Degradation In Customer Service

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I read a couple of forums provided by companies I deal with. They are often loaded with complaints of customer service and company ethics. Most complain that things have gone downhill faster in the last 5-10 years.

Got me to thinking. I can't name a single company where service has gotten better in that time. The bean counters have taken over and literally don['t even consider the customer. Every instance of their thought process is about the stock value and how the books look to potential acquisition teams.

What I don't understand is how the stock value stays up with such high customer dissatisfaction.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I read a couple of forums provided by companies I deal with. They are often loaded with complaints of customer service and company ethics. Most complain that things have gone downhill faster in the last 5-10 years.

Got me to thinking. I can't name a single company where service has gotten better in that time. The bean counters have taken over and literally don['t even consider the customer. Every instance of their thought process is about the stock value and how the books look to potential acquisition teams.

What I don't understand is how the stock value stays up with such high customer dissatisfaction.

As long as customers buy your shit, you make money and the stock stays up. If every company is equally shitty, or your prices are lower, most customers will complain but not actually take their business elsewhere.

 

[Brainonska511]

As long as customers buy your shit, you make money and the stock stays up. If every company is equally shitty, or your prices are lower, most customers will complain but not actually take their business elsewhere.

And if you can corner the market, you can be shitty and charge high prices.

 

[rh71]

It's a big cycle. In order for companies to report good profits quarter after quarter, they have to reduce costs. That can involve things surrounding their customer-facing support departments including down-sizing. Many will spend the absolute minimum it takes to keep their model afloat, especially the publicly-traded companies since so much hinges on reported revenue/profits.

Prior to this company I worked for another public company and even when they were in the green, they still failed to "meet expectations" and the cloud was always over our heads. I think it was well over 10 years of constant workforce cuts including team members before it finally affected me.

 

[Captante]

Amazon seems to be about the same as they have always been CS quality wise however they are the exception.

I agree that overall in American companies its taken a big hit.

 

[JM Aggie08]

American Express is still fantastic. Been with them for 12 years.

 

[ultimatebob]

I think that Covid helped to make customer service even worse than it already was.

Many help desks are now short staffed. The main reason seems to be that people could make more on unemployment than they could making (roughly) $14 a hour at an entry level help desk job. Those enhanced unemployment benefits are running out, but it's going to take awhile to retrain staff who actually know the products they're supporting. Also, if they found a good side hustle (like reselling stuff on amazon) while they were unemployed, they might not be coming back at all.

Also, I can't help but think that it was easier to keep your help desk staff focused when they were all in an office. Now that many of them are working from home, they're probably binge watching Netflix and Hulu in-between service calls.

 

[sdifox]

I think that Covid helped to make customer service even worse than it already was.

Many help desks are now short staffed. The main reason seems to be that people could make more on unemployment than they could making (roughly) $14 a hour at an entry level help desk job. Those enhanced unemployment benefits are running out, but it's going to take awhile to retrain staff who actually know the products they're supporting. Also, if they found a good side hustle (like reselling stuff on amazon) while they were unemployed, they might not be coming back at all.

Also, I can't help but think that it was easier to keep your help desk staff focused when they were all in an office. Now that many of them are working from home, they're probably binge watching Netflix and Hulu in-between service calls.

LoL most tech support has been outsourced to India, including Amazon.

 

[ultimatebob]

LoL most tech support has been outsourced to India, including Amazon.

Not all of it, though. A lot of companies got push-back from customers who couldn't understand the technicians they were talking to, so they moved at least some of that support back to the US.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

^^ And the Caribbean, though I don't know which island. My home telephone company uses something there and they are VERY difficult to understand and deal with.

 

[sdifox]

Not all of it, though. A lot of companies got push-back from customers who couldn't understand the technicians they were talking to, so they moved at least some of that support back to the US.

But the Indians have upgraded their English as well.

 

[Captante]

LoL most tech support has been outsourced to India, including Amazon.

Wherever their support is based they seem to function over chat in English just fine. Further the few problems I've had with Amazon over the years have ALL been taken care of promptly & politely. (and usually with an apology gift-card!)

Never actually needed any "tech" support from Amazon really though.

 

[sdifox]

Wherever their support is based they seem to function over chat in English just fine. Further the few problems I've had with Amazon over the years have ALL been taken care of promptly & politely. (and usually with an apology gift-card!)

