Death of Customer Service

Great customer service died a slow death during the past twenty years. It died due to neglect, greed, selfishness, and rude behavior by companies, service agents, and ---customers!

Most of the killing blows were administered thoughtlessly.

Is our current spate of self-obsession leading us to ignore common sense and courtesy? Will “Thank you!” eventually become as dated as “Fortnight” in American conversations? Are we really becoming “ugly Americans?” Has it really become more important to us to manage our careers rather than managing our responsibilities?

A college friend (we graduated together in 1980) and I met for lunch and became engrossed in the subject of customer service. She teaches at a large east coast university and had just completed a consulting project for an e-commerce company. I was consulting with a long distance telephone company, helping them correct some sub-standard customer service measurements. My friend and I had a lot to talk about.

My friend postulated that customer service started to decline with the rise of “me-first” attitudes in the 1980s. As proof, she offered, “people, today, are comfortable with saying ‘No problem’ rather than ‘You’re welcome’ after a nice comment or a service is performed for them. ‘No problem’ has a personal root. It really means ‘No problem for me !’ It means ‘ I did it because it did not cause me a problem.’ That is much different from ‘You’re welcome.’ ‘You’re welcome’ is directed away from the personal. It means you are welcome to my service (or kind words) to you . ‘No problem’ means ‘ I served you because it did not interfere with me. ’ In my opinion, the difference between those common statement clearly shows what has happened to customer service.” She continued, “a while ago, customer service people prided themselves on leaving their customers with a satisfied feeling about their company, products, or services. Today, customer service people seem to only want to leave their customers so they (the service person) are not associated with the exchange. In other words, the exchange could not cause a problem for them. ” I respectfully disagreed with her fundamental premise, but agreed that customer service has changed – and for the worse! I responded, “I don’t think that the change has as much to do with egoism as it does with an apparent breakdown in respect. To me, it seems that service people don’t show the respect they should - respect for and to their customers. For example, it has become popular to address customers by their first names. That ignores all market research on the matter. Market research tells us that people like to be addressed as “Mister”, Missus” or Miz”- not as “Joe” or Nancy.”

And, I added, customer service people think little of completing their responsibilities, or imposing directions on their customers. How often have they taken or accepted ineffective measures, just to ‘get rid’ of a customer problem? Statements like “You have to” and “Get this” are common, and very irritating to customers who may have already done what the customer service person is demanding. The very worst new habit is “Shut up!” That gem was used by one of my observed agents after the customer stated an astonishing fact to the agent. The agent did not really intend the remark as an insult, but as an astonished reaction as, perhaps, “ Really !?” But the customer reacted angrily, and discontinued the call. It was a staring example of a new-age exclamation creating a real problem for an older customer.

Connecting People Technology and Ideas Thu Sep 11 21:31:09 CDT 2003

Wisconsin Technology Network


Death of Customer Service

By Dennis Parker, Guest Columnist

Great customer service died a slow death during the past twenty years. It died due to neglect, greed, selfishness, and rude behavior by companies, service agents, and ---customers!

Most of the killing blows were administered thoughtlessly.

Is our current spate of self-obsession leading us to ignore common sense and courtesy? Will “Thank you!” eventually become as dated as “Fortnight” in American conversations? Are we really becoming “ugly Americans?” Has it really become more important to us to manage our careers rather than managing our responsibilities?

A college friend (we graduated together in 1980) and I met for lunch and became engrossed in the subject of customer service. She teaches at a large east coast university and had just completed a consulting project for an e-commerce company. I was consulting with a long distance telephone company, helping them correct some sub-standard customer service measurements. My friend and I had a lot to talk about.

My friend postulated that customer service started to decline with the rise of “me-first” attitudes in the 1980s. As proof, she offered, “people, today, are comfortable with saying ‘No problem’ rather than ‘You’re welcome’ after a nice comment or a service is performed for them. ‘No problem’ has a personal root. It really means ‘No problem for me !’ It means ‘ I did it because it did not cause me a problem.’ That is much different from ‘You’re welcome.’ ‘You’re welcome’ is directed away from the personal. It means you are welcome to my service (or kind words) to you . ‘No problem’ means ‘ I served you because it did not interfere with me. ’ In my opinion, the difference between those common statement clearly shows what has happened to customer service.” She continued, “a while ago, customer service people prided themselves on leaving their customers with a satisfied feeling about their company, products, or services. Today, customer service people seem to only want to leave their customers so they (the service person) are not associated with the exchange. In other words, the exchange could not cause a problem for them. ”

I respectfully disagreed with her fundamental premise, but agreed that customer service has changed – and for the worse! I responded, “I don’t think that the change has as much to do with egoism as it does with an apparent breakdown in respect. To me, it seems that service people don’t show the respect they should - respect for and to their customers. For example, it has become popular to address customers by their first names. That ignores all market research on the matter. Market research tells us that people like to be addressed as “Mister”, Missus” or Miz”- not as “Joe” or Nancy.”

And, I added, customer service people think little of completing their responsibilities, or imposing directions on their customers. How often have they taken or accepted ineffective measures, just to ‘get rid’ of a customer problem? Statements like “You have to” and “Get this” are common, and very irritating to customers who may have already done what the customer service person is demanding. The very worst new habit is “Shut up!” That gem was used by one of my observed agents after the customer stated an astonishing fact to the agent. The agent did not really intend the remark as an insult, but as an astonished reaction as, perhaps, “ Really !?” But the customer reacted angrily, and discontinued the call. It was a staring example of a new-age exclamation creating a real problem for an older customer.

My friend and I remain friends, agreeing and disagreeing (as friends often do) about customer service today. We continue our debates by phone calls, and exchange e-mail articles on the subject. We agree that much work remains before customer service returns to its formerly healthy status.


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Dennis Parker is President of Telemedia Resource Group and a contributing columnist for the Wisconsin Technology Network. He welcomes your comments at dparker83@telemediarg.com