Customer Service

Customer Service... two words which have lost virtually all meaning. Once upon a time in America, in that mythic time invoked by the Right Wing, any and every problem or complaint was promptly resolved and the Customer was always happy. I am not naive enough to believe that this ever was the case, but it strikes me that either I am becoming less tolerant as I am growing older or Customer Service really is getting worse (or, as is more, likely both).

Why are we seeing this "lack" of Customer Service? On one hand, I think it relates to the poor pay and working conditions for the employees. Everytime one turns around, more technology has been put into place to remove any contact between the customer and the worker. One Drug Store near my house, for example, in an effort to cut costs, has multiple "self-service" cashiers, and to force you to use them, has cut down on live Cashiers. One either has to wait in a line with three or four Customers or use the self-service. And the one live cashier is under great pressure to move quickly because of the delays. (And this has a secondary impact on other types of Customer Service as things like "press checks" for small price errors are less likely to be requested becuase it will delay other fellow customers.)

A second factor is the "lack" of competition. In my area we had two large grocery chains. One of these chains has fallen on hard times and the other, which was never first quality, has responded by reducing its service and quality as well. They do not have to pay attention to the Customer becuase the Customer really has no realistic options.