Customer Service

[TriGirl]

Is it me or does it seem like customer service is a thing of the past these days? :( It seems like no one cares about the customer anymore. If you write a letter, you get a form letter in return. Any time I have to call the customer service department of ANY company I put it off for awhile because I dread it. The phone reps are rude and unhelpful. I don't get it, you'd think with all the competition there would be better customer service. It just keeps getting worse and worse. Why is it so difficult? Do you think customers have gotten more obnoxious and demanding?

I'm so tired of feeling like my business doesn't matter, but that seems to be the way it is now.

[iamirish]

I think the correct term is . . . "CUSTOMER NO SERVICE".

 

Tom

[michmike]

When dealing with customer service folks on the phone or in person and you don't feel you are getting the service you expect or want, keep your cool and ask to speak to a supervisor. Be sure to get the names of anyone you deal with, so that if the problem is not resolved you at least have that info to use in any subsequent follow-up with the company. Getting short tempered and irate really doesn't accomplish anything (other than letting you feel good *L*)

 

In many cases these first line folks aren't empowered to come up with the solution you want, whereas the supervisor will be. Just recently had this experience re shipboard credit. Won't go into all the details, but by being firm and requesting to speak to a supervisor and asking for names of all before getting into the specifics of what I wanted, I got $50 per person shipboard credit for us and the couple traveling with us, after being told that it simply wasn't doable.

 

Similar experience a couple of years ago re vouchers due to airline delays. Doesn't always work, but worth a try.

 

Shipboard credit deal took 2 phone calls and an investment of 20 min of my time. With $200 in credits I figure that works out to my making $600 an hour. *S*

[Charliesmom]

If speaking to a supervisor doesn't get you the service you need, call the secretary of the CEO of the organization. That usually works. When the boss says "jump", most employees do.

 

Roberta

[catmand]

Hi, while I now see this is a HAL board, when it is a question of customer service I think they all are pretty much the same. Customer service, not sure there is any. Also how about technical help? HAlf the time when I have to call a company, between the cordless phone, my hearing and their accents I can't understand a damn thing. I have also found out it is always a good idea to call C.S. three times, if you get then same answer twice there is a pretty good chance it is correct.

The reason this thread caught my eye, this is true! Yesterday late afternoon someone on my roll call board comtacted C.S. at Princess to find out when Sapphire was departing San Francisco. She was told Sapphire was not in S.F. but currently sailing south from Alaska. This person informed the rep that she was looking right at the ship, live, out of her office window, she was told she must be mistaken. At that point she just gave up and terminated the call. Here you had a Princess C.S. rep who did not even know the proper schedule of the ship, there is no excuse for something like that.

No, I think pride in workman ship and in ones job are a thing of the past when you equate them to (as Tom wrote) customer no service.

[Leslieswiger]

I agree with Michmike 100%. I will also say that "COURTESY IS CONTAGIOUS" and it does work.:) Deal with a supervisor or above, as the clerk has little or no authority.:eek: Best of luck, Leslie

[sail7seas]

I do not totally agree when it is said the first line person does not have the authority to grant what is requested.

 

 

This does not pertain to cruiseline (in particular) but more to retail.

 

My pet peeve:

 

I go to any/every/whatever retail outlet. I select what items I wish to buy. I go to the cash register. I pay the cashier the sum requested. AND THEN I WAIT TO HEAR THANK YOU. I am so sick and tired of these rude, arrogant, unpleasant cashiers who positively REFUSE to say thank you to a customer. I have looked them in the eye and said "You're Welcome"....it being obvious at that point I expect to hear a Thank You. They will stare me down. I will ask for them to say, Thank you. They will refuse. They certainly have the ability to extend 'customer service' to include saying Thank you to a customer.

 

I actually had one of them challenge me by saying....You don't like it; go complain to my boss. It shocks me their arrogance. She then continued to add......They need me here more than they need you. They have trouble hiring enough cashiers. So, if you leave, they don't care.

 

She doesn't quite understand if all the "me's " that visit that store no longer come, they won't need any workers at all. But IMO all the stores are equally bad in this respect, so what choice is there. One must go to one of those lousy stores in order to buy what we need.

[TriGirl]

I had an experience with a fairly large airline that also books vacations. I won't go into the lengthy details, but bottom line was the customer service rep couldn't help me so I asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor was ruder than the rep, he talked over me, he was rude and acted like I was wasting his time. I ended up having to call the company's headquarters and got the help I needed. But it really shouldn't be that difficult, I don't think anyone should have to spend hours on the phone. I know that there are situations where the phone rep can't help, but then it would be helpful if they were upfront about it instead of making excuses. I wasn't being rude, I never raised my voice nor was I insulting. I don't think that accomplishes anything, but in return I expect to be treated the same way, with respect. But it never fails I get treated like a piece of garbage. It's just so frustrating.....

