Where Did Professionalism and Customer Service Go?

It seems to me that professionalism and customer service are becoming a thing of the past. What happened? Did people stop expecting good customer service or stop demanding professionalism?

I am not sure.

What I do know is that in the past two weeks or so I have encountered 5 different times when I, as a paying customer, was treated rudely or unprofessionally. Take a look at these five scenarios and see if you see yourself (or your employees).

Scenario 1: It's not my Job

I was in a store, looking for a particular item. I asked an employee for help. "That's not my job," the employee responded. That was it, no offer to find someone who could help, nothing, just "That's not my job."

We had a momentary stand-off, then I asked, "Well, could you please have someone come and help me?"

He looked at me as if I had just asked him to clean my house, rake my yard and do the windows. I think his eyes even widened a little. His jaw was definitely slack. Then, without a word, he turned and walked away.

I waited a few minutes, but no one ever came. I still could find no other employee in the area so I just went to a different store.

Scenario 2: I Like to Argue Instead of try to make you feel Better

On this day I was renting a couple of movies. Everything was good until the clerk informed me that I had a charge on my account. Now, I had already been round with the people at this video store. In fact, they had charged me twice for the same thing when I should never have been charged in the first place. Last I heard, it was resolved. You can imagine my surprise and dismay.

"What?!" I asked.

He told me again and informed me that I could not rent any movies until it was resolved. I told him I had already paid it - twice and I didn't owe it in the first place. I further told him that it had been taken care of and should not be on my account.

That is when he got very rude, arguing with me, telling me, "Well, I'm looking at it right now and you can't rent any movies until it is paid." Now, keep in mind, we are in a busy video rental store and he is speaking rather loudly.

He did not offer to take my number and have his manager call me when he came in the next day. He did not do or say anything to try to make the situation better. In fact, all he did was say, "Well, I guess you can come in and see the manager tomorrow." He did not give me a name, time, nothing. He just kept up his nasty, rude attitude and basically called me a liar to my face.

I considered closing my account with the store (I have been a very loyal and frequent customer since I have been in the area), but there are a couple of very professional, courteous employees who are very good, so I decided to stay - at least for now.

Scenario 3: I don't have to be Polite to you, I work Here! Tax prep

It constantly amazes me how some people will treat their customers. I went to get my taxes done. There was only one person working and several people waiting so I signed the list and quietly sat down. The woman working stuck her head around the corner. "You filled out your paperwork yet?" she asked tersely.

"No," I replied (politely). "I didn't see anything out here to complete."

Without a word, she disappeared back around the corner. I waited a moment, then got up and walked over to where she was. She looked up as I approached, raised her eyebrows and tossed out a sarcastic, "What?"

"I came to get the paperwork so I can fill it out." I said, still polite.

"I'm getting' it!" she snapped back.

I strongly considered walking out then, but a friend had brought me and I was sort of stuck so I stayed.

Scenario 4: Don't you see I'm on the Phone!

I walked into a little convenience store to pay for my fuel. The clerk was on the phone, chatting away about someone's boyfriend cheating on someone's sister and the sister beating up the "other woman." Yeah, way too much information, much more than I wanted to hear.

I stood patiently at the counter and waited for her to ring me up. And I waited and waited.

Finally, I said (politely), "Excuse me, could I please pay for my fuel?"

She shot me a look that clearly said she did not appreciate being interrupted. "Just a minute," she spat at the person on the other end of the phone line. "Someone is here and I have to take care of them." She slammed the phone down and proceeded to ring me up, all the while making it very clear that I was a huge inconvenience for her. When the transaction was finished, she didn't dumped all of my change into my hand without counting it and didn't even say thank you, just picked up the phone and continued with her conversation.

I have not been to that store since.

Scenario 5: I can hide behind the Telephone so I don't have to be Professional

This is probably my favorite. I called my doctor to make an appointment. The woman answered and I asked if there was an appointment open within the next couple of days for my doctor. She tersely told me there was one for the following day at 1:30.

I said, "OK, I'll take it."

"What?" she said irritably.

"I would like that appointment, you can schedule me in there." I said.

She waited a moment, the said, well who are you?

I told her my name.

Now this is the best part.

She said, "Uh, huh." And then she hung up! That had to be one of the rudest people I have ever encountered on the phone in my life!

If I didn't really, really like the doctor, I would be looking for a new one about now. I am hoping that she was a temp or something. If she is a regular office person I don't know if I can deal with it.

The thing I think these people are missing is that if it weren't for their customers they would be out of a job. Basically, I had a hand in creating each of these five people's paychecks and they treated me like I was an inconvenience, a bother and a second class citizen. I am not asking for special treatment, just courtesy and professionalism.

Maybe these companies and doctors don't realize that the people who are essentially the liaison between them and their customers are making them look really bad. Take the doctor for instance. Suppose I was a new patient calling to make an appointment and encountered the rude receptionist. Automatically I would begin to associate my poor treatment by this rude, unprofessional receptionist with how competent the doctor is. That would not be good.

So, what's the answer? I honestly do not know. But I do think I am going to start speaking up more. Maybe if more people would stop accepting poor customer service and unprofessionalism, then the tide would start turning.

It's at least worth a shot.