Customer service or lack of on the UK.

[hypnotherapee]

Well, having got back from the USA on Friday, I was overly impressed with the cheerful people serving in shops and restaurants. They were polite, nothing was too much trouble. We're were greeted with big smiles - they didn't know whether we were 'locals' or not until we opened our mouths.

I've just been up our local b$$gens to be met with a gum chewing girl on the till, who looked at me like something the cat had dragged in - she managed to mutter " dyer wanna bag? ". My change was just dumped in my hand.

[****merlin*****]

in your hand??

you shop in posh shops

its usually dumped on the counter!

[chickengrandma-2008]

I wonder if that's a result of the welfare state??  If the American loses their job for being rude or just not polite and pleasant enough, they go hungry.  If our worker loses their job, so what, they'll just get paid for doing nothing instead!! 

[1311rose]

Got to say that every time I've been to the US the customer service has been great.  Always friendly.

The worst "customer service" I've come across is in Australia - a lot of places they don't know what it is or means!

[rose2008-2008]

Well now in some shops they just want you to go to a self service till and serve yourself!!!. Dont they want their jobs?. I thought we were supposed to be creating jobs?. When i did shop work we were taught how to approach and speak to the customer nicely and give them all the help they wanted. I was quite shy when i started and found it difficult but it soon gave me confidence aswell. Politeness does not cost anything!.

[bhgardeners]

Remember my first part time job.  Still at school - wet behind the ears.  The Lady in charge greeted both of us with "whether you feel ill, out of temper, had a bust up, whatever, it is NOT your customer's fault.  It is your job to smile, be polite and give them any assistance they need" Stood me in good stead that talk did.

[captainbovine]

it really winds me up when people put the change on the counter and not in your hand, to me it's so rude, shows they have no interest in what they are doing.

I was taught, don't take your home to work and your work home...works well every time!!!

[peteryola]

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@rose2008-2008 wrote:

Well now in some shops they just want you to go to a self service till and serve yourself!!!. Dont they want their jobs?. I thought we were supposed to be creating jobs?

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I refuse to use those tills on exactly those grounds; I always queue up to use a proper till with a human behind it.  When I'm asked why by the staff member who is trying to direct me to the self service tills, and I explain, about 90% the time the staff hadn't realised the significance of the unmanned tills in employment terms!

[5129frederick]

Unlike my daughter, likewise, I too refuse point blank to go to one of these self-service tills.  I have walked out of a shop empty-handed before now.  They invariably glitch up and you then have to find somebody to come along and sort it out.  As I have always said all along:  self-service is NO service.

Going back many years ago, Shell were the first ones to bring self-service petrol stations, where if you filled the tank up yourself, they'd charge you 3d a gallon less.  That was the beginning of the end.  How many petrol stations can you go to now, where somebody will come out of the office and fill your car with petrol?  If you're on the way to a meeting, the last thing you want is for your hands to be smelling of petrol, or even worse, diesel as you walk into an enclosed meeting room.   The same as these carveries - when I go to a restaurant, I expect, no, DEMAND to be waited on!  And another thing ......   

[alisonsvintagechicboutique]

It annoys me when till staff put out their hand for the money when I am still reaching for my purse. 

That said I wont use a self checkout out of principle. 

There are hardly any staff left in my local Asda due to this!!!

[cee-dee]

Those self-service pumps where you paid by feeding in a note didn't catch on but now they're installing pumps where you pay at the pump by card so there'll be no need to go inside to pay.

[fishpieface]

h yes, it's awful sometimes, the standard of customer service and customer care.  I have

to say not always though, some representatives of shops and companies go beyond the

call of duty to be nice to customers and do their best, as if they really do care about making

somebody's world a better place that day.

But some, their attitude is appalling.  I think if everything didn't appear to be in the miscreants'

favour, and rude employees were taken to task and possibly lost their jobs if they kept doing it,

it wouldn't happen.  But they don't care 'cos, as somebody said already, the alternative to

employment is doing nothing and being paid for it at the taxpayers' expanse.  Not a problem

with me for those in real need, but it's certainly a problem when it's the same rule for lazy,

rude scroungers as it is for folk in real need.

I know we all have bad days for allsorts of reasons, but it isn't a customer's fault.

I think it's fair to say though that some customers/people do really try the patience of a bus-load

of saints and I don't think it's really true to say the customer is always right, as clearly a lot of

them aren't.  However, that is no excuse for a customer services person or indeed any person

to be rude back.