I usually do ask to speak with a supervisor and lately it seems they aren't any more helpful than the customer service reps, they just repeat their standard lines over and over again. I feel like they don't even listen anymore, they just know they aren't going to help you before they hear your story.

 

A couple of months ago I took my mom to dinner. She was on some medication and couldn't drink any alcohol while on it so we didn't order drinks. The waitress was so rude and snappy after we declined alcohol. She left us sitting there, never asked how our food was. The busboy actually brought us our food, she never brought the check to us. It was awful, so my mom called the restaurant and complained. The manager was very apologetic and sent us some coupons. I appreciated the gesture, but during the phone conversation he admitted he'd had problems with this waitress in the past. Now tell me, why didn't he get rid of her the first time? It can't be good for business to have a rude waitress.

[Roboat]

Unfortunately, I think we consumers are educating businesses that customer service is not that important. More and more of us shop for low price - at Sam's, Costco, Home Depot.

 

In my area, I still pick Lowe's over Home Depot, strictly because of customer service. But I don't usually pick them over Ace, where I find better customer service but higher prices. I get what I pay for.

 

From what I've seen the past 2 years, HAL's Zuiderdam tends to offer the lowest prices to the Caribbean from Florida. As long as they can keep the ships profitable, NOTHING else matters. If HAL increases prices to provide more staff with better training, many of us will go elsewhere for a lower price. It's our own fault.

 

Service schmervice - bring me another lobster, bubba! :D

[michmike]

one of the things that drives me craziest is when the cashier in a restaurant asks "Was everything ok?" and then has NO clue what to do if you tell her anything other than "it was fine"

 

That coupled with the fact that in most chain type restauarants you rarely see anyone on the floor that is much over 24 yrs old. Where the heck is the Manager?

 

Argghhhh! Let's invite them all on a cruise and then throw them overboard somewhere enroute

[dakrewser]

That coupled with the fact that in most chain type restauarants you rarely see anyone on the floor that is much over 24 yrs old. Where the heck is the Manager?

The manager is the one who looks 14 and is bussing tables....

 

:) -dave

[Nliedel]

Please remember that in most Travel situations the people that are designated "supervisors" are not actually supervisors at all but regular reservationists that have been granted more "power" to solve your problems (I was in the travel industry before I started collecting children). They too have supervisors. Be polite, but firm and make sure you are asking for reasonable compensation. Better yet please fix any problems on board ship if you can. It is easier to fix it at the time then try to back track.. get any "promises" in writing.

[RuthC]

In my experience as a worker and as a supervisor I've found that it's important when presenting a problem to also present a solution.

If, as a customer, I am looking for some satisfaction, I need to define the problem clearly and politely, without emotion, and then present what I want as resolution. If it's approached as "We have a problem" the customer service representative is more likely to want to join my team to solve it.

Doesn't always work that way, but it's been the best approach I've found.

[peaches from georgia]

Absolutely, RuthC is so right. Having been a retail store(s) owner for years the worst thing a consumer with a problem can do is to use a confrontational approach. Always use the word 'we' as Ruth said to include the store/business as having the problem also, always offer a reasonable solution to the problem, and always present your position with questions where the answer is most often going to have to be 'yes'. ;)

 

I can assure you that customers have gotten rude and obnoxious. Very often I would pick up the phone in my office and a customer would start screaming at me (and often using very foul language) before ever stating their problem, which most often could be easily resolved.

[morriganfae]

I think that Customer Service is just that....serving the customer and there are times that you will get a rep that for some reason is not as helpful as they should or could be. This does not mean that there is no such thing as CS, it just means that many factors played into a negative call or the lack of resolution to a call.

 

Yes I have done this for a living and I really think that communication is a two way street. I also think that reps are at time allowing their personal lives effect their work or a wide variety of issues that could do so.

Compassion is our strongest asset. I can not recall how many calls I got in a day that referred to me as "you people". This does not start communication on a positive note. I think that the phone gives people this feeling of anonymity. I honestly do not think that many would ever talk this way to a CS like that in person.

 

This is an issue that has many sides that we should all consider and if you truly are getting a CS that is not responsive then, yes by all means ask to be escalated.

