Is customer service dead?

It happens more often than not anymore. You pick up the phone to call a business. Almost any business. There’s a flat monotone on the other end.

“Who? He’s not here.”

“Well, do you expect him back today.”

“I don’t know.”

“Can I leave a message?

“What is it?”

“Well, can I have his voice mail?”

“I suppose.”

We laugh sometimes at the Eagleland Businessplex about the opposite – the bright voice proclaiming that “It’s a great day at Willie’s Widget World.”

But with the death of customer service apparently at hand, those bright voices become less funny. And fewer.

I give it six months until “What do you want?” becomes the standard receptionist’s line in Wichita.

6 Comments

  1. bth
    Posted September 16, 2009 at 10:16 am | Permalink

    This is being made worse by ill-advised ‘improvements’ and ‘quality control’ in customer service that relies too much on scripts. “I’ll be happy to help you with that” and “Thank you for calling” all delivered in a dead monotone accomplish nothing. Free the reps to do their job using their own words and phrases and they will do a better job.

  2. WichitaWordsmith
    Posted September 16, 2009 at 4:17 pm | Permalink

    bth… couldn’t agree more. Companies think they can fix it with the McDonald’s approach… One polite greeting, four canned sentences, and a fake smile all on a sesame seed bun.

    It just ain’t so!

    I fear that customer service is on life support.

  3. ColtDucksnort
    Posted September 19, 2009 at 6:26 pm | Permalink

    With the poor attitude of the general public I do not customer service reps. for being surly with callers.

    People are nuts.

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