🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7n3hs1$uk$1@nntp9.atl.mindspring.net>,
Mike Makarov <mike@makarov.net> wrote:
>How can anyone complain about lousy customer service from stores that cut
>prices to the point that no independent business person can stay in
>business.   Hmm, maybe it's because they pay nothing to the workers, and
>only hire half the required workers needed to properly run a large store.
>The reason you get lousy customer service is because you are NOT PAYING FOR
>IT.
>
>When you want to buy a bicycle or a fishing license, go to a sporting goods
>store or a bike store or a local bait shop.  Sure you will pay more for
>stuff there, but you will most likely get better and prompt service.
>
>The moral of the story is, don't expect something for nothing.  When a large
>company comes in and sells products so cheaply that it drives out all other
>related businesses in the area, something has got to give.

You're right --- sort of. 

People EXPECT good service, period, as part of anything they must obtain
from someone else. In the 80's, low prices and warehouse style stores came
into vogue, and people went nuts. However, the pendulum is swinging the
other way. People are demanding good prices AND good service -- and slowly
weeding out who can and cannot provide that. We won't see the results of
this for another 10 years, as the "movement" slowly grows.  

The real lack here is not in the hired frontline staff -- it's in the
middle management.  A company who skimps on middle management is going to
have poor customer service.  That manager will have to guide and develop
the staff they hire for low wage jobs so they can provide customer
service. They don't come born with it, and most of them aren't going to
take it upon themselves to learn those very real skills on their own.  

I can pick out many situations where there are excellent people in low
paying jobs who enjoy their jobs, are very good at their jobs -- and have
an able, resourceful manager above them.  

I don't fault the old lady running the checkout at K-Mart -- I blame her
manager. It's her manager's responsibility to schedule appropriate staff
so customers won't be pissed, and be abusing the staff that IS there. It's
her manager's responsibility to help her and the other staff deal with
stress when things don't go smoothly (it happens to all of us SOMETIME),
and it's her manager's fault for not getting someone more competant for
the position, regardless of what that position is, if she really can't cut
the mustard.  

Customer service does not come naturally. Nor does it come cheaply. As
time wears on and the pendulum continues to swing back, more and more
companies will have to learn to accept this, or die due to their
ignorance.

Amy


-- 
alyoung@bluemarble.net                   http://www.bluemarble.net/~alyoung
                        Speaking only for myself.