Complaints, Complaints: The End of Customer Service
Years ago, you could go down to Wilson’s Hardware, on Main Street, and buy a new drill. After stopping at the soda fountain, next door, you took your new drill home and found out it didn’t work. No problem. You could just take it back and Mr. Wilson would be there, ready to make it right. That’s the way things worked, at least when wearing the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia. I actually remember the tail end of those days. Never bought a drill, though, so I can’t guarantee Mr. Wilson was the paragon of customer service he’s so fondly remembered as. Doesn’t matter, anyway. He retired to Florida and died of a heart attack, c1982. May he rest in peace.
That Old Gray Mare Called Customer Service
It ain’t what it used to be. Neither is Main Street. The hardware store is owned by a corporation with a CEO in New York who never bothers to visit your town, much less deal with customer service. There may, or may not, be a complaint department, or maybe the store manager can replace your defective drill. Then again, you may have to call customer service. That will involve pushing five hundred number prompts to get to talk to, you hope, a “customer service rep”. By that time, though, you’re probably thinking that just buying another drill would be easier.
Brave New World
You hear the complaints all the time. “Whatever happened to customer service?” No one really wants to answer that question. What happened was that the world changed. Business models changed. Back when Mr. Wilson had his hardware store, he dealt with his customers on a daily basis. He’d see them in his store, at church on Sunday, on his evening stroll, and when he went grocery shopping. His bottom line depended on keeping them happy. He was under strong social pressure to be an honest businessman and an upstanding member of the community. I’m sorry to break it to you, but that’s as dead as Mr. Wilson, and it’s not likely to come back. That’s just the reality of business in the post-modern world.
Faceless Corporations
Let’s face facts. Very few corporations are ever going to be able to provide close personal service. It’s theoretically possible, but it’s difficult, expensive, and involves a sharing and decentralization of authority that’s enough to make the numbers crunchers squeal in terror. The bigger the corporation, the harder it’s going to be. It’s not even all their fault. It’s just the nature of the beast. If customer service is handled in-house, as it often is with B2B suppliers, things can go well. But that’s rarely done in companies that provide products directly to the consumer. They’re much more likely to outsource to a call center in Fargo, North Dakota. That removes most of their ability to ensure good service. The call center is likely to hire anyone who comes in, give them minimal training and supervision and pay them as little as possible. Some workers will be capable, some just serving time, and some just there to get a paycheck. Few will care about the company’s reputation or the customer’s satisfaction. It’s not good, except for the bottom line, but we’re stuck with it until, for whatever reason, the business models we have change.
But Now For the Good News
It’s simple. Close, personal attention to customer service is rare. Everyone knows. Everyone complains. Everyone wants the situation to change, with little hope overall. How should we view that? We should view it as an opportunity. Every small business, whether local or not, whose owners and employees are committed to providing good customer service has a built in advantage, can rely on the best possible word-of-mouth advertising, and has the perfect selling point to attract new clients and customers. Customer service may be rare, but it can be a key ingredient in turning a small business into a successful business.
About the author
A loose cannon by right of descent, Jeffrey developed a fascination with figuring out anything related to computers precisely because he never even saw one in school. He's been writing for thirty years and blogging for four, primarily on local history, medieval history, church architecture, and religious art. Jeffrey describes his interests as, "too confounded many for a well-ordered life."
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