Is Customer Service Undergoing its own Recession?

Many companies conduct many trainings in regards to the importance of quality customer service to a companies survival.Why then when so many companies are going bankrupt in our recent challenging economy is customer service becoming obsolete?

Recently, I received a safety alert for my car. While getting this part replaced I brought up the fact that I was dissapointed that on top of the idea that I may have been driving a car for years that may have had a faulty part; I was even more upset that the paint was pealing off of my car. They agreed that this should not happen so soon as in many ways my car was practically new. They then went to work on my car. An hour later, when I asked what they suggested they told me the guest service manager had gone for the day as they were trying to save money on the payroll. I told them that I might want to buy a new car in the future and this response was not acceptable. The representative then told me that as my car was past its' warranty there was nothing that could be done. I explained to them that as a customer I'd like options not just to be brushed off.

My brother years ago had a similar problem with his car and in the end as they did not want to lose a valuable customer they gave him the paint job. Now let me be clear this is not about me getting something free. This is about the fact that while I was sitting in the magazine-less waiting room as may car got worked on the manager did not walk over to talk to me as a human. Instead he had the next person tell me "nothing we can do".  All I wanted to was to be treated as a person for someone to apologize their car had not held up well and give me a price quote of how much it would be to fix it, especially if it wasn't normal for a cars paint to peel so soon. This left a bitter taste in my mouth and made me wonder how a company could treat their customers like they are worthless when so many people have stopped buying cars due to the economy.

Then, today I went to the mall and again I was dissapointed. I had bought a dress in August for my birthday picnic. When finally arriving at the picnic, a friend of mine asked me if I was trying to start a new fashion. I was a bit confused until she gently told me the security tag was still on my dress. After blushing a few different colors I decided to enjoy the picnic and deal with it later. Now similar to many people in big cities, the nearest big mall to me is about 30 minutes away. I can't just run over to this store during my lunch break, so I usually go a few times a year when I want to do a big shopping. For small shopping I have stores right in my neighborhood. So today, I finally got a chance to go over there. I ask a young girl if she can take the tag off so I can finally get use out of the dress. She tells me I need to go to the customer service line which had 25 people on the line. I tell her I am not waiting and ask for a manager. The manager whom was standing by two other employees talking asks what the problem is. I explain and she tells me do you have the receipt? I explain it was in the bag which I later used to go to the beach the next day where my water bottle opened and spilled. She tells me "sorry not my problem". I told her I purchased a product from you, gave you money, now I want to be able to wear my dress. She calls over her boss. He shakes my hand and looks me in the eye. I tell myself finally someone that cares. I give him the same story and explain I can log into my credit card account to prove I had paid for and purchased a dress there in August. They agreed the dress was obviously a summer dress but that I could have bought another dress and be trying to make believe the one I had in my hands was bought and paid for. I explained that if I had stolen the dress why would I wait four months to get the tag off when the dress was not even in style anymore. The male manager told me that they had thousands of dollars in fraud and could lose his job for removing the tag. In reality if the dress had been stolen by now they would have already lost the revenue. I told him that as the manager his job was to find me a solution or at least options. I was looking for a new years dress and felt that with so many stores closing the least he could do was to be the one to stand up have some courage and go above and beyond for me. Either remove the tag, look through the computer system with my credit card to prove I had purchased the item, or foward my complaint to his boss. He would do none of the above, so I walked out of the store with no intention to ever return there again. I called my credit card company to fight the charge but they said as I had the item that I could not fight the charge. Since when are people so scared of losing their jobs they won't take a chance to succesfully take care of their customer?

Since when are companies training their staff that customer satisfaction is worth nothing and only the bottom dollar matters? There used to be a concept of exceeding expectations and this is what made some comapnies exist for many years looks at Walt Disney World or Ritz Carlton, they were built on the idea that the customer is always right and your most important part of running a business is your responsibility to the consumer. This concept is what has kept them in business through wars, political conflict and economic disaray. What about the idea it takes money to make money? I would probably have spent $200 in that store this year, now I will spend none all over a $20 dress which was not taken care of properly by their employee.

You'ld think that with a bad econonomy companies would want to take the very best care of their customers as in this day and age blink and those people could be gone moved on to a place where they believe their hard earned money deserves to be spent. As we all go through our jobs on a daily basis, let's not lose sight of the big picture. You never know what effect your small act of kindness could have, maybe one day just the act that keeps you employed when others are not.

Dear Readers: What do you think? Do you think that with a slow economy that customer service is disappearing?