What has happened to customer service?

Joined
Jul 14, 2020
Messages
1,347
Location
South of Metro Atlanta
I know we all have seen the service side of retail degrade to where it's almost non-existent anymore, but what has happened?

People in the area of the country I live in praise Publix and CFA (I am in that camp), but in reality, they are just the bar. The smaller stores/restaurants that REALLY know how to respect the customer are the epitome of customer service.

But then there's this-

I just went to a local NAPA (locally owned). It's tucked away, off anything considered a main road, retail area, etc. You probably wouldn't go there unless you searched for Napa and wanted to go there, which I did, to get a known part.

I park. I'm the only customer there, clearly. The storefront door is held open by a door stop. There's the typical ~30 yo male standing on the curb. Unkempt hair, unkempt beard, Napa hat on, phone in one hand, vape box in the other, never looks up, never says a word, in fact, moves away (I guess in a polite move).

I walk in, no one to be seen in the store, counter, etc. I walk to the middle of the counter and stand there. I then see an office at the end of the counter, two people in there, looking at me. The man shouts out "sir, is anyone helping you?" I look both ways for anyone and shake my head no. Then there's a discussion between the man and woman about who's where. She walks out of the office and asks me what I am needing.

I tell her, year, make, model, then I tell her what I need. It's a caliper pin bushing kit. She can't find it.
I was just looking it on their website at the office. I knew I should have written the part down and took it with me. Then she finds a hardware kit. Nope, it's the bushing kit.

She finds it.

Yeah, there's some tension in the air. Probably too much, but I think a customer should be appreciated instead of being made to feel like they are bothering people. Yes, it was a whole $7 of gross revenue.

I feel things would have had a whole different air about them if someone was at the counter when I walked in and ready to go. Maybe it's just me....
 
you get the quality of employee that you pay for...

I agree 110% with this.

I think most people running a retail business right now got caught with their pants down 2-1/2 years ago with the steep rise in wages due to all the free money floating around. We'll just leave it at that.

They got caught because $14/hour employees to do basically unskilled labor didn't work in their business plan. It didn't work in their recovery plan, trying to crawl out of being shut down/etc for 3-6 months.

But times have changed and you should have been able to suck it up and move on by now. You should have been able to raise your prices (everyone else has), remove some expenses (anyone with a brain has) and beef up your wages you can pay to attract and keep someone that will protect your livelyhood.

The time for covid excuses is over. It's time to move on.


My problem with this whole scenario is whoever the man was in the office, whether he was the owner of the local 4-5 stores or that store's top dog manager, I guarantee you nothing was said about "how can we prevent that from happening again".... THAT is what strong, successful, bullet-proof businesses do.
 
I just recently saw a news report that the workforce participation rate is at an all time low.

That leads me to two counter-intuitive points ...
- being that there's little competition for jobs, it's easy to achieve a low bar
- hoping that the cream rises to the top, there's little to stand in your way of advancing if you put forth a "better than average" effort

I don't see this getting better any time soon. People that do a good job are going to advance quickly, and the remaining people who are willing to work have no real motivation if "barely good enough" is good enough for them. Those lower tier people will populate a large portion of the customer facing jobs for quite some time.

That's my opinion, anyway.
 
Stay out of a hospital, some employees should be collecting shopping carts at a Walmart parking lot.

Soooo many ways incompetent staff can kill you.

Surgical trays that are processed and closed / tagged….. only to be opened up in surgical room and tissue still on the instruments.

Doctors, Pharmacy, Pharmacy Techs, Nurses make mistakes with medications (incorrect meds, dosage, drug interaction).

Surgeons operating on the wrong body part, medical malpractice, patient dies after simple medical procedure,…

Etc, etc…..
 
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I know we all have seen the service side of retail degrade to where it's almost non-existent anymore, but what has happened?

People in the area of the country I live in praise Publix and CFA (I am in that camp), but in reality, they are just the bar. The smaller stores/restaurants that REALLY know how to respect the customer are the epitome of customer service.

But then there's this-

I just went to a local NAPA (locally owned). It's tucked away, off anything considered a main road, retail area, etc. You probably wouldn't go there unless you searched for Napa and wanted to go there, which I did, to get a known part.

I park. I'm the only customer there, clearly. The storefront door is held open by a door stop. There's the typical ~30 yo male standing on the curb. Unkempt hair, unkempt beard, Napa hat on, phone in one hand, vape box in the other, never looks up, never says a word, in fact, moves away (I guess in a polite move).

I walk in, no one to be seen in the store, counter, etc. I walk to the middle of the counter and stand there. I then see an office at the end of the counter, two people in there, looking at me. The man shouts out "sir, is anyone helping you?" I look both ways for anyone and shake my head no. Then there's a discussion between the man and woman about who's where. She walks out of the office and asks me what I am needing.

I tell her, year, make, model, then I tell her what I need. It's a caliper pin bushing kit. She can't find it.
I was just looking it on their website at the office. I knew I should have written the part down and took it with me. Then she finds a hardware kit. Nope, it's the bushing kit.

She finds it.

Yeah, there's some tension in the air. Probably too much, but I think a customer should be appreciated instead of being made to feel like they are bothering people. Yes, it was a whole $7 of gross revenue.

I feel things would have had a whole different air about them if someone was at the counter when I walked in and ready to go. Maybe it's just me....
There are definitely places that are losing business for crappy service. I’ll give you a story that happened today as a positive note.

