Customer Service: (noun) the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services.
I start this article with a
definition for those of you that don’t know what customer service is. It seems
to me that the whole concept of customer service is being lost in society.
I recently had a chat with
someone about just this very same thing and she told me she used to take her
mother shopping at Flora Hatch. Her mother would sit in the changing room and
tell the sales person what they were looking for, “a red dress for Saturday
night” or “Something comfortable for the summer.” The clerk would go and select
a few things matching what she wanted and would bring them to her to try on.
Try that at a discount department store! You would be lucky to even find an
“associate”.
She also complained about trying
to shop at a local “Big Box” store. She said she had to chase down a clerk who told
her “That’s not my department.” When she finally found the right person, it
seemed to her that she had as much knowledge about the products as they did.
A few times I needed work done
on my home. My house roof was leaking so I called several local roofing
companies. I like to try and spend my money locally in Lockport. Over half of
them didn’t bother to return my call. Apparently
the owners were wealthy enough that they didn’t have to work anymore. I ended
up with a roofer out of Buffalo.
When I wanted to put an addition
on my house, I called many of the people in the Lockport phone book (Yes there
are still a few of us that use a phone book). Most of the people I called
didn’t give me the courtesy of a response. I ended up getting a contractor from
Lancaster.
I needed a piece of siding
replaced on the back of my house Two guys showed up and looked at what I needed
and said they would get back to me. I never heard from them again. Despite my
best efforts to hire someone locally, I ended up calling my guy to get the job done right.
The garage wiring shorted out
and we had no power in it including to the garage door opener. Back to the
phone book. Out of the eight people I called, three responded, two who said they
would try to send someone out in the next couple of weeks to “look at” the job.
I finally found a local company to do the job.
I wanted two doors and storm
doors replaced on my house. Out of all the people I called, including some that
advertise on television, just a few got back to me saying that the job was too
small for them. I guess my money wasn’t green enough for them.
A recent Saturday I needed an
emergency electrical repair. My heat was out. I pulled out the phone book once
again started dialing. I started those that had ads saying they had 24/7
emergency service. I left messages on several machines and finally called a
place that utilized an answering service. I explained my situation and the
person on the other end of the line was very empathetic and said they would
call the “technician" and get back to me within a half an hour.
Two hours later I called them
back and asked what was up. She said that they were still trying to get ahold
of the technician and they would call me back in a half an hour. I was starting
to think this was their stock answer. I called my daughter and, she lined up an
electrician out of Elma. After two days of freezing at night and finally getting the
problem repaired, the 24/7 people started returning my calls.
I take a prescription I can only get out of
state. I called them up because I was running low and they told me I needed a
new script. So I called my doctor to have one sent to them. Finally a whole day
later and one day closer to running out, I called the out of state pharmacy and
they said they had received the script. They then asked I wanted to have this
filled. Well no…. I was just calling to see what the weather was where they
were located.
So I finally got the
prescription filled, or so I thought. A few hours later they called back to
inform me that the delivery date had been moved back by a day. I’m even closer
to reaching the bottom of my pill bottle. Two hours after that, a different
person called me to see if I wanted to schedule a delivery of my drugs. I
calmly explained that delivery was already scheduled so they checked their
computer and told me I was right. I told them to have a nice day and hung up.
Then at 8:30 that night someone else called and we went around this one more
time. When they asked if I had any questions, I was tempted to ask why they
were so inept.
