Rest in Peace – A Story About the Death of Customer Service

I realize how busy our readers are, however, I would ask that we have a moment of silence to observe the slow and painful death of our friend, Customer Service.

Customer Service at one time in the past was King. For us Baby Boomers and Matures, we remember the attendant running out to our cars to wash our windows, check our oil and pump our gas. We remember being thanked for our business. In the day, Customer Service carried our groceries to our car and hung our shirts on coat hangers from the dry cleaners to be sure they wouldn’t get wrinkled.

Customer Service was everywhere. Always doing good work, always thanking for the business, always saying “come again.” (Please give me a moment…sob…ok, I can go on.)

Whatever happened to good old fashioned Customer Service? Today we see a very different story.

• How often have you heard the mechanical voice stating, “Your call is very important to us, please hold, please hold, please hold”? (You get the idea.)
• How often do you buy something only to return it because it isn’t working?
• How often do you call a service provider and they don’t call you back?
• How often are you waiting in a four hour window for someone, ANYONE, to show up?
• How often do you wait in line?

After almost a quarter century in this business I never cease to be amazed at the number of people (and businesses) that claim to have outstanding, high quality service. Yet, I continue to be disappointed by a lack of service almost everywhere I go. Do you have the same experiences? Are you constantly “underwhelmed” by what you get, instead of what you expected?

Over the next several Power Ideas our team will explore this issue of customer service and its untimely demise…And more important, what we can do about it. You see, if we settle for less than we deserve, that is what we will get.

Have A Great Week!
Jerry