Rude Customer Service Symptom of Breakdown of Society
What is going on with customer service in this country?
When I was growing up there was a saying in business circles: “The customer is always right.” When I started working and had (perhaps more than) my share of low-paying customer service jobs, courtesy and professionalism were imperative. We were trained to be polite, to go above and beyond what the customer wanted. Our calls actually were monitored and recorded for performance reviews. People who were rude to customers were actually fired more often than reprimanded. If a customer called and complained about you, you suffered for it even if the customer was lying or actually crazy. There are countless numbers of women out there who’ve held customer service positions and had to deal with creepy, perverted male callers who think any toll free number is a sex hotline. Guess what? The customer service agents still had to be polite. It was a big deal to work at a place where they let you immediately hang up if the caller was obscene.
Nowadays, if you mention the old “customer is always right” blag you’d better have your earplugs and a backup account at a different company that you can use. Many people refuse to even deal with customer service people anymore. They put everything in writing or just immediately close their accounts. Most of us at this point are just praying there will never be a problem every time we do business with anyone.
So, what is happening to our country that people take a job they obviously don’t care about and yet they don’t get fired for angering and abusing customers? Damaging business relationships used to be a big deal. Is every business so well off now that they can afford not to give a damn? They may think so but I doubt it.
Many people lament the outsourcing of such jobs to other countries and complain about calling customer service only to find that the representative doesn’t speak English that well. I think it matters a bit more what they’re trying to say to you in the first place.
Obviously, the bulk of the problem lies on the employer side. It’s true that customer service is a draining job and most workers shouldn’t attempt to do it for more than a few months at a time. However, considering how hard it is to get hired anywhere in the first place anymore and how lengthy the application process is for the lowliest of jobs, companies should be finding more reliable employees. Isn’t that supposedly the reason job seekers must jump through so many hoops, to give the company ample opportunity to weed them out and ensure the new hire is “a good fit”? Personally, I blame the “human resources” industry for hindering companies’ ability to effectively screen candidates but that’s a column for another day.
Companies should also responsibly supervise their employees and care about customer satisfaction. People who are rude to customers should quickly become former employees not supervisors.
Though customer service jobs don’t pay well, it is always well above minimum wage so that shouldn’t be the problem. In fact, most people are required to be vastly overqualified for this sort of job – and that, friends, is the core problem.
Most intelligent kids can answer a phone and take a message. They could read a script if you gave them one. They can type. If they’re polite and friendly, there’s nothing to disqualify them from doing this sort of job very well. Requiring people to go to college first or have several years of work experience is perhaps taking the biscuit. Why would anyone with a college education want this sort of job? Or any of the sorts of dead end jobs they’re finding themselves trapped in these days? (‘Administrative’ jobs, that is. ‘Administrative’ is 1990’s-speak for secretarial or clerical work.)
Answer: they don’t want these jobs but they do have to eat. Resentment and boredom builds up in our best and brightest every day as they languish in clerical jobs for less money per year than it takes to live and keep up with the payments on their student loans. Dreams are dying, lives are wasting away, and excellence in service is going down the drain with them.
Why does this happen? Contempt for liberal arts majors in the business world is one huge factor. The undervaluation of the undergraduate degree is another. In just one generation, earning a college degree became de riguer. Employers who have this attitude towards education are directly contributing to the breakdown of society. The rude customer service agent is just a symptom. A sad and really infuriating symptom.
Until we see some real changes in this country in the way that people are hired and the ways they are treated in the workforce – not to mention some growth in real industries and not just service sector jobs – I’m afraid we’re going to have to continue to put up with the temper tantrums on the customer service lines. The solution isn’t for customers to be nicer and more patient or for companies to look the other way when an employee behaves abominably. It’s for companies to sit up and notice when they’ve got an intelligent, educated person’s resume in hand; when they have bright, talented people on the lowest levels of their staff, underutilized and underpaid; when they’ve got knuckleheads in “human resources” including ‘college degree’ and other extravagances as requirements for low-level work.
(Of course, until that time, anyone who finds themselves in this position – frustrated and screaming like a banshee or hanging up on paying customers – would do well to master themselves or be bold enough to quit and find another job. Either choice will do.)
If this country is going to continue to throw it’s intelligent, educated workers on the dung heap, perhaps one day soon other up-and-coming countries will start hiring Americans en masse. In the internet age the world is indeed becoming smaller, but it would still be nice to find a decent job at home, wouldn’t it? Think about it and have a nice day.