I bought a Klipsch R-120SW from Crutchfield on April 3rd, 2021. It had some internal issue that it wouldn’t power up, but after a few days of messing it came on. I used it for awhile, but it quit powering up maybe a year ago. I just kinda forgot about it; I have another Klipsch sub so I wasn’t without. Today I call Crutchfield just to see maybe if they can help me get it repaired; I explained I knew it was my bad for waiting so long and I understood it was going to cost me.

Caesar the tech rep said, “No worries sir, I’m mailing you out a brand new one today. Please just make sure to take the enclosed return label and get the defective sub back to us within 14 days.” I’m like….. WHAAAAAT? I didn’t abuse the sub, but I knew this wasn’t typical Klipsch quality… but to have Crutchfield do a literal 2-year on the spot warranty??

I decided today that paying retail isn’t necessarily all bad when it comes with protection like this! Bravo, Crutchfield!
1678137707458.jpg
 
I agree, it’s a sad state that we’re in these days’. It’s affecting every company that used to be great, even Apple. As to your question, what happened to it, it starts at the top and works its way down. 😕
 
The situation has zero to do with wages paid.

Over the last month I have been working in third world and developing nations. I have to eat out every meal, have to buy needs from stores, have to have someone else wash my clothes.

Not once have I had a bad interaction with a person at any type of business, not once. The workers at these businesses work 12 plus hours a day, a minimum of six days per week. These workers may make about $3 a day (yes DAY).

This issue with customer service in the USA is not about wages paid.
 
I just recently saw a news report that the workforce participation rate is at an all time low.

That leads me to two counter-intuitive points ...
- being that there's little competition for jobs, it's easy to achieve a low bar
- hoping that the cream rises to the top, there's little to stand in your way of advancing if you put forth a "better than average" effort

I don't see this getting better any time soon. People that do a good job are going to advance quickly, and the remaining people who are willing to work have no real motivation if "barely good enough" is good enough for them. Those lower tier people will populate a large portion of the customer facing jobs for quite some time.

That's my opinion, anyway.
I agree. There's little to no CS in DC area. I don't go out to eat much because they don't have any employees and it takes forever to get your food. Today I was on the way home and hungry and thought about stopping at several resturants but remembered the last time I was there took an hour to get my food. I just got back from 5 weeks in the FL panhandle and was blown away with the niceness of employees and the great customer service. It was everywhere down there. Brake light bulb went out in my MB ML. The only parts store nearby was a garage that carried NAPA parts. The guy looked thru his bulb in a drawer collection and came up with one that would work. He even came out and put it in. Go in a Publix store and people come up to you and ask if they can find something for you. Same thing in Walmart. These weren't kids with an attitude. I tipped well in cash whenever we went out. It's a different world down there.
 
There are definitely places that are losing business for crappy service. I’ll give you a story that happened today as a positive note.

I bought a Klipsch R-120SW from Crutchfield on April 3rd, 2021. It had some internal issue that it wouldn’t power up, but after a few days of messing it came on. I used it for awhile, but it quit powering up maybe a year ago. I just kinda forgot about it; I have another Klipsch sub so I wasn’t without. Today I call Crutchfield just to see maybe if they can help me get it repaired; I explained I knew it was my bad for waiting so long and I understood it was going to cost me.

Caesar the tech rep said, “No worries sir, I’m mailing you out a brand new one today. Please just make sure to take the enclosed return label and get the defective sub back to us within 14 days.” I’m like….. WHAAAAAT? I didn’t abuse the sub, but I knew this wasn’t typical Klipsch quality… but to have Crutchfield do a literal 2-year on the spot warranty??

I decided today that paying retail isn’t necessarily all bad when it comes with protection like this! Bravo, Crutchfield!
View attachment 143614
I've had good dealings with them also. Good company.
 
I know we all have seen the service side of retail degrade to where it's almost non-existent anymore, but what has happened?

People in the area of the country I live in praise Publix and CFA (I am in that camp), but in reality, they are just the bar. The smaller stores/restaurants that REALLY know how to respect the customer are the epitome of customer service.

But then there's this-

I just went to a local NAPA (locally owned). It's tucked away, off anything considered a main road, retail area, etc. You probably wouldn't go there unless you searched for Napa and wanted to go there, which I did, to get a known part.

I park. I'm the only customer there, clearly. The storefront door is held open by a door stop. There's the typical ~30 yo male standing on the curb. Unkempt hair, unkempt beard, Napa hat on, phone in one hand, vape box in the other, never looks up, never says a word, in fact, moves away (I guess in a polite move).

I walk in, no one to be seen in the store, counter, etc. I walk to the middle of the counter and stand there. I then see an office at the end of the counter, two people in there, looking at me. The man shouts out "sir, is anyone helping you?" I look both ways for anyone and shake my head no. Then there's a discussion between the man and woman about who's where. She walks out of the office and asks me what I am needing.

I tell her, year, make, model, then I tell her what I need. It's a caliper pin bushing kit. She can't find it.
I was just looking it on their website at the office. I knew I should have written the part down and took it with me. Then she finds a hardware kit. Nope, it's the bushing kit.

She finds it.

Yeah, there's some tension in the air. Probably too much, but I think a customer should be appreciated instead of being made to feel like they are bothering people. Yes, it was a whole $7 of gross revenue.

I feel things would have had a whole different air about them if someone was at the counter when I walked in and ready to go. Maybe it's just me....
Haven’t gone into a NAPA in years for that very reason.
 
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