To think that customers / members of the public have become increasingly rude post Covid?

[BusyTeal]

Without posting too much info to be outing - I work in a public facing role where I am required to issue reports & other documents to members of the public or companies etc. These documents can take some time to process and (as with many other companies / sectors) we are seeing greatly reduced staffing levels and thus higher volumes of work for existing staff.

Many of my colleagues have mentioned this while we’re together, but it is becoming increasingly more common for members of the public (predominantly) but also other professionals who use our service to send ratty emails and call constantly to moan about the poor service we are providing. Pre-Covid, this was a fairly rare occurrence (maybe once a month) but it’s more like nearly daily now despite being completely transparent about the difficulties our organisation / service is facing. Side note: we have experiences recruitment difficulties long before Covid, in 2018 I was only one of two team members on a team that should have been 8 strong!

Not only are we seeing higher numbers of “complaints” but also the tone of the correspondence is much more tense, often to the point of being blatantly rude, disrespectful and downright offensive to staff and the organisation as a whole.

Am I being unreasonable to see this as a “post Covid” after effect, or have others seen this trend too?

Because they hope people will give up and then they won't have to deal with the enquiry/complaint.

Good question and I wish I knew the answer! In our organisations case we have one “central” number where a member of customer service will put you through to the correct department, but I know a lot of similar organisations have that system automated. I wonder if that’s a cost cutting exercise as realistically that’s 10 people’s wages (in a company of our size), that can be completely cut out. Or alternatively, the system is so outdated and there are so many departments that new numbers can only be allocated to one “section” of the system. Next time I speak to BT / Sky I will ask the question haha!

It comes down to money. It's one thing that AI should actually improve if done properly.

Had customers think it’s disgusting staff shouldn’t have asthma and other life threatening conditions.

Expect fewer staff then

Yes I get that.

But then they get people like me who go straight to Trustpilot with a 1star review after the first unsuccessful communication. And end up with 300 negative social media reviews and even debt collectors onto them, on one occasion.

They still have yo deal with md do why not do it politely and efficiently the first time?

Service though everywhere is abdolutely crap. It went downhill during Covid, and then afterwards companies just maintained poor service. Eg, GPs just had phone consultations during covid, liked it so much that now theyre happy to not physically be in the same room as a patient unless they have to be. Some companies had to work with a skeleton staff during covid, and have just carried on with less staff once covid restrictions lifted.

Given the shocking decline in levels of customer service across all consumer facing businesses, the rise of useless chatbots, infuriating self-service checkouts, endless waits for calls to be answered, the impossibility of seeing a GP etc etc, it’s hardly surprising that there are more pissed off customers around.
Companies & service providers are reaping what they sowed.

How were kids and people treated like shit? I know the kids were homeschooled for large parts of it, but surely parents are responsible for their kids behaviour.

Companies & service providers are reaping what they sowed.

There is no need for people to take it out on the staff though.

You can shop, watch tv, eat, order food online 24/7 but when it comes to things that are not available at the touch of a button people become nasty, entitled and unreasonable. I call it the Amazon effect.

I think that is very true. Many things can be delivered within the hour, people just expect that everything will be given to them as soon as they ask.

Yep. My brother has a small gift type business and part of it is selling his products online (the rest is wholesale sales).

The number of people who order on a Saturday night and are furious when nothing arrives on Sunday are unreal. Especially at Christmas.

We had a guy order on 23rd December which was after they closed for Christmas and he ignored the huge warning about it not being shipped until they reopened in the new year - apparently we ruined Christmas for all his kids. I wasn't allowed to tell him to plan ahead next year. Prick.

They don't read any of the information about shipping being done Mon-Fri as a small business!!

This isnt new at all.. I worked for a well known electrical hire business and at Christmas 2003 we had a big banner across the window. Order Sky TV fitted for Christmas by 10th December. End of October that banner was put up. Come 23rd December a bloke came in the shop and moaned and griped that he couldnt order Sky there and then to be fitted on Christmas Eve

If it's genuinely like quikfit/MoT I agree, it's matters outside your control. But if your organisation is in control of appointments, and can't provide a timely appointment, then that is poor customer service. In some cases (Michelin starred restaurant) people accept the poor customer service, if it's a large central heating company saying, yes we can look at your non-functioning boiler in 8 weeks from now, I think most people would walk away and find another company. Or your GP saying "I need to see that again, make an appointment for three weeks time, and the receptionist saying "sorry, the earliest I can do you is 6 weeks/sorry, you'll have to ring up on the day.

There was a company selling gifts/toys which always had a prominent advert in its catalogue "This year, Christmas Day falls on 25th Secember" with a note underneath saying "we 're just reminding you because every year there are some customers to whom Christmas comes as a big surprise".

