Experience any poorer customer service into retirement? (state, retirees, date)
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Try Costco. The service is almost always exceptional. Visit any successful restaurant. Restaurants have learned to cater to the customer not just provide good food.
Having worked with the general public (as a rental car agent right out of college) the most nasty customers were almost all women over the age of 45 or boomer men.
We had very high pressure to have the best customer service, random customers would receive a call asking if they were : Completely Satisfied, Mostly Satisfied, Somewhat Satisfied, Somewhat Dissatisfied, or Dissatisfied with their "Rental Experience" It was pass fail, with anything besides Completely Satisfied counting as a fail against the agent who actually rented the car, even though it could be something as simple as they didn't like the color of the car or found the website difficult. Sometimes they even gave a less than Completely Satisfied simply because they were POed that they were called.
If that sounds harsh, policies like that are pretty standard.
My late DH and I had the same investment firm for decades. While he was alive they left us alone. After he passed, I got "assigned" an agent who calls me up every so often (I usually don't answer) and wants to meet in person when he is in the area (I decline, we are about 100 miles apart).
I feel a bit condescended to. Said agent started out by trying to get me to move more investments to his company (assuring commissions for him). I declined that as well.
I am always pleasantly surprised when a person providing a product or service does so graciously, knowledgeably and efficiently. I'm no longer surprised when one must go back and correct a mistake or insist on getting the product or service one is paying for. I tip generously when the former occurs - and register my dissatisfaction in response to the latter.
Based on the thread, it appears there are still many people who take pride in doing a job well the first time. That's encouraging! - Perhaps, part of the problem here is the fact we live in a tourist town where service employees are hard to find and repeat business seems less important than getting one's share of new tourists (?) - I don't think it has anything to do with being of retirement age, since a large percentage of both tourists and locals fit that category.
I'm uncertain whether the poor service problem stems from a sense of entitlement, minimum wage ees ($11-$12 per hour!) ... or a lack of training, work ethic or intelligence ... but, it's generally not good. On the other hand, online service (Amazon and other) is great! (Right product shipped in a timely manner and a quick, courteous effort to correct problems). Ironically, good customer service online (with no face to face contact) is probably why so many brick and mortar stores (with face-to-face employees) are losing business.
I am always pleasantly surprised when a person providing a product or service does so graciously, knowledgeably and efficiently. I'm no longer surprised when one must go back and correct a mistake or insist on getting the product or service one is paying for. I tip generously when the former occurs - and register my dissatisfaction in response to the latter.
Based on the thread, it appears there are still many people who take pride in doing a job well the first time. That's encouraging! - Perhaps, part of the problem here is the fact we live in a tourist town where service employees are hard to find and repeat business seems less important than getting one's share of new tourists (?) - I don't think it has anything to do with being of retirement age, since a large percentage of both tourists and locals fit that category.
I'm uncertain whether the poor service problem stems from a sense of entitlement, minimum wage ees ($11-$12 per hour!) ... or a lack of training, work ethic or intelligence ... but, it's generally not good. On the other hand, online service (Amazon and other) is great! (Right product shipped in a timely manner and a quick, courteous effort to correct problems). Ironically, good customer service online (with no face to face contact) is probably why so many brick and mortar stores (with face-to-face employees) are losing business.
I think this problem has not been lost on the smart Brick and Mortar stores. I've noticed (in my area at least) a push towards good customer service. Smiling faces and a can I help you attitude. Even our local Wal-Mart has improved in the last couple of years
I actually think, for the most part, that service has gotten better. Maybe it's because we are getting older and younger people like to help older people, or think we need the help,haha. I always try to be very nice to the staff of any establishment and they respond well to that. It's pretty rare that someone treats me badly, and if they did I would let the management know. It's so easy now to e-mail the owner of a company, or to give a bad Yelp review, that people are reluctant to treat customers poorly. If someone makes a critical remark about a company on Facebook, that company's social media watcher usually contacts you very quickly and tries to make it right.
If you complain about someone not giving good customer service, they will say that you're "shaming" them. The managers these days aren't sympathetic to customer complaints either. They hire cheapest labor they can find and don't care if the workers have attitude problems.
That's why I don't feel sorry for service workers when their jobs become automated. I learned long ago to use self checkout at the grocery store, and make my own food at home instead of dining out. I was tired of dealing with rude or snooty service people.
Last edited by PriscillaVanilla; 11-07-2017 at 11:43 AM..
Overall no, occasionally yes. There is also the issue of ageism and being ignored or treated indifferently, but that occurred back in the day too but we didn't notice because we were the young one's. I will also add that there are a lot of older customers who are NOT very nice to younger folks. It goes BOTH ways.
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