I was having a conversation with my mother the other day about the lack of customer service we receive as consumers. Do you remember back in the day when you entered a store, the clerks stopped what they were doing and offered to help you. Now many simply ignore you and get indignant if you dare ask them to help find an item. How about when you could pull up at a gas station and have an attendant pump your gas, clean your windows and check your tires – which was helpful if you had on your Sunday best, weren’t feeling very well or the weather was bad.
I remember when customers were valued and treated with the utmost respect. I find it interesting that we are now being conditioned to check ourselves out at grocery stores and big box stores to “help us” expedite our transaction. You mean I’m making a purchase in your store and you can’t be bothered to check me out? And by me completing my transaction solo – I’m really helping you increase your bottom line by not hiring additional employees. What is wrong with this picture? Shouldn’t I receive a discount for saving you the cost of pay to an employee?
How things have changed. If you have a loved one in the hospital, you’d better have someone stay with them 24/7 to ensure they are being treated properly – we can no longer rely upon the overworked/understaffed nurses to do this even with the ridiculous cost we pay for medical care.
One of the sad outcomes of this is that our children will never experience true customer service in our self-service world where we must constantly perform duties employers once paid employees to perform . We are now expected to be proficient in – pumping gas, using check out kiosks at stores, performing quality assurance at pharmacies, conducting medical research, etc. – you get my point.
Why are we expected to shoulder some of the tasks that the seller should provide us? Why should I have to know how to use the scanning machines/cash registers, perform quality assurance for pharmacies, etc.? I have no aspirations of being a cashier or a pharmacy technician. Why must I now pump the (very expensive) gas that I’m purchasing from you the company that is robbing us blind? Why must I sit at the hospital every second with an ill family member/friend to chart their medications and ensure they are being cared for properly when we pay such high insurance premiums?
When you view all of the tasks that we must now perform on an individual basis, this all seems trivial, but if you look at them collectively it seems to me that we as consumers are losing more and more ground everyday.
What are we going to do about it?
