To wonder what changed about customer service?

[Whatafabulousoaktree]

Thirty years ago I worked for an insurance company in their call centre. A constant driving force throughout the business was 'how can we delight the customer?' and 'how have we exceeded the customers' expectations today?'.
Literally no one thinks like this today. What has caused the change to a quite overt attitude of 'like it or lump it'? Companies don't seem to care how long you wait for things, how difficult the 'customer journey' or how poor your service experience...but why is it that they no longer think that retaining and impressing customers is worth their while?

Because there are always more customers

And almost no staff. And when you get them, they are poorly paid.

OP it's a social contract. And employers broke it.

Not everywhere. My firm are passionate about giving the customer an amazing experience.

You'll get loads of people saying that we shouldnt expect good service from people being paid minimum wage. Which would mean the minimum wage could be £40ph and still we couldnt expect good service.

Companies are trying to cut overheads by employing less staff or paying staff less.

Staff are overworked and underpaid. Wait times are longer, less products available, less staff to sell them, less managers to solve issues.

Customers in general expect more for the increasing amount they are paying for what is a worse/less efficient/lower quality service or product.

Minimum wage won't get the quality customers want, but noone wants to pay more for services or products.

Its a vicious cycle, made worse by covid - deliveries of whatever you needed rocking up at the door very quickly after you ordered it.

And some customers are just entitled wankers that think service staff were put on the earth to be stepped on and verbally/physically abused. There are rude service workers too, but definately more rude customers.

Because they know they won't lose your custom because there often isn't a higher quality alternative. Or not at a similar price. If you spent a lot more then you'd probably get a better experience (whether shop, hairdresser, gym, hotel) but most people won't or can't pay more so keep on getting poor service at that price point.

Public vs private sector.

Private - bend over backwards

Public - like it or lump it cos you have no choice

Where I work we pride ourselves on great customer service and we are drilled that customers take priority over other duties.

That said, yes, we are over worked and we are expected to stretch ourselves whilst continually having holiday requests denied. Its exhausting.

The relentless drive drive for profit,
the customer used to be king,
but is now 'kin nusiance.'

But that's not different because there always was plenty of customers. Companies then wanted to battle to get them and keep them, whereas now they just seem to shrug their shoulders and begrudge dealing effectively with the ones they've got.

This also seems to represent a shift in attitude though because lots of service jobs weren't well paid, eg call centres - but people didn't seem to think that not being paid much entitled them to do a crap (or half-hearted) job. People were being paid, and everyone seemed to expect that having taken the job you did the best you could as part of that transactional relationship.

I'm really not just looking back with rose-tinted spectacles; I really do think something is culturally different and I'm interested in how that has happened.

All comes down to money. Everything cut to the bone in the name of profit and as long as the shareholders get their payout that's all that matters. It's the shareholders that matter now, not the customers or the poorly paid staff on the front line

I work in an insurance office, there is no office culture, they don’t reinforce the customer care message, it’s not on the walls, we have ticking screens telling us about the sandwich bloke and the time in Hing Kong, bit Jo push on service. Some make exceptional efforts, these aren’t rewarded unless measurable .

Greed for profit, cutting staff, more entitled customers, staff WFH, etc etc.

Some great points up thread.

I do think as a society that everyone is tired and burnt out and it shows (both customers and service providers)

I also think technology plays a large part. As a society , all of our communication has suffered. People are just glued to phones or tablets. People don't look up at people and make eye contact or engage in chit chat. Half the time the people serving and the customer and texting or looking at their phones.

On the technology note, sales people know half of us are going to just browse the tech in Currys and then Google it on 'AO' and ultimately buy it off there. So 'what is the point '.

Also, people are savvier and wiser (thanks to technology) and don't readily buy into the sales pitter patter and know our rights. So once again what's the point of all the smooth talk ?

Parenting : I was bought up very strictly with good manners and social etiquette and how to do good 'customer service' . My mum was very strict about what you wear for an interview, how you talk to people etc etc. whereas now, I'm not sure those things are impressed upon young people anymore. You hear waiting staff in restaurants reeling out the generic "how is your meal ? Is everything ok?" Said in a monotone robotic cliche that's straight from the manual. There's no 'personality' in there. It's all a bit soulless. I think these 'skills' just don't matter to people anymore.

With everyone encouraging their kids into white collar uni jobs, nobody values the importance of basic good customer service skills and taking pride in your job, even if it's not a "high up" one.

Customers changed massively post covid. I’ve always done jobs dealing with the public and it’s probably the worst it’s ever been
Plus I am limited in what I can do. I can’t delight the customer or exceed their expectations because I have a script and rules. If there’s no appointment for 3 months, I can’t do anything about it
it’s not so much that I don’t care but I have to not care or I would be stressed all day long! If a customer isn’t happy with what I offer there is absolutely nothing I can do about it and I have to just listen to the resulting complaints/swearing/shouting

Customer service people who think they are too good for the job. Didn't expect to be in a service job because really they should be a famous celeb.

I work in a university so public sector and there's plenty of us that will bend over backwards for the students. Please don't tar all public sector staff with the same brush.

I think increasingly there is also more self service, eg people research what they want themselves rather than expecting or relying on recommendations from travel agents, section experts in eg Currys

There is less need for up front customer service in many areas, it is more transactional

YANBU, I had the "pleasure of trying to deal with British Gas via their live chat. Every time I posted a reply, the person said they had to go away for 6-9 minutes, and it was at least 12 every time. What could have taken 20 minutes on the phone (I can't use the phone) took about 3 hours... and after all that, was told they could not help me due to "technical issues".

British Gas are DIRE, I'm trying to deal with them currently and it's like banging my head against a brick wall

There are so many monopolies today. And general lack of competition. Corporations don't feel the need to go out of their way to keep their customers, because their customers will stay no matter how they're treated, as there's nowhere else for them to go.

I work for a utility company- a natural monopoly-our current push on customer service has probably been the highest it’s ever been

OP I hope Virgin Media read your post

Worker shortage & shit wages