The other day a reporter call to interview me on the ¡°Death of \rCustomer Service¡±. My first reaction was to deny that charge \rand claim that customer service is very much alive and well. \rBut upon further thought of the service I¡¯ve received over the \rpast few months and what others have related to me about \rtheir experiences, I had to admit that the quality and level of \rservice has decreased. Upon further thought I realized that it \rhas been on a decline for quite a while.

I finally admitted to the reporter that yes, I have to agree that \rcustomer service is not doing as well as I¡¯d like to think it is. \rOf course his next question was, ¡°Why is that?¡±

I believe there are 4 basic reasons for the demise of \rcustomer service.

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1. The booming economy of the 90¡¯s created an \ratmosphere where management took the stance that if one \rcustomer didn¡¯t like what they were doing, there were plenty \rlined up behind him/her that had their credit card ready to be \rprocessed. Why go the extra mile for someone who was so \reasily replaceable? This attitude is still pervasive which \radds up to poor customer service.
2. Poor hiring practices are what I believe to be another \rreason why customer service is so poor. Unemployment \rahs been so low that finding new employees has been a \rmajor challenge for companies. They hired marginal \rpeople, people with poor attitudes, people with poor work \rethics, and people who don¡¯t care. Put these employees in \ra position where they interact with customers and you have \ra formula for poor customer service.
3. Lack of training of these marginal employees is another \rproblem. Managers have the philosophy that since the \remployee won¡¯t last that long in the position, why put the \rtime, money and effort into training them. Of course the lack \rof training leads to low morale, confusion on the part of the \remployee and costly mistakes. The employee doesn¡¯t last \rin the position because they don¡¯t feel supported by \rmanagement, then management feels justified for the lack \rof training they give. This all adds up to poor customer \rservice.
4. Profit driven decisions of management as the criteria for \rsolving all problems is another reason for the death of \rcustomer service. Rather than do the ¡®right¡¯ thing, decisions \rare weighted by what it will cost the company. Scheduling is \rplanned by what it costs in dollars rather than what it costs \rin poor service. Customer complaints are judged by the \rimpact on the bottom line rather than on the impact on \rcustomer satisfaction. This short-term thinking gives out the \rclear message to employees that the company¡¯s needs are \rmore important than the customer¡¯s. This justifies the \rattitude of employees of not caring about the customer \rwhich again adds up to the delivery of poor customer \rservice.\r
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Margo Chevers, author of the book STOP the BS (bad \rservice), has been providing sales and customer service \rseminars and consulting to a diverse cross-section of \rindustries for the past 15 years. For information about \rMargo Chevers¡¯ speaking or training schedule call (800) \r858-0797 or Margo@MargoChevers.com