hers out taking selfies while landing.
Don't get me wrong I've worked with the public. And yes at times you may well think urgh I just can't be arsed with this especially when someone chooses to ask a long winded question 5 mins before you're meant to go home. But its this constant mentality now of I just can't be arsed thats crept into everything permanently now. No one wants to look or act professional anymore.

I'd raise you that customers are worse

After enough times being yelled at for things that really aren't your fault, it's hard to force that fake customer service smile

And, of course, there's the way customers just straight up lie about your service. There's a couple of reviews about where I work which call us badly trained and poor customer service... except I was there for these incidence and the customer was being rude and wouldn't listen and what they say happened straight up isn't a lie. Sometimes very easily provably a lie

Re Aldi we have one near us and I went in a couple of weeks ago for a cardboard box to send a faulty dehumidifier in. The guy is this Aldi is awesome, always smiling so friendly and helpful. He was going out of way to give me boxes and packaging. I know that's just one story but still. You can get good customer service.
Another one I had been after a certain pair (colour) of DM's and uhming and ahhing over them for months. Got a voucher for Schuh and some other money and went to order them. Out of stock. Boxing Day messaged customer service and had help from two people. First one told me where they were in stock and if I couldn't get to the store to order the wrong size and message back and they would change it to my size. Second person did that after I'd ordered them.
Thirdly I ordered a lava lamp off Amazon but from a third party and it came a bit chipped. I messaged asking if I was able to paint it as thought I was being a bit annoying asking for a new one. They said it can't be painted and are sending me a new one.
That said I had shocking experience with a company called Forelo scents

Yes there was another thread recently discussing the silly Sunday trading laws in England.

Scotland doesn't have them, but the SNP voted to keep them in England when Cameron was (last) in government.