Does Anyone Care About Customer Service Anymore?
April 16, 2008 by Deborah Ng
Filed under Doing it Yourself
The other day I was thrilled when my husband agreed to hire someone to take care of the trees growing around our fence, specifically the trees growing against the fence. I called several. Some I left a message with and some offered to come by and give me a quote. Not one of them returned my call. I was home all day Monday and the one handy man I spoke with on the phone never showed up. He didn’t return my calls, either. Another who my husband spoke with never made it either. Three who I left messages with didn’t return my calls.
What has happened to customer service? When I worked in the real world, I would have been fired if I treated a potential client in this manner. Doesn’t anyone want business anymore.
I did call a business today, a tree removal company with a good reputation in the neighborhood. He assures me he’ll be here tomorrow afternoon to offer an estimate.
I’m not holding my breath.
Image: Morgue File
This is a common complaint I hear when it comes to getting people to come give estimates for work. We’ve had the problem ourselves.
I have a friend who has been trying to get someone to come give her an estimate for her bathroom for about six months.
I don’t have an answer for you. Just some empathy.
We had similar problems when we were looking for someone to do some masonry work. I called at least 4 companies that never called back. However, everyone who made an appt to come over did show up, although sometimes late.
I was fired once for sending a fax to a client with our old cover sheets…it had the old company phone number/address on it. I was a temp. But not for long.
Wow that is disappointing. We found w/the work on our garage that if we mentioned that we were getting quotes from others it helped. We started telling the people that we had appts lined up at a certain time but were free before then. A guy asked if he could get there in 5 mins would we consider him before anyone else…we said yes. He came. We told him we’d call him later (not knowing a thing about prices!). One other guy showed up, late, and his price was a little higher, but we went w/the other guy anyway due to his customer service style. We still see him around and we have taken his recommendations for other jobs! You might want to try something like talking about a competitor if you make any more calls…
oh dear. we have been through this for the past year in our new (old) home. Contractors that don’t show, that take the money and run, that do the work begrudgingly and with no pride. Thank God we are almost done. Fortunately we found a painter that is just the cat’s meow! He’s always here, does an excellent job and takes much pride in his work. They’re out there! Good Luck and Hold on for the ride.
That really stinks that you are having such a problem. I’m not sure what is going on with that industry. It isn’t just the customers that have problems though, employees do as well. My husband recently got screwed over by his boss (home improvements), the guy took the customers money & ran. Never paid hubby for work & totally screwed over an 80 something women. Found out after he had been doing it to other people & the jobs that did get finished, my husband never got paid the right amounts for. It is a shame. Good luck in finding someone.
I’ve had the same problem recently. Scheduled some appointments online and my wife scheduled some by phone. 7 in all. Not a one showed up or called back. And this is to just cut the lawn! I’m tempted to call each back, thank them for wasting my day and to say that I’d recommend my friends to avoid there services. Maybe place a post in Craigslist.
Customer service is a long forgotten art.
We’ve gotten used to poor customer service, and vacancy, and no real interaction. Like the lights aren’t even on. Because everyone is so consumed with themselves all the time anymore is why when we smile, make eye contact and genuinely greet someone, we stand out and are remembered.
What bothers me is the people in fast food who hand the bag out the window and don’t say a word. The transaction feels incomplete without them saying ‘thank you,’ or something.