9 Worst Customer Service Companies
Blame it on the youth – Due to the fact that technology has dramatically reduced face-to-face interaction, the younger generation has fewer inherent people skills than previous generations, which ultimately means lower service aptitude. As a result, managers and companies complain about how difficult it is to employ “the youth,” and they are the reason why their companies deliver such poor Customer service. I totally disagree!
Big Anomaly – This has been perplexing me for years, and it is the one thing about Customer service that I just can’t figure out. It goes against all conventional logic. I have found, in my own two companies (The DiJulius Group & John Robert’s Spa = 150 team members) as well as in all the world-class Customer service companies I have worked with and studied, that of their front-line employees, a large percentage of them fall into the 20-30-age range. They deliver outstanding Customer service! In many cases the younger generation is better at hospitality than the previous one who was forced to have more human interaction.
How can it be – If the younger generation grows up with less face-to-face interaction and as a result has weaker people skills entering the workforce in their early twenties, then how is it possible that certain ones become world-class in Customer service? Is it because there has been such innate interactive deficiency that once they get it, they are like a man in a desert finally getting water to quench his thirst? It is happening all over the place? Zappos.com, Chick-fil-A, John Robert’s Spa, Nordstrom, The Ritz-Carlton, and the Disney’s of the world have young, fully engaged team members.
The younger generation is hungry for hospitality – Hiring is a big part of it; however, just as important is their service aptitude training. Think about this: If today’s younger generation lacks the skills gained from human interactions, who is responsible for improving their people skills and increasing their service aptitude? The businesses that hire them! We can’t skip this generation and hope the next will be any better at people skills. We need to have better training programs, not just training on product knowledge and the technical side of the job, but also training on the soft skills. The companies that deliver world-class Customer service are the companies that understand this fact and provide training in Customer service skills.
Nine worst Customer service retailers – The good news is, Customer satisfaction with retailers is at an all-time high. The bad news is, some well-known brands are not pleasing their Customers. Check out who the nine retailers with the worst Customer service were. Are you surprised by who is on the list?
Ecommerce tops brick & mortar – The trend continues: online retailers consistently out-perform brick and mortar businesses in Customer satisfaction. Retailers wonder and complain about why Customers are “showrooming” (shopping at stores and then making the purchase online) and defecting to the Internet for their purchases. Now they know why. Some retailers have even taken drastic measures to deter Customers from showrooming and have started to penalize them by charging a “just looking fee”. In fact, of the nine retail companies with the worst American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) scores, only one was an online retailer, Netflix.
From first to worst – The surprising thing is, Netflix outperformed the average Internet retailer in Customer satisfaction for four years, and in 2009 was #1 retailer. But in 2011 and 2012, the video streaming company has been the lowest-rated internet retailer.
Johnism
