Customer Service

Has the state of our economy made people totally forget about customer service? I ask this question after a few incidents this week. The first incident occurred when I went to the bank to request a new pin number for my ATM card. After rushing to get to the branch before the lobby closed, I get there with at least 15 minutes to spare. Though the personal banker never greeted me as I stood and waited to be serviced, I still smiled and greeted her so that we could get the show on the road. I explained to her what I needed, and she informed me that she had already put the machine away and that I would have to come back tomorrow. I politely reminded her, that according to the bank’s clock, it was only 5:46 PM and that there were still 14 minutes left for customers to be serviced. She huffed and puffed and went over to another employees’ window to laugh and frolic and then finally went to get the machine. She punched in some numbers and very nastily said “put your number in”. Wanting to give her an opportunity to adjust her tone, I politely said “excuse me”? She then said, even nastier and slower, “put your number in, geez!” Needless to say, she earned some overtime that evening because instead of getting a new pin, I closed out my accounts, all three of them. That transaction took much longer than a simple pin number change would have taken.

The second incident occurred when I went to a very well known cosmetic counter to purchase new make-up. The make-up counter was very busy and it was obvious that the employees were scouting the customers to see who they thought would spend the most money. Being relatively new to make-up purchasing, I wanted to try the make-up out and get the professional consultation that I thought was the standard from such a company. The cosmetic’s employee, very blunt and agitated, asked if I was purchasing anything because if not she needed to wait on other customers and could not keep helping me try out foundations. I asked her if she worked on commission. She answered, yes. I then asked her if she made commission off of gift cards. She again answered yes. I quickly showed her a $500 gift card that I had won in a raffle. She became very attentive and helpful. I made a decision about everything that I would purchase, wrote it all down, and informed her that I would be going to another location to purchase it.

Lastly, my husband went to a very popular fast food chain, placed his order and paid for his food. Though I always check my bag, he didn’t and assumed that the order was correct. After driving 20 minutes to the house, he opened the bag to find nothing but an order of fries. His bill totaled $8.62. That’s an awfully expensive order of fries. He thought, I’ll just call the restaurant and they will make it right somehow, after all, he still had the receipt. He was told by the manager that he needed to bring the purchase back in that night, uneaten, or there would be nothing that he could do. I guess that maybe they count fries now because that’s the only way that he could know that they were uneaten. Even after explaining to the manager that he lived 20 minutes away, and that it was 10:00 PM, the manager said that he could do nothing. Wow.

How often do we get bad service and just let it slide? We get mad, call all of our friends to complain, and vow to never solicit a business again. However, two weeks later we are back allowing them to put our hard earned money on their ledger for the year. How can we expect things to get better if we do not take a stand and stick to our guns? If the service is bad, do not go back. It is not necessary to speak ill of a place or person, just don’t go. Spend your money and time elsewhere. If we all follow that rule, eventually it will make an impact and things will have to get better!

Let’s all demand the service that we know we deserve! Also, do not forget to be courteous in return!

Clutch

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