The Resident: Customer Service Sucks

I almost don’t have to write anything else after that title of this social responsibility video, because it pretty much says it all, right? But really: customer service is a casualty of corporate conglomeration over here in the culture of the US of A. The bigger companies get, the less personally connected its employees are to their work, and the more they end up not caring. When you own your own little grassroots store or service, you want to make sure your customers are happy. It’s your reputation that’s on the line. If your customer gets angry and leaves your business, you personally feel the consequences. So you end up CARING. And you end up giving good customer service. When you work for an arm of a huge company that owns 17 companies, and you don’t even know the name of the company’s president, and you don’t even care about the company’s product or service, you end up NOT caring. A customer comes to your counter or calls your 800 number, and they’re railing about their dissatisfaction, but it goes against some stupid policy that you have no control over, you just don’t care. You can’t help them, they’re angry at you, but you feel like you aren’t responsible. And if the customer walks away, you aren’t held responsible, and you don’t feel the repercussion, because you still have a job and a paycheck. To top it all off, companies now outsource customer service to places half way around the globe. How are those people possibly going to care? That’s why customer service in our culture sucks nowadays. People are too disconnected from and un-invested in their jobs. And that makes me mad. So who do you think I should call to complain about THAT? See that question? It’s ironic. I hear ironic humor is all the rage for online shows. I thought I’d give it a stab. Now you! Give me YOUR social responsibility commentary!