A blog about finding God's way on the journey with our children, our family, our jobs and our community.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

"There You Go" is NOT Good Customer Service

While a generation ago you would have heard sentiments like "Thank you for shopping with us" or "Have a great day, ma'am" while checking out at your neighborhood grocery store, has anyone noticed the 'new' catch phrase in customer service is "There you go?" Really?

Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking. Prissy little middle-aged lady just being a primadonna. But truly, our country has buried the lost-art of practicing real customer service along with reading a hardback book or having conversation around the dinner table.

Let's be honest. We are raising a generation of people who just don't get it. They don't know how important that job is to their future. They don't understand that in 10 years, if things keep in this downward spiral of accepting poor customer service, we won't have any expectations left at all.

You would think in this time of a slowing economy that retail outlets and service providers would be on high alert for excellence in service. Why? Because every dime that people spend today must be measured in importance. People have an array of choices of where they can spend that precious, calculated money. And, if people do not get excellent customer service, they will go somewhere until they find it. Oh, I wish!

And while I'm up here (on my soapbox, that is) allow me to pontificate about how no one under the age of 20 can count change back without that computerized register telling them how much to give back to the customer. Test this theory; give a $20 to any young person, "buy" something for $12.71 and ask them to count the change back to you. It's nearly impossible to find one who can actually do it correctly without having to start over numerous times if at all.

Retailers of America, wake up and smell the coffee. Let's stop the insanity that is going around today. Making Kroger bigger with more self check-out lanes is NOT good customer service. Start small and less expensive. Just teach an orientation class on practicing the art of good customer service. Start with "Thank you for your business" and "Please come back." My guess is that little step will reap the rewards in customer loyalty much more than shiny new computers and more self-check out registers.

After all, we already have to buy them, unload them at the register, roll them to our car and then put them up when we get home. THANK US properly when we are there spending our hard-earned dollars and it just might make us leave feeling a little better about the 28% hike in the cost of
groceries in the last year alone.

1 comment:

Bejeweled Barbie said...

You are spot on. I put a link to this on my blog. And, I am so tired of standing by a counter while someone talks on the phone, cell or otherwise.

My biggest peeve is the stores who have incorrect signage up, yet try to argue with you at the register over the price.

We were taught at KMart many years ago to "take" a customer to the item they were searching for, not point and grunt. Even on break, we were required to do this.

I will get off my soap box now.!

Glad you are blogging again!