@MereDintofPandiculation probably the equivalent of ringing a plumber and them saying no we are full
But rather than ringing one of the 100 other plumbers we get an earful about how awful our service is
If we are booked up, we are booked up

I find it ironic that we're supposed to worship senior managers of large companies as they're "wealth creators" and "create jobs", and therefore worth being paid several hundred times as much as an ordinary person. Yet it seems for most their performance bonuses are mainly linked to losing jobs - replacing jobs by AI, creating worse conditions (limited hours contracts, unpaid lunchbreaks) and overworking staff to be able to carry the same operation with fewer staff.

Productivity effectively = output/employees. Rather than increasing output, all effort seems to be decreasing employees instead.

Fair enough. If it's a new customer, tough. If they've been with you a long time, they're going to be pissed off. But if it's something like Homeserve where you pay a subscription for service, then I think you're entitled to expect an appointment within a reasonable time.

Customer service is lacking. Whenever I call a company regarding utilities/ bills I am usually hit with incompetence and it’s frustrating, complaints are never taken seriously and no one can every action anything. The other day my energy supplier called me out of the blue regarding yet again having a smart meter…I’ve just had an op and didn’t feel up to taking the call so I told this to the caller and instead of accepting that and hanging up they said can I ask what the operation was for?

I'm always polite but service levels are often so bad these days.. everything is a trial.

Imo accuracy is very low and has been for years.
But people are dealing now with more error than correct. And the feeling of not again , - get one thing correct.
But also yes customer service is poor. We didnt get dc school place the LA never answered the phone or emails. Only about 40people didnt get the place they wanted and so they werent exactly flooded.
Population is a lot more old er or elderly and they can be more argumentative - my own relatives taking legal action. Also richer people very entitled
More graduates so think they know everything.

I’ve experienced both extremes in the last few days..
In Boots I asked a group of three sales assistants having a chat where a certain perfume was. They waved me in a general direction. I looked around, couldn’t see it and with a smile said “sorry where did you say” to be given another wave as they went back to their conversation.
On other side of spectrum, rang Virgin and spoke to someone who was friendly ( without asking me about weekend plans), proactive, answered all my questions, gave clear, succinct advice. It was AMAZING!
There is definitely a difference between being rude but being frustrated/assertive

From a service provider pov I think a lot of the time it can come across that no-one knows what they are doing. Staff also don't like saying No (people get cross and shouty) so kick the can down the road for someone else to deal with.

So I go along and say "No, you can't have a helicopter pad in your back garden." To which I get "But I was told to speak to you to get it sorted." They are led to believe that I will sort it, they are now cross and shouty not because they have been told No but because they were lied to / seriously misinformed. I then have to 'argue' that I know helicopter pad regulations better than the train driver.

Obviously my job is not as exciting as helicopters, but speaking to different staff and getting wildly different answers is never good.

That's fair enough for random customers, but it's not acceptable for customers who are under warranty or a service plan. Provision should be made for the latter group of customers who deserve to receive what they're entitled to and not have to wait a ridiculous amount of time, nor have to pay (again) to get someone else to repair something that is your firm's responsibility!

@Topofthemountain

From a service provider pov I think a lot of the time it can come across that no-one knows what they are doing. Staff also don't like saying No (people get cross and shouty) so kick the can down the road for someone else to deal with.

My OH experiences this every month with the NHS. He needs monthly chemotherapy drugs, and the oncology dept won't issue them without blood and other tests. His blood test must be within a certain number of days of the drug issue date, not too soon, not too late, so basically a two day window, and it's always a struggle for him to get an appointment with the oncology dept for the blood test (and BP check, temperature etc) on the right day. He tells them the day he needs, and they just say "no, we're full" and they offer a day the week before or the week after. He then has to politely explain why it has to be the day he's asked for (or the day before/after depending on the week), and they always start making other stupid suggestions, arguing back at him that the dates don't have to be so exact, telling him to go to his GP surgery for the tests etc. He has to be very assertive to get them to understand and accept that he knows what he's doing as he's had to go through this every month for five years! Eventually, they usually manage to "find" an appointment slot, but it's a real trial every sodding month.

Sometimes he gets the receptionist from hell who just won't listen and insists on a different day and that it will be absolutely fine, so he has no choice but to go along with it. Only for the day of the drug issue to come, he turns up at the ward to collect his drugs, only to be told there wasn't a valid blood test (blaming him for having it too soon/too late) and he has to go away and make a new appointment for a blood test which means the chemo drug issue will be a week late and he'll have had two wasted hospital journeys/appointments.

The same happens with other things he needs, such as the occasional full body x-ray or MRI scan or bone marrow sample. The consultant tells him what she needs, but when actually liaising with the relevant department, they'll often try to do the wrong thing, i.e. MRI scan with dye when consultant told OH it had to be without, and he just gets the runaround as the staff in different depts won't talk to eachother directly meaning OH is always some kind of piggy in the middle passing messages between staff and having to be very assertive to get them to believe and understand he actually knows what he's talking about and to just do what the hell he's asking them to do rather than them being arrogant know it alls who want to do something different. It's exhausting.