The Scary New Normal for Customer Service

Posted by in Customer Service


A strange thing is happening to customer service. When just about everyone had to physically walk into a store to purchase anything, customers expected to get good service wherever they went. Today, with customer service in decline, shoppers don’t even expect to get good customer service anymore, especially in certain types of retail stores. 

 

The results of a survey by Prosper Insights and Analytics, featured in a Forbes article, “Frightful, Not Delightful: Tales of Terrible Customer Service,” revealed that customers are more likely to expect excellent customer service from specialty stores, and that they have just about given up on getting the same type of service at discounters. Why the shift in expectations? From the “horror stories” in the article, it’s from customer experience. 

 

Retailers should pay attention to the shift in customer perception, whether it is deserved or not. The article points out that fewer and fewer customers actually set foot in a store. You don’t need a survey to tell you that. Just walk into any of the big-box retailers and you’ll see empty aisles, darkened checkout lines and few employees roaming about. Where are all the shoppers? Clicking about online, doing research and making their purchases from the convenience of a laptop or Smartphone. 

 

While discount stores offer lower prices to lure customers, the expectation of poor customer service drives them away. Some retailers, like Best Buy, are shrinking their floor space to accommodate the trend in online shopping and to save money. Some specialty stores, like Whole Foods, continue to build large stores and charge higher prices, but they still bring in the shoppers. True to the survey, customers are willing to shop a specialty store for the product and the expectation of a better customer service experience.

 

The “horror stories” in the article are surprisingly mundane. They are examples of poor service that just about every customer has experienced at one time or another. That’s where the horror comes in. Poor service has become the new normal for so many retailers. Try complaining to a manager at a discount store about poor service, and you’ll most likely be met with glazed eyes, a sigh and a half-hearted apology.

 

The article lists “uninvested employees” as the top offender. Gaggles of employees, milling around and talking to themselves instead of paying attention to a customer. Or totally ignoring a customer at checkout while holding a personal conversation with a co-worker or a personal phone call. Instead of actively engaging with customers to win them over, some employees are merely “serving their time” until they can clock out and go home. It doesn’t take customers long to realize they can get better treatment online, where at a mere click on a keypad they get instant attention and service.

 

The next, “a draining atmosphere,” is a common experience in so many retail stores. Online, there are no piles of unfolded sweaters or boxes opened up with a piece missing. Online stores are clean, neat and exciting. Lots of variety and it’s easy to find just what you’re looking for in your size and color. Not so in a retail store. It may be those “uninvested employees” chatting instead of straightening the merchandise, but stores with low lighting, trash on the floors, merchandise stacked up to the ceiling and not a sales clerk in sight can make a customer feel alone and bewildered. No “search” field to help you find what you want. Customers wander aimlessly through a store and never find what they need, or a knowledgeable sales person who can help them.

 

Small specialty stores have to deliver excellent customer service to match higher prices and limited product lines. A reputation for poor service won’t stop at the discount store’s physical doorway. Perception is reality, and customers put off by a poor personal service experience will apply that to the retailer’s online store as well.  

 

