Customer service

[hairstudent]

I am getting really annoyed with a few companies that supply me (or i want them to start supplying me) their customer service is shocking, never returning calls, one person says one thing then rings back a week later saying oh no the information was wrong... It's driving me mad, what has happened to customer service now a days? Without a customers a business is non- existent, so why aren't we valued?

 

[Tomme]

I am getting really annoyed with a few companies that supply me (or i want them to start supplying me) their customer service is shocking, never returning calls, one person says one thing then rings back a week later saying oh no the information was wrong... It's driving me mad, what has happened to customer service now a days? Without a customers a business is non- existent, so why aren't we valued?

I think it's today's cultures that reduce customer service. I had been in retail for a long time and noticed everywhere I started customer service was low. It's a mixture of customers expecting you to be everything and know everything as well as more and more people finding it hard to find the money needed.
Iv always expected high standards off my teams, but even I have had a few complaints that my customer service was poor (the letters sent in about how good I was way out balanced it all, which is rare as people only seem to speak when things are bad so I must have had good service to get praise). All of this and how head office's expect you to pull people in off the street to spend money they haven't got then complain when targets are set ridiculously high and aren't met end up getting teams down.
Managers get stressed because their superiors are breathing down their neck and then the team gets stressed. A big circle, which, no matter how nice the managers are still results in the stress. To try and combat it an lift my teams I would thank them at the end of each day for the wonderful job they done, and now and again as a treat I would go get platters of sandwiches for their lunch out of my own pocket.

Training is also a big part. Many staff now are just thrown in with basic training and education on the product they are selling. One place I was at had bronze, silver and gold tests (bronze to be completed in the first 3 months which was a good basic knowledge of what we sold and its manufacturing process, silver as above but in more depth and a basic knowledge of the materials used, the source of the materials and to be completed within the first year then gold was as above but in depth, a knowledge of the ingredients that were used to make the components which made the final product, the source of where the product was made, the wage the manufacturers got per item, full understanding of the foot and the way it worked with the shoes and a full history of the company and being able to name all 362 stores *362 at the time I left* to be completed in the first 2 years ) not many places will have you learn all that to be a sales assistant on minimum wage xoxo