Customer Service Doesn't Serve Customers

Like all of us men folks, I enjoy going to Lowe's, Sears, and Home Depot. You can find just about whatever you need for your honey do projects at home. However, I have noticed a major change lately. I don't know if it is store policy or just the way people are behaving these days.

Stores, and when I say stores, I mean the people that work in them, aren't as helpful as they use to be. Case in point. Yesterday at Lowe's, I needed just 4 rolls of rolled roofing to cover my deck roof. Most of the isle people were very busy stocking or taking inventory of their areas. I finally got pointed in the right direction by another shopper. I found my roofing rolls. Luckily two stock boys were close by as I pulled the four rolls into the middle of the isle. I asked for a flat cart to load them. I was told to go outside and retrieve one.

Now there was two of them and only myself. Neither one offered to get me a cart. I went to look for the cart and couldn't find one. I decided to wait until one of the present customer unloaded their supplies and leave it for me. This only took about 10 minutes. I then took the cart to go get my rolls. Two of the four rolls that I left in the center of the isle were long gone.

Another example is grocery shopping. Most stores run your items past a screener and into an empty cart. You bag your own. They are even getting where you don't need a checker. You scan the items and then pay by machine. However, they keep a checker handy to make sure nobody steals an item.

Phone calls are another example of poor customer service. When you call, they ask if you want English or Spanish language. Usually they put you on hold. If you are lucky, you get to hear music while you wait. Every now and then, a machine will say, "Your service is important to us, please wait for the next available agent." Sometimes, the machine hangs up on you. Recently on a phone call to a locale in California, it gave me their weather forecast. I live in Illinois. Sunny and 76 degrees there but, rainy and 45 in my State.

Many generic 800 numbers have you say the word yes or no to a question. Some will have you press a number for a response. Many times after all this you are put on hold. The agent then comes on and asks, "What can I do for you?" the responses you previously gave are all void.

Many companies take out adds in newspapers, magazines, and even run adds on television to convince us of their commitment to customer service. My suggestion to this is save your money and hire more employees. Have a knowledgeable person there.

What is worst, is having someone that can't speak or understand English. They might mean well, but you can't understand them. I am sure they get just as frustrated as I do trying to talk to them about an account or problem. It appears that some of these employees are just there to fill a quota set down by the government.

When did these companies stop regarding the value of their customers and why? Is it because they have cornered the market on everyone else? Maybe people in general or lazy and just look for the easy way out.? Has society stooped that low?

I thought to myself, How would I react if someone asked for service or help? I believe that I would go out of my way. Remember the old saying, "The customer is always right." What ever happened to that?

My wife worked at a restaurant for a few years. When comes time to pay the tip, she usually gives me the knowledge of what to pay. some places demand at least 15% of your bill. It doesn't matter how good the service was. Sometimes if service is bad, I will view the waitress closely to see if she is overworked. If she has no help, I will usually give her a nice tip anyway. After all she has to make a living, too. If the experience is bad, I won't go back.

I know a man who runs a nice restaurant nearby. He has asked me why he hasn't seen me lately. I just bluntly told him the food and service was bad. His response was, "If you feel that way, we can live without you." Maybe that is how the big stores feel.

I once read an article about a man who was hired to resurrect a failing business. He did two things immediately. He had all phone calls answered by a person, not a machine. The other thing he did was make sure the restrooms were spotless all the time. Within 9 months, his business grew by 300%. It is curious that both of these dealt with customer service.