It\u2019s been in a steady decline since the 1990s. It could be facing extinction. In fact, it may already be too late to save it.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re talking about good customer service, the kind that\u2019s lauded in a current TV commercial for an auto insurance company, in which a whole passel of people show up (in costume, no less) for a new customer who\u2019s just backed his car into a driveway basketball goal.<\/p>\n
Yeah, it\u2019s only a commercial.<\/p>\n
Most of us don\u2019t think too hard about customer service when we\u2019re buying something. If the item we\u2019re buying is expensive enough \u2013 say, a vehicle \u2013 we assume we\u2019re going to get decent customer service. If the item we\u2019re buying is cheap, we likely don\u2019t concern ourselves; if it doesn\u2019t deliver, we\u2019ll just go find one that works better.<\/p>\n
But when it comes to services, we\u2019re often at the mercy of the companies to which we\u2019re tied: there\u2019s usually just one electric, gas or water provider around, and if we\u2019ve bought our $700 phone from a telecom, we\u2019re likely stuck with it until we pay it off.<\/p>\n
And so it is that when great customer service happens, it\u2019s literally remarkable.<\/p>\n
One of us was shopping at Brown\u2019s Shoe Fit in downtown Durango recently. We\u2019ve gotten so accustomed to grumpy retail workers that the friendly people at Brown\u2019s seemed \u2013 well, almost like aliens. We were uncertain about our potential purchase, and instead of pushing it, our salesperson said, \u201cWell, if you don\u2019t really love them, you probably shouldn\u2019t buy them.\u201d Really? A gentle suggestion was made that we check out the sister store across the street while we considered our purchase. Across the street, the salesperson was equally helpful.<\/p>\n
In the end, we bought something at both stores.<\/p>\n
This is the way great customer service works.<\/p>\n
Alas, when we have to do business online or by phone, the experience is not always so pleasant.<\/p>\n
In an attempt to save labor costs, corporations have automated most of their online and phone services. We are encouraged to have \u201clive\u201d chats or robotic chats (which can be equally ineffectual) and to peruse endless FAQs for the answers to our questions (has anyone ever found an answer in those lists?). We are given menus of choices that don\u2019t include anything remotely resembling our request or problem.<\/p>\n
We are told inane things on recordings, like the frequent imperative, \u201cIf this is an emergency, hang up and dial 911\u201d by medical providers\u2019 office lines, and the unnerving, \u201cApproval is not a guarantee of payment\u201d from insurance companies.<\/p>\n
Everyone has experienced the special hell of waiting interminably on hold while advertisements exhort the listener to buy more, bigger, better \u2013 and to go to the company\u2019s website for faster service.<\/p>\n
Listen, folks. If we could get help on the website, we would gladly do so. Some problems can only be solved by a human being.<\/p>\n
These systems seem to be designed by people who have no respect for the customers they are supposed to be serving and haven\u2019t bothered to beta-test their systems.<\/p>\n
And yet there remain a few companies that have managed to continue offering great online and telephone customer service and retailers of the ilk of our local Brown Shoe Fit.<\/p>\n
We vote with our money and our words. Let companies that exhibit really bad customer service know by giving them thumbs-down on review sites. Reward good customer service similarly; write very specific positive reviews.<\/p>\n
Does it make any difference? Who knows? But it sure feels good.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s the perfect pastime while we wait on herd immunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
kind is literally remarkable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48886"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}