Has anyone else noticed that this has pretty much disappeared from the thought processes of most businesses out there? Or at least it hasn’t passed on to those who actually interact with the customer/client.
Today, a couple of the folks I work with were talking about an upcoming meeting with the manager during which the manager had set as an agenda item to talk about general attitude and point out that the customer is always right. The conversation between these co-workers was not how true of a statement that was but more of how much the customer is wrong. Their thoughts regarding our customers was that they were a bunch of idiots who didn’t really know anything at all and we were nice enough to explain it once so why would they still have questions.
Wal-Mart is the prime example, but it seems that everywhere we go this attitude prevails. Now obviously the customer is not always right, but it is all about the attitude. For example, the other day I went to a restaurant for a business lunch and ordered what I thought was a chimichanga lunch combo. I ordered it by just stating its combo number. When the food came out they brought me an enchilada supreme. I told them that was not my order. They apologized and pulling out the order notes they asked if it was the #23 that I had wanted. I said that is what I had ordered and they explained that the #23 was the enchilada, but they would take it back and make the chimichanga combo meal if that is what I meant. I thanked them for the offer but feeling rather stupid told them I would eat the enchilada (which was good by the way) since that is what I ordered. The entire time their attitude was that of the customer is always right, even though they pointed out how stupid I was.
It’s rare that I get this kind of service however.
Personally I think this new attitude is prevailing due to the decrease in face-to-face interaction and increase of electronic “communication” (which isn’t really communication in its truest sense). This lack of interaction is changing perspectives from looking at everyone as a human being to them just being objects. There is a great book that I would recommend you read, if you have not already, that covers changing our perspective from looking at people as objects to looking at them as who they really are. The book is called “The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict”.
I know that you are probably now wondering what on earth this has to do with politics and the economy. Well, I actually have been thinking lately about how this attitude and this move into the information age (aka., the age of everyone getting a massive amount of their contact with the outside world through the computer) is affecting the overall economic picture of our nation. How is this changing, if at all, for good or bad our nations ability to nurture and teach the next generation of rising stars? Is there a connection between this attitude and the feeling of the now majority (according to some polls) that the government should fix some to all of their problems? [I do find it interesting that this same majority, however, does not want or agree with becoming a socialist state. Talk about disconnect]
Anyway, what are your answers/thoughts to these questions?
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1 comment:
I definitely agree on the lack of service/politeness these days. I get pretty sick of attitudes from store clerks about various things. My mom has gotten some pretty rude comments also about having to use a motorized wheelchair from employees. That is an interesting thought about it possibly being related to the use of computers. I think it could be true...with less actual human interaction, we may forget to consider people's true feelings...and just say what we think first instead. Ugh.
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