Customer service is a topic of much heated discussion in the media and with many companies.
Service review sites such as Yelp, Angies List and Super Pages make searching for customer friendly businesses much more accessible.
When consumers find businesses with services or products that are below satisfactory there can be immediate feedback or retaliation with Facebook posts, Twitter updates, and review site posts.
The days of person to person customer service are dead.
The boom of modern technology leaves those that yearn for outstanding customer service representatives in the dark. Automated call centers, touch to order kiosks and online purchasing sites don’t require the human interaction that many consumers are used to.
Even in many grocery stores there is an option for self-checkout where the customer can bypass the cashier and complete a transaction on their own.
Many consumers have become numb to the daily of face to face interactions of making a transaction. There is no friendly greeting at the door, there is no attendant there to help you find the product you desire.
Businesses have dropped their customer service model and have replaced it with a transaction efficiency model. You go in, pick out your item, pay and leave.
Consumers are so quick to besmirch the name of businesses due to the lack of a great customer service experience, but they do not look at the reality behind an automated checkout counter.
When you go to scan your can of Monster you leave the business not thinking anything of the transaction but the fact that you got the product you wanted. If any problems arise from the automated transaction consumers are left with a negative experience.
With online shopping consumers can now find exactly what they want online and never have to deal with a single person to get it. A sense of entitlement and availability is created in many consumers mind’s.
If a person knows exactly what they want and choose it to buy it in store, problems arise when to store is out of stock. After all the product is available else where, and comparative items are not what are wanted. Regardless of customer service, the patron has had a bad experience.
It may not be that customer service is dead but more that we as consumers expect what we want, and we expect it now, because that is what Amazon gives us.
For every positive review that is posted for a business there may be five negative review. You may have experienced this phenomenon yourselves. You hear your friends or family members complaining about a product or service before you hear about any good comments they may have about their day.
