Customer Relations Need Reform

Gone are the days when the customer was right, gone are the days when a company wanted your business, and here are the days that the customer has to work at being considered an asset. This is insane! Where did the free enterprise system mutate into a customer bashing free-for-all? The ideology of customer relations is not the same animal it was fifty or sixty years ago.

Take the tobacco industry for example. By looking at the old advertising, a person sees that the companies worked at becoming friendly toward society and becoming the ’next corporation buddy’. The product was presented as a social aid and form of entertainment or hobby. Presently, the product has health warnings and local restrictions against the use. The tobacco companies are not telling us about how their product is a sign of social conformity and popularity anymore. What they are telling us is that they know the health facts and the consequences of using their product, and thank you for your purchase.

Fast food restaurants, such as McDonalds and Wendy’s, have a history of presenting a clean, family environment and courteously catering to the public. But that is just a façade anymore. For instance, a customer ordered breakfast to go from McDonalds. The customer had to walk back in and tell them that what they gave wasn’t what she ordered. When the cashier handed her the correct order, she told the customer that it was her fault she didn’t get what she asked for. The cashier’s reasoning? The hearing impaired customer should have corrected her when she first handed it to her and said “two Mcmuffins“ instead of Mcbiscuits.

At Taco Bell in Gallipolis, a woman ordered a Chalupa and handed the cashier two dollars. The cashier said it cost $2.09. The woman asked why when it only cost $1.49 on the board. He said because their was tax when eating inside. When the woman said it was to go, the cashier smiled and said it was still going to cost her $2.09. That woman snatched her money back out of his hand and said she didn’t want it then.