Photo Source: Leon Brooks / Wikimedia

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  • Linda L
    Linda L
    I have worked in customer service fields for over 24 years and the objective of the position has truly changed.  The title of customer service is only a title but the job is now "sales". With the last 17 years in a call center for a credit union the idea of doing what ever it takes to please the  member has changed to make a sale in 1 minute 35 seconds or less. If you have ever made a phone call requiring assistance or explanation  but instead got a sales pitch for a auto loan or mortgage you know exactly what I'm talking about.  I fear that good customer service agents will be soon added to the endangered species list.
  • Cheryl H
    Cheryl H
    I've been on both sides.  I've dealt with employees who clearly don't care and can't be bothered and it's clear management isn't going to do a thing about their attitudes.  In situations like that, customers need to complain to the district manager about the store.  Get the DM's name from whatever manager is at the store at the time, or if there's no manager on duty at the time, go on the website.  Stop shopping at that particular store if the service is lousy.  Vote with your wallet.There's also a chance that the customers complaining about lousy service are the problem.  I could go on for quite a while about all the customers, clients, patients, and patrons who have been rude, obnoxious, flouted the rules, accused me of being racist, cursed a blue streak at me, allowed their children to run around, expected store staff to babysit their brats, and generally been a royal pain.  People do not get off their phone when they reach the register and keep yammering on, as if the rest of the world should just wait on them.  People are INCREDIBLY rude to customer service agents on the phone.  Yes, there are some rude agents.  Yes, some are denser than lead.  The majority are decent, intelligent people who are just trying to make a living, and they're sick of putting up with people who are rude and sarcastic and shitty to them.  BE NICE.  
  •  TerryG
    TerryG
    working in retail,obamacare is killing jobs and cu.tting full time jobs.Thats why service is poor.
  • Connie B.
    Connie B.
    I agree completely with this article. It happens to me at almost every Walmart I go into. Not only do the manager's not care if you complain, they just plain do not want to be bothered.
  • Johnnie F
    Johnnie F
    It is very true.Having been a store owner required the utmost in customer service.Stores today barely have warm bodies to provide service. This comes down to management through low pay and less respect to working employees. I shop online almost always .
  • Mike C.
    Mike C.
    As a Senior Customer Service professional, I am saddened by the state of decline in the personal service industry.  "Internal" service in the workplace has also taken on a "look out for #1" mentality" by employees. Where has the teamwork and pride in the workplace gone?The manager sets the example! The ones that have the "glazed eyes, a sigh and a half-hearted apology" to poor service has himself to blame for allowing the behaviors that drive customers away.Taking steps to correct hiring screening, proper training to set standards,   and a continual program to evaluate compliance with set standards would be a start in the right direction. Organizations need to understand that emphasizing training and empowering management regarding service standards will only improve their bottom line! A good place to start in the hiring screening is to not discriminate those of us "older workers" with experience. Believe me when I say that "older" does not equate to "inflexible" or "un-trainable". BTW...Yes, I am one of those "older" people that can't seem to "compete" for a position. I will keep looking because that's what we "hard workers" do. Thanks for the opportunity to vent.
  • Mary Nestor-Harper
    Mary Nestor-Harper
    Online shopping has its pitfalls, too, as it catches up and figures out how to design websites that are user friendly.  I agree you can waste a lot of time on a poorly designed website and end up with nothing.  Great comments.  The scary part is the possibilty that stores will close, and we'll have big empty shopping malls.  That's a whole part of life experience that will be gone.
  • Helen F
    Helen F
    I agree on how customer service has changed, I have been working in the customer service workforce for over 25 years, and I feel that it has gone down hill, individuals are not being properly trained and don't have the same motivation to provide excellent customer service or to positively represent the company they work for. It is sad to see organizations allow for poor customer service.
  • Linda O
    Linda O
    I agree with this article 100%. I started shopping online about 10 yrs ago and have not regretted it. Even some specialty stores have haughty sales people. They assume I don't have the $$ to make a purchase.  So rather than deal with the hassle, I shop online.
  • Debby N. L
    Debby N. L
    I work for a large retailer and I always gave great customer service. I feel that ordering online is great but I would rather have a real person give me excellent customer service.
  • Floyd H
    Floyd H
    Poor service is bad but go online and spend hours going thru a site and still no closer to finding what you want. Most online stores are so poorly designed it is almost impossible to find anything or the site just doesn't work.
  • Dorothy B
    Dorothy B
    I have worked in customer service my whole working career. I always get surprised looks from customers when i do basically, my job. Sine say i go above and beyond. But i feel like in just doing my job. I see my co workers ignoring customers, giving up as soon  situation gets complicated, or talking the sift away. It kills me. The job of a sales associate is to make sure the customer comes back. Not run them off for good.

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