customer service is heading down the toilet

Hope he didn't get fired. (at Christmas time)

I'm sure we've all had many experiences that could go in this category. It seems like nobody, especially the younger generation cares anything about customers service these days. It doesn't matter whether it's a restaurant, a food store, and mom and pop store or a chain, nobody knows the meaning of customer service!

I can't tell you how many times I've had to complain or even get something for myself in a restaurant while the wait staff just stood there. Worse yet they still expect a good tip.

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato, according to William L.
Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277
(1953)."

Paul's is largely staffed by teenagers. I don't hold that against them.

Nor do I....I simply don't shop there.

Annmarie,

I think you deserve a forum award for most hyperbolic thread titles. I must say, though, I click on them every time.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!

During school hours, the Paul's I shop at has a regular staff of middle aged people. All polite and helpful.

The teenagers work nights and weekends, and have been just fine in my experience. Their failings are the same teenagers have always had.

[Robin Garr]

Paul's is largely staffed by teenagers. I don't hold that against them.

Nor do I, and thanks for making that good point, Mark. Mary and I just came from Paul's in St. Matthews, where we were treated very nicely by the teen-age workers.

A couple of simple suggestions that it surprises me are necessary to make in a forum full of sophisticated adults.

* Make eye contact.

* Smile.

* Say "Hi" or "Good morning" or in some way acknowledge that you are making contact with a fellow human creature.

I've found that this simple process almost guarantees decent service, even from teen-agers. Your mileage may vary, but I don't think it will. It's a good thing to do.

Working in customer service can cause people to become rude, because so many people are rude to them. It's not just a reflection of customer service, it's people in general in my opinion.

One thing that I have found as a rule is that if you try and make the clerk/CSR chuckle it tends to break the Ice.....but there is one cashier at Kroger in M'town that I will avoid like the plague because she is so sourpussed and rude. It's no wonder that she has the shortest line.

Annemarie, in my eyes, ya' done good. I wish more customers had the backbone to take their concerns to management...maybe people would learn some manners.

about a week ago i noticed my internet was down, thinking it was a technical matter i call dsl tech dept. boy was i shocked to learn they just cut me off. now let me say this, the payment automatically comes out of an account with more then enough to cover the bill. well i got nowhere with them . billing services was closed so i had to wait till monday. this was friday. (in speaking with the tech dept. i never raised my voice, am always super nice, no matter what.
keep reading because this story gets more interesting as i tell it. now it's monday, i call the billing dept. at at&t. they tell me i was disconnected, but could not give me a reason why. and yes my bill was paid up. so now no one can help me nor would they reconnect me either. so i call corporate headquarters and talk to a big cheese. finally he tells me he can't either understand why i was disconnected. but he would send it over to have it reconnected. (in this conversation i was super nice, thanking him and telling him i understand mistakes can happen on their part. so 5 days later i was reconnected. but wait, i was on line again for 45 minutes and down goes my dsl again!!! it was night time and their offices are closed. so the next day after talking to 3 executive at at&t (once again i'm super nice) i get reconnected. this time it took 3 days. yes i was privately upset, but never to them.
so i call again and ask for the big cheese i spoke to a few days ago and i ask for a discount of some sort for my troubles. he tells me no problem, my next (house phone bill which is $49.53 would be wiped off the next month as a credit. do you think i would have gotten this discount if i was a ranging maniac? hell no. another time kitchen aid gave me a free brand new french door 25cu ft. fridge for me after i complained about my old one being a lemon, do you think they would give me a $2200.00 brand new refrigerator for free if i was an ass about it. no. one thing i have learned, you get more bees with honey. maybe that's why i always win my argument. it's hard to say no to someone who nicely argues.
p.s the AT&T executive thanked me for being so nice about it...

Sadly from my early days working in the industry I can tell you this isnt the case. Especially as tech support focus has gone more to Sales focus I see more and more cases of people calling in and being rude and throwing a hissy fit until they get credited for issues that arent even related to the service they are purchasing. A lot of people have learned they can just call in, throw a fit, talk to a supervisor and get credits. I cant tell you how infuriated I would get watching a customer get escalated because they had a virus on their computer and then get credit for a service outage just because they yelled and screamed until it was given to them.

Bill, Which cashier do you avoid? I have always found that every person @ that Middletown Kroger has always been nice. Especially to my 2 yr old. But then again, they have a lot of older clerks and they are very kind. But I want to know who to avoid!