For thousands of Canadians, bad service is neither make-believe nor amusing. It is an aggravating and worsening real-life phenomenon that encompasses behavior ranging from indifference and rudeness to naked hostility and even physical violence. Across the country, better business bureaus report a lengthening litany of complaints about contractors, car dealers, and repair shops, moving companies, airlines and department stores. There is almost an adversarial feeling between businesses and consumers.
Experts say there are several explanations for ill feeling in the marketplace. One is that customer service was an early and inevitable casualty when retailers responded to brutal competition by replacing employees with technology such as 1～800 numbers and voice mail. Another factor is that business generally has begun placing more emphasis on getting customers than on keeping them. Still another is that strident, frustrated and impatient shoppers vex shop owners and make them even less hospitable—especially at busier times of the year like Christmas. On both sides, simple courtesy has gone by the board. And for a multitude of consumers, service went with it.
The Better Business Bureau at Vancouver gets 250 complaints a week, twice as many as five years ago. The bureau then had one complaints counselor and now has four. People complain about being insulted, having their intelligence and integrity questioned, and being threatened. One will hear about people being hauled almost bodily out the door by somebody saying things like “I don't have to serve you!”or “This is private property, get out and don't come back! ” What can customers do? If the bureau's arbitration process fails to settle a dispute, a customer's only recourse is to sue in claims court. But because of the costs and time it takes, relatively few ever do.
There is a lot of support for the notion that service has, in part, fallen victim to generational change. Many young people regard retailing as just a bead-end job that you're just going to do temporarily on your way to a real job. Young clerks often lack both knowledge and civility. Employers have to train young people in simple manners because that is not being done at home. Salespeople today, especially the younger ones, have grown up in a television-computer society where they've interacted largely with machines. One of the biggest complaints from businesses about graduates is the lack of inter-personal skills.