I recognise Indian names xd. I deal with offshore resourses daily for work as well.

 

[Captante]

I recognise Indian names xd. I deal with offshore resourses daily for work as well.

I seem to run into a lot of "Bob's" and "Jim's" myself !!

 

[manly]

Besides corporate profitability, the old mantra that "the customer is always right" just doesn't exist anymore. You can say it doesn't exist because of profit chasing. There's also the related effect of Walmart-ification. Large corps chase profits but competition and the Internet have also led to lower prices and more informed consumers. If they can't charge us more, they have to pad their bottom line in other ways.

Wherever their support is based they seem to function over chat in English just fine. Further the few problems I've had with Amazon over the years have ALL been taken care of promptly & politely. (and usually with an apology gift-card!)

I don't work for Amazon, but I think we can see two things happening here. A) they are very focused on customer service and train their staff accordingly; and actually spend on service even if it trims net profits. B) I'm pretty sure they are hiring the best talent they can get in India, as opposed to other corps. Perhaps they pay a little more for their support reps, but as a consumer, we notice and appreciate that. But most corps don't have Amazon's cash flow, and can't really afford to do this without raising prices.

 

[ultimatebob]

I seem to run into a lot of "Bob's" and "Jim's" myself !!

Dude... whatever happened to Foamy The Squirrel? I used to love those web comics.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

There are 2.8 Million Contact Center employees in the US. Its not necessarily a culture or language barrier.

I manage a Contact Center for a credit union.

People have either A) Gone Crazy , B) Have outrageous expectations when it comes to having their issues resolved, or C) We do not have the funds or will at a corporate level to spend the money to get us the tech to accommodate the reasonable but undoable requests.

Not every Contact Center is some 500 person warehouse out in the Philippines or India or something.

 

[VirtualLarry]

And if you can corner the market, you can be shitty and charge high prices.

Ask Intel, and to a lesser extent, NVidia. Those two wrote the book on that. And oh yeah, Comcast.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

People have either A) Gone Crazy , B) Have outrageous expectations when it comes to having their issues resolved, or C) We do not have the funds or will at a corporate level to spend the money to get us the tech to accommodate the reasonable but undoable requests.

What REALLY torques me (and a lot of other people) is the obsession Tech/IT people have with mobile. I don't care if 95% of customers use a mobile device, that is no excuse to cripple the website for those of us who use PCs.

USAA Bank recently dropped the ability for people to scan a check on a flatbed scanner and upload the image from a PC to deposit the check. Now they want people to take a picture of it with a camera in a mobile gadget and transmit it via 'app'. They don't care if you don't have that kind of device or the knowledge to use it.

 

[shortylickens]

Corporations only care about money, not people.
If they can treat you like shit AND still make a profit, they will.

I think Walmart is the quintessential example.

 

[Sonikku]

What sucks is all the cut staffing, lower costs and higher profits hasn't been passed onto the customer as in the past. Now all the gains from stripping down everything to a skeleton crew are simply handed off in bulk to those doing the cutting.

 

[shortylickens]

What sucks is all the cut staffing, lower costs and higher profits hasn't been passed onto the customer as in the past. Now all the gains from stripping down everything to a skeleton crew are simply handed off in bulk to those doing the cutting.

Yeah theres assloads of books, articles, and documentaries on this but the basic outcome is the top 1 percent have an even larger wealth gap over the bottom 99 percent than ever before.
If we dont make up a nationwide labor union soon, things will start to degrade. And a hundred years from now we're going to have another revolution.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

What sucks is all the cut staffing, lower costs and higher profits hasn't been passed onto the customer as in the past. Now all the gains from stripping down everything to a skeleton crew are simply handed off in bulk to those doing the cutting.

How else are the C Suite critters gonna get their stock bonuses?

 

[otho11]

Overall things have gone downhill, even Amazon.

Logitech just replaced a keyboard out of warranty for me, had a similar experience with a trackball mouse a decade ago.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Most big companies don't even have tech support anymore, it's mostly just bots looking for keywords sending you to a generic link, or people in India that have no training or any form of access to the company following a script and they can't really help you with anything that does not fall under a normal category in their scripts.

Companies only care about making more profit than last quarter, and that's it. They don't care about anything else. Not product quality, not customer satisfaction, not employee morale. None of that matters. Only money matters. So they cut cut cut and everything just keeps going downhill.