Customer Service

Here's a scenerio for ya:

You walk into a fast food restaurant and the cashier greets you with a big smile. He or she seems happy to be at work, and gladly takes your order. If you are not sure what you want to order, the cashier is patient and polite and tells you to take your time until you know what you want. Finally, the worker apologizes for any wait and genuinely thanks you as your order is handed to you.

This kind of scenario seems to be impossible to come by these days, doesn’t it?

Owners, are you listening? Customer service stinks.

Fast-food workers seem to be the worse offenders. I become infuriated every time I go to a certain restaurant in Monticello. When I use the drive-through, someone takes my order and then barks out the cost and tells me to drive around. They don't let go of the speaker button, so I then hear (half way) what they are saying to their co workers. I say, Excuse me, I can't hear you, only to be told I WAS NOT TALKING TO YOU!!When I get my food, I am never told thank you. Never. The person who hands me my food usually has a sour look on her face, a look that says, “I hate my job.”

Sure, there are many reasons for fast-food workers to dislike their jobs: The pay is probably pretty low. Customers can be obnoxious and rude. And it’s not exactly uplifting to know that you flip burgers for a living. But, I worked a low paying, dead end job as a cashier for a couple years at a well known grocery chain. I LOVED my job. It was like a little family there. Did I make much? Nope, but it was a fun job. If a customer was a pain, you at least had the good feeling of knowing they'd soon be gone.

Is it so hard to say please and thank you? Or to smile? I just don't get it.

To be fair, customer service is not bad everywhere. (I happen to love the ladies at Huddle House, and I have several favs at Sonic) There are times when you come across a polite fast-food worker or a polite cashier at Wal-Mart. But those experiences seem to be few and far between. I will also say, after a TERRIBLE experience at Pizza Hut, that same waitress/employee is now extremely nice every time I see her.

It seems bad customer service has infected almost every industry. Grumpy workers are not just isolated to public service and drive-through windows. They are sometimes the receptionists charged with answering the phones, usually the first person the public comes in contact with when dealing with a business. (My friend that works in medical equipment sales deals with this a lot...)

Is there a way for the public to bring about excellent customer service? Maybe. Maybe not. Whether anyone believes it or not, I honestly do say please and thanks to people that wait on me. It still seems hard to find anyone that will smile back at you.

Maybe we need to “vote with our feet,” as I saw in RedBook the other day. When customer service is bad, we should tell the manager on duty, and if that doesn't work, we should call the higher ups. I have a friend that called in about a fast food place here in Monticello last week.... She was told it was going to be kept confidential. It wasn't.... Things like that discourage customers from standing up for themselves, I think.

We should not spend money in stores and restaurants where we feel unwanted. I am a firm believer in "shopping locally" but some stores make it hard.

I think I’ve figured out why online shopping has become so huge: No rude cashiers to deal with.