Is customer service getting worse? And is it time to legislate minimum standards of service to save consumers from frustration? Given their experiences in recent years, many consumers might feel that customer service could not possibly get any worse. And yet, according to a new survey, it does indeed seem that the decline continues unabated.
Consumer advocacy group CHOICE last week released the results of a survey of 6000 Australians. Nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of respondents said they’d received below standard service in the past 12 months. Even more – 85 per cent – believed customer service was worsening.
There was a time, I’m sure, when providing good customer service was a core tenet of almost all businesses. Basically, by providing good service you would get return business from a satisfied customer. Your business would therefore remain profitable, and everybody would be happy.
Somewhere along the way, though, larger businesses found they could cut costs by scaling back some elements of customer service. It’s been a slippery slope from there. Nowadays, it’s common to hear of consumers giving up trying to get service after spending hours waiting on the phone.
In theory, the receipt of such poor service would be punished by a loss of customers. Those customers would have taken their business elsewhere. But that system of checks and balances fails when there are only a small number of businesses, and they all provide poor service.
Sadly, it seems we have reached such a point across several industries, and CHOICE’s survey shows Aussies have had enough.
Where customer service falls down
You probably won’t be surprised by the responses. “Consumers told us they were commonly having to spend long periods on hold,” CHOICE reported last week. Also common was customers “being passed between company representatives who couldn’t help”. And, in many cases, customers found it hard to find a way to contact a business in the first place.
Sadly, I can report that all of the experiences outlined happened to me last year.
One that sticks with me involved a big telco. Without getting into detail, my issue revolved around an incorrect bill, one I was assured would be fixed. It wasn’t, so I had to contact them again.
Further reassurances came the second time around, but again nothing happened. And so the merry-go-round continued to spin – until I mentioned the words, “telecommunications ombudsman”. Miraculously, my problem was then resolved within 24 hours.
Further exacerbating my frustration, each time I made follow-up contact, the customer service person seemed to have very little understanding of the issue. So what did they do? Proceeded to ask me the same questions all the previous ‘support’ staff had.
Taking a stand
On behalf of the many Australians telling them a similar story, CHOICE has launched a new campaign. The consumer advocacy group wrote: “Emboldened by this chorus, CHOICE is pushing for a change in the law that could set standards for the help businesses are required to deliver to consumers.”
So how would that work?
CHOICEdeputy director of campaigns and communications Andrew Kelly outlined the principal philosophy behind the push. “There are no overarching customer service standards in Australia,” he said. “When it comes to the law, there’s little to force businesses to provide good customer service.”
Codes of conduct do exist in some sectors, Mr Kelly said. However, these “vary in terms of how vague or specific those obligations are and how strongly they’re enforced”.
On the back of such weaknesses, CHOICE is calling on the government to pass strong new fairness laws making a raft of unfair business practices illegal.
There are several ways to achieve this, Mr Kelly said. These include following the example of jurisdictions such as the US, EU and UK by introducing unfair trading prohibitions.
Adding your own customer service voice
As the old saying goes, the wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the oil. CHOICE is calling on fed-up Aussies to have their own ‘squeak’ through an online petition. To add your voice, you can sign the CHOICE petition here. (Scroll down to the bottom of the article.)
What experiences of customer service have you had recently? Do you believe it has worsened in recent years? Let us know via the comments section below.
Also read: On hold and on edge – the scourge of calling big companies
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Ever since Bunnings has stopped selling “Customer Service” – it has almost become non-existent!!
People behind the counter are offended if you challenge them about “their customer service standard” – thinking that they are ‘the best in their industry!’
Simple things like answering the phone with “Good morning, Joe Blows Plumbing – Karen speaking” – would make a huge difference. I know who I am speaking to, and we already have a conversation starter. McDonalds wonder why their sales are down – THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING OF STAFF – STINKS!! They think that by “you” doing your own ordering – gets you served faster! IT DOESN’T!!
McDonalds staff have become servant robots! Put a package on the counter and call out a number – THEN WALK AWAY!! That IS NOT customer service!! If you go back and complain about the old chips or the wrong order being supplied – it is as if you have the plague!!!
No such thing as customer service any more. Its how much they can rip you off.
A few months after I moved here, Target threatened to ban me because I dared to raise my voice! This is ludicrous. I’m American (I’ve lived here 15 years now), and I’ve handled Customer Service in America, and yes I’d raise my voice if I had to!
When I moved here, my late father said he’d miss me most dealing with Customer Service people 🙂 I once made Ward’s give him a new computer because the one they gave him as new was pretty much NOT new. They tried to say that opening the tower invalidated the warranty. Nope. I have a voice tone that tells CS that they better give me what I want. Same thing with Dell here. They wanted me to send my newly bought laptop before they’d send a replacement. NOPE! I went to the top, Michael Dell’s Twitter account. Oddly, I had a new one later that week, and we’re still waiting for them to come get the old one! LOL!
Seriously, customer service, especially in my small regional town is hit or miss. Hubs and I do know a lot more people now, and those people help us when we need. I know metro areas don’t always have the same people, and I don’t think they’re paid a good wage, do you?
What’s the point of legislating when regulators are the worst at customer service, and corrupt or lazy and uncaring. Fair Trading in Qld LIED OUTRIGHT about not having jurisdiction over a company that engaged in grossly misleading and deceptive conduct, and even the Attorney General asked a senior staff member in Fair Trading to ”explain” to me why they couldn’t act, but everything he said was an outright lie. QBCC is known to be a complete disaster – doing NOTHING to protect consumers who are ripped off by shoddy, dishonest builders and building tradespeople and LYING to refuse insurance claims or refuse to order defects fixed. I see FB post every day complaining that the regulators in Victoria and NSW are just as bad.
No regulation of customer service can achieve anything while the regulators refuse to do their job properly and the government doesn’t care. I fear we are at grave risk of seeing the emergence of vigilante activity if this government and public service failure continues. And of course customer service standards will continue to fall when government and the public service is showing the way – failing consumers at every turn and completely disinterested in improving THEIR performance.
You’ve hit the nail on the head Lorraine – our Government hierarchy and Government departments lead the way when it comes to not giving customer service. Their motto appears to be ‘do as we say not as we do’. I thought they were supposed to be responsible people who would set an example but, in the majority of cases, that is definitely not the situation. The theory and practice of good customer service can’t seem to connect so it is no wonder those giving customer service in the community as a whole follow the examples set with an attitude of ‘Monkey see – Monkey do’.
Those of us who do receive good customer service should not hesitate in letting that persons superiors know of the good work at least one of their staff is doing for the reputation of their office &/or business. Not much but it might help make our dealings a little more pleasant in the long term.
Yes, praising and thanking those who deliver good service is something I am careful to always do. I do it both by telling management who helped me and how, and asking the manager to pass on my sincere thanks, and also by posting good reviews. I think reviews can be a big help in forcing improvement in customer service. Those who are exposed as doing poorly risk losing customers if they don’t address the problem, and those who are shown to be doing well gain. Sadly, that doesn’t work for government agencies, who are a law unto themselves!
We sorted out paying our Kalamunda Shire rates by installments with the shire office. At the end of that particular year we had to pay a penalty because our rates were not paid on time. We contacted the shire to complain that it was their fault, but were told it was not their problem as the person who had worked for them was no longer there. Customer service has deteriorated by leaps and bounds in the past ten years.