Morriganfae~

[Guest tealady]

My biggest pet peeve is when we in a restaurant and we have just been served our dinner by the helper. The waitress comes along before we are able to take a bite and whizzes by to ask how everything tastes. She really doesn't want to know the answer or she would notice we haven't had time to take a bite yet. What a crock.

[michmike]

not to mention the dullards that haven't been trained to write a check so that they can remember which of you had what. C'mon there's only two of us. GUESS if you have to. At least you'd be right 50% of the time.

 

Instead you get the "who had the pasta?" Pasta? are you sure you have the right table??

[bUU]

I don't get it, you'd think with all the competition there would be better customer service. It just keeps getting worse and worse. Why is it so difficult? Do you think customers have gotten more obnoxious and demanding?

Customers (for everything) have definitely gotten more demanding, but the demand is for lower prices, not for better service (which, at most, customers demand only with their lips, not their wallets). Companies must comply with the customers collective demands in this regard.

[Cruiseoften]

Most of these posts are way OFF TOPIC - however, when I call any Customer Service number with a question, comment or whatever, my first step is to note the date and time of my call and get a name and extension number of the answerer. The moment I hear, "I think..............." I request that I be transferred to a Supervisor.

 

I don't want CS to 'think'! I want it to answer my question or tell me that they're not sure and will refer me to higher authority.

 

I understand and accept that everyone cannot have definitive answers to all questions - so refer/transfer me to someone who does have the answers.

 

It's important to get that person's name or number - you just might have to prove where you received the information you're acting upon (which turns out to be inaccurate!) to make your point - I speak from experience! :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

We do the same thing. We always write down the date, time, and name of person to whom we are speaking to.

And the minute that someone says "I Think" - we also ask for a supervisor. And once we are talking with a supervisor we tell them who we were talking to and repeat our request or question.

[bUU]

I don't want CS to 'think'! I want it to answer my question or tell me that they're not sure and will refer me to higher authority. I understand and accept that everyone cannot have definitive answers to all questions - so refer/transfer me to someone who does have the answers.

That's great practice.

 

It is important to keep in mind, though, that we, as customers aren't always owed the answers we want, or owed the satisfaction we want.

[Cruiseoften]

That's great practice.

 

It is important to keep in mind, though, that we, as customers aren't always owed the answers we want, or owed the satisfaction we want.

 

Very true! The CS Supervisor can always say "I'm unable (not at liberty) to answer your question" - even Supervisors are not always privey to the edicts/decisions of CEO's until said CEO's decide to 'go public'.

[RaffinOrganGrinders]

The last contact I had with a customer service rep. in the USA passed my call to an agent in India; after two hours of noncommunication I was told I would be passed to secondary support, only to be talking to someone in the Philippines.

 

"You can not do that from here, you must reformat your hard drive!"

[bUU]

What I have found, in my many dealings with Indian technical staff, is that any failure of communication could be attributed to my reliance on idiom and colloquialism. We (the USA) face a very major threat, in terms of technical support staffing, from India, because they are so good at what they do, and communicate in our language as well as they do, and do it in such a cost-effective manner.

 

Phillipines -- not so much.

[tooalto]

I'm afraid I have to disagree with Bicker on 2 aacounts. First, I was a TA for many years and, when I am dealing with many thousands of dollars belonging to my clients, I couldn't risk a "miscommunication" because of a heavy accent, lack of colloquialism or dialect or lack or knowledge. I simply called back until I had someone whom I could clearly understand. I don;t expect everyone to speak the Queen's English but I do expect those who work phone lines in CS or Res. to be able to make them selves completely understood. I have some German but certainly could never be expected to work CS in Munich. It just isn't good business.

My second disagreement with Bicker is that the "technical" knowledge isn't alwyas there either. When my computer crashed from a virus, I spent four hours on the phone with tech support, taking the whole system apart and then putting it back together; at one point I was looking for the "professor" inside. The gentleman, whose English up to then had been quite good, meant "processor". Different accented syllable, different consonant. I made 5 phone calls before I finally was told I had a virus and had to take my system to a repair shop. This debacle was not just because of language; the people with whom I was speaking had no clue what to tell me to do or even how ro diagnose my problem.

I realize this is quite off-topic but, for many people, CS is NOT easy to maneuver through, for many reasons.

On this board, some newcomers to HAL have had language issues with the crew. Yes, sometimes there are difficulties but you are speaking in person to the crew member and, between words and gestures, with smiles and a few laughs, you can usually get through the conversation. On the telephone, this is not possible.

Forgive the rant but I woke up armed for bear this morning.