Remember when “the customer was always right”? Remember when service workers were happy to have a job and so they worked hard? Remember when tips were left for exceptional service? If you are under 25, you probably don’t. Customer Service doesn’t seem to exist anymore. When was the last time that you called the cable company because you were over charged and they actually apologized for messing up, and not only did they remove the charge, but they took money off your bill for your trouble? These days, you can spend hours and hours waiting to talk to someone. Then when you get a customer service representative, he asks you for every piece of extraneous personal information he can possibly ask for, and then proceed to tell you he can’t help you with whatever your issue is.
Inevitably you will have to wait on hold for several more hours after being transferred. Eventually you may get someone who has the ability to adjust things, but he will first try to tell you why you should be charged for that movie you didn’t watch and then he will try to get you to agree to some larger package that if you had already you wouldn’t have been charged for this particular movie.
And it’s not just utility companies. When was the last time you stayed in a hotel that didn’t have something go wrong? One time, the toilet backed up, and the receptionist actually had the nerve to hand me a plunger. Do you think the next day they credited me for providing my own maintenance services?
Nope, just an explanation that they can’t do anything about it because they don’t have 24 hour maintenance and if we didn’t want to service it ourselves, we could have used the restroom in the lobby.
Don’t get me started on food services. I am beyond fed up with wait staff who think they are doing you a favor. I can eat better food and drink higher quality drinks at home. I go to a restaurant to be provided service.
I pay a huge markup on food and drinks so that someone else can wait on me, not because they somehow offer something I can’t get at the local store for a third of the cost. And tips are meant to reward someone for an exceptional job. Why should I be expected to leave a tip when the staff was rude, the food was cold, and I never got a refill?
If you work in service, as many college students do, or if you manage in some service related industry, think of this: if a waitress brings me a free drink, not only will I come back and ask for her again, but I will tip her based on the amount of the bill plus the free drink because she provided the service for the drink, and I will tack on to my tip the cost of the drink.
If great service continues, I become a regular because I value great service. If a hotel clerk comps a room because it was noisy the night before, I will return faithfully to that particular hotel any time I’m in the area.
It’s even likely that I will try the nicer room the next time, because if they are good to the regular customers, the high end customers must get great service.
Even $20 off your next visit will instill a little faith that my business matters. If the cable company doesn’t waste my time, I will remain a regularly paying customer indefinitely and won’t be swayed by the next satellite ad.
Thankfully there are a few gems still out there. My recommendations for the mere struggling college student looking for a nice night out include a waitress named Beverly at Red Lobster on Montgomery Road and Irene at Rincon Mexicano out at Eastgate.
If anyone else has any gems to share, please let me know!