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Three reasons customer service is so bad
August 3, 2009
New York Times blogger Jay Goltz says in his blog that even though people usually blame poor customer service on a particular generation, it really is caused by three separate factors. One he says, is health insurance.
 | Because of the high cost of health insurance, many companies have opted to hire a lot of part-time staff, which allows them to avoid having to offer benefits. This creates a problem: It is difficult enough to train full-time people. Having them there part-time and having a huge turnover makes it all the more difficult. |  |
Another factor is pricing, which Goltz says "has gone mad:"
| It used to be that stores would have four sales a year to get rid of stale or seasonal merchandise and to promote business. These days, stores have "crazy once in a lifetime sales" every two weeks. When you have manic pricing, up one day, down the next, it wreaks havoc on customer service. When the sale is on, you don't have enough staff. When the sale is off, the staff stands around and complains about the slow business. | |
Lastly he cites the lack of true merchants in charge, those that worked their way up from the sales floor. He says that over-education is actually a problem, because those running the stores from a business angle can be dangerous becuae they can't relate to common customers on their level.
Bottom line: Don't cut back on things that "customers won't notice," like customer service, because they notice.
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