How much longer can companies get away with HORRIBLE customer service?

Question

In my opinion, customer service in the United States has gotten much worse during the past decade - and is continuing to spiral downward.

Companies are not devoting the time and money necessary to train their employees to provide quality customer service, and in many cases, are not offering any customer service at all.

Until poor customer service begins to cut into an organization's profit, however, a company isn't likely to improve its level of customer service.

How bad can customer service get before consumers demand better customer service (or they refuse to purchase a high quality product, for example)?

Just a question to generate some discussion. Thanks all! :)

Answer 1

well, I think it's actually customers that are horrible! I just got out of 5 years of customer service, and i don't know why i ever started. My GOD am i good at it though; i listen to their complaints, i empathize, i smile, i do my 100% to solve their problem, and are they any bit appreciative? NO!

And then of course they may come in just screaming at me, for something that is well out of my juristiction, or even the company's for that matter.

ooh, the worst is when they isist on yelling at you even after you have gone out of your way to solve their problem, after you've offered them every source of reimbursment, after giving them your BLOOD, they will still yell at you.

you're the slime of the earth if you work in customer service. to the world, you are slime. you are the punching bag open for public abuse. Every day you come home feeling lower than dirt, exhausted from the 8 hour shift with 5 hours of over time of nothing but getting your **** chewed out by complete strangers.

You think customer service has gotten worse? or do you think the customers have gotten worse?----it may be a great mixture of both, but i'll let you know, it's the customer that has created terrible customer service.

But non-the-less, with my experience in the worst field of work in the world, i am now the best customer any one will ever have!

Answer 2

if you don't tell management of that company about it, nothing will change - complaining here won't improve things any

Answer 3

I just want them to speak understandable English

Answer 4

I don't think it's a matter of how bad it can get...only how many people are still willing to make the trade off of bad service for cheap consumer goods. Judging by how big Wal-Mart has gotten, I'd say it's going to stick around awhile.

Answer 5

Companies can get away with poor customer service as long as we keep buying the goods and services from companies who don't care about the consumer after those goods or services have been purchased.  I think the trend toward selling the goods without providing customer service started during the late 80's when companies started outsourcing human resources and suppliers overseas.  They only cared about providing consumers cheap goods and didn't want to provide service or support after the purchase because it ate into their profits.  The internet is starting to make companies realize the power the consumer has with blogs that describe bad experiences, bad products and worthless service.  But, more has to be done for companies to make customer service a priority.  I simply stopped shopping and spending my almighty dollar with companies and corporations who don't care enough about their product or service to provide support after the sale.  If everyone started to do this, they would get the message.