"How May I Help You?"

"I'm sorry your flight has been delayed, that is too bad." When did this become the standard response from an airline employee whose airline has altered a customer's travel plans? It was not all that long ago that the response was, "We are sorry that your travel plans have been delayed, let me find you suitable accommodations for the duration of your stay here." Other cuts that have been made in air travel is in the food. I'm not sure how long you have to be in the air to get a simple sandwich, I just know it must be longer than five hours because I recently took a five and a half hour flight in which I did not even get so much as the complimentary bag of peanuts we used to take for granted. We all know that in the wake of 9/11 that the airlines have had to tighten their belts and make cuts wherever they could. However, you would think that these cuts would have been made more carefully. You would think that the reasoning behind the cuts would be to keep the airline open although less people are flying. When you make cuts in your customer service, it is not enticing people to want to fly more.

Other issues in customer service don't involve issues that have such easy answers though. My unnamed cable company habitually applies my payments to accounts other than my own. Though they claim this is a very rare occurrence, it has happened to me three times just in 2010. I am one of probably millions of customers, so I wonder how rare this really is. It can't be blamed on sloppy handwriting on the check because I use on-line banking and some of my payments do get applied correctly. Mistakes do happen, but when a paying customer has a mistake such as this happen to them, you would think that the company would at least be apologetic; but no. When I call to ask why a payment has been taken out of my bank account and yet not applied to my bill I am met with rude and inept customer service agents. If I ask to speak to a supervisor, I am simply hung up on. Unfortunately, there are not many providers in my area from which to choose this service, or else i would have already switched. So I feel the least they can do is greet me with some sympathy and kindness as well as a willingness to do some investigating on their part to correct the problem. Yet each time, I have had to get the copy of the check from my bank and send it to them with the correct account number clearly printed on it. An apology would be nice especially when I am the one doing the leg work to locate the payment.

Almost everywhere I go anymore, I get customer service agents that just do not care. They do not care that I am having a bad experience with their company. They do not care that I have paid money for a service that I am not receiving. They just do not care, period. Perhaps they are underpaid. Perhaps they have no sense of self worth or feelings of pride in themselves or their employers. Customer service can be a difficult job, I give them that. Sometimes these men and women have to deal with irate customers that take their feelings of aggression out on them. Yet this is part of their job. If they receive a call from someone who is less than happy with their experience with any given company, they should be properly trained to handle the call with grace. They say that the call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance, but I think that this is just a routine recording to give the customer the impression that their call will be handled appropriately and if not, then the representative they spoke with will be spoken to and given the knowledge and tools they need to adequately handle future calls of the same nature. Possibly what is happening to customer service departments every where is a lack of training.

Another issue that I think may be leading to this decline in customer service is outsourcing. If a company outsources its customer service department, then they are removing the sense of pride that a representative should feel for their company. If they are subcontracted, whether it be to a call center in the United States or another country, then how do they maintain the feelings of commitment to the company they are representing? If I have never heard of the company I am representing until the call script for them lands on my desk, then what do I care if the customer of that company has a good experience?

Whether it is cuts in budgets, bad training, or a feeling of disconnect from the company that is being represented; it is still unacceptable. I used to be able to trust that when I ordered a service or bought a product, that the supplier of it would stand behind it. Now when I put out money for something, I have no idea how any problems that may come up will be handled or that they will be handled at all. If I was a business owner that inadvertently supplied my customer with a defective product or a bad experience, then I would recognize the importance of handling that less than great experience well. One problem is that the bigger the corporations get, the less they care about individual customers. After all, there will be others to take their place. So what if a company that has millions of customers worldwide loses one or two? Or even a hundred? Or a couple hundred? More people will be duped into agreeing to buy their products or purchase their services and their wallets will not even know the difference in the end.

What can we do to stop this? Well I think that one thing we can do as consumers is to insist on respect. It can be a cumbersome task for some situations. Particularly when we have busy lives and we are dealing with companies that truly do not seem to care. I feel that it is important, though, to stand up for ourselves as consumers. Perhaps if we did not just throw our hands up in frustration and say "never mind", that maybe, just maybe the people that come after us would be treated better. It goes back to the old adage that says, "If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem". If we do not care enough as customers to demand respect when dealing with a less than desirable company, why should they care enough about us to give us that respect? So I urge all of you reading this, when you are faced with poor customer service, do what ever is in your power to do to avoid this for the next one in line. Even if it means jumping on the computer and writing an email to the customer service department. Do your part to improve this problem. If we do not, it will continue to decline. No one will stand behind their services any more. We will not be able to spend our money with the good feeling that it was well spent.

From grocery stores, to airlines, to utility companies, we have no choice, often times, then to deal with them. We all work hard for our money and we should be able to feel rest assured that should an issue arise that it will be adequately handled. If we work hard for our money, is it too much to ask that the places in which we are spending our money put just a little effort in satisfying our needs? I don't think so. Neither should you.