Customer Service or Disservice?

Entering the work field as a teenager in the service industry, I was always told that the customer is right, leave your problems at home, or even leave your problems at the door and put a smile on your face. There are not many places that I encounter these virtues anymore.

Customer service has long been thought of as the backbone of a company. The customer service representative is in the frontlines and usually first impressions are drawn about the business from this encounter.

During the training period the employee is usually taught how to approach their job and what the company's expectations are for them. At the very least a manager should be supervising the staff, watching for behavior that is not in the best interest of the company. Repeat business demands that the standards are kept high.

Personally I do not want to deal with sullen or rude behaviors. I can get that by being at home with my own teenagers. I will not patronize a business if the employees are not helpful or I do not find them pleasant to deal with. In no way do I mean to sound pompus; it is just a fact of life for me.

Customer service jobs pay minimal wage or not much higher. For high school students and college students alike, the service industry jobs are easier to come by as they are entry level positions. For most, they will eventually cross over to higher paying positions. I maintain that the lessons they can learn in performing their job well, will serve them in the future.

Who is to blame for the quality of service? Certainly it is a combination of influences beginning with the parents teaching manners, to the person providing the training, to the supervisor who should be helping the employees learn and maintain a level of excellence.

In my travels over the past few weeks, I have really had my eyes opened and wonder if it was just a week with a full moon or do the experiences I had actually reflect what the service industry is becoming.