DO you feel like you’re getting really bad customer service? Well, you’re not alone.
It’s actually been on the decline for almost 20 years, and is getting worse.
Think back to when we thought self service at the petrol pumps was a good idea, until it then moved to retail, to supermarkets, to our banking. The only winners in this are the big companies, who now appear to view customer service as an unwelcome cost to their bottom lines.
Take many of major department stores, who have reduced employees so help is hard to find, hire cheap employees who rotate out quickly, do little training to save money, and have employees stock shelves during shopping hours while customers are ignored.
Returns are a burden and a hassle, and, as a customer, you almost feel you have to apologise to staff for interrupting their work.
We would all have countless stories of customer neglect, and the trend is escalating.
Just last weekend, we went back to a major Mildura department store to chase up a product that we had ordered and paid for in person back in November last year.
The product still hadn’t arrived so we requested our money back, only to be told that the order has since been transferred to a Horsham store and we would have to contact them.
We did that but were then told by the Horsham store that we would need to go online to lodge details and request the refund.
So, in summary, we paid for a product in a Mildura store, have waited over four months for that product to not be delivered on, and the onus has now been put back on us as the customer to jump through hoops to recoup our money.
It’s disgraceful.
And way too common.
This week, the Commonwealth Bank and Westpac committed to pausing regional branch closures, after Member for Mallee Anne Webster called on the Australian Banking Association to place a moratorium on regional bank closures.
It came after the Senate recently launched an inquiry into regional bank shutdowns following the scrapping of hundreds of branches across the country, including the recent closures of Westpac and ANZ branches in Robinvale. Merbein and Red Cliffs have also lost bank branches over the past year, forcing residents to travel into Mildura to do their banking, an enormous burden on the elderly in particular.
But prioritising shareholder profits over customer service earns bank bosses big bonuses. Slashing staff or branches increases profit margins and the Commonwealth Bank this year recorded record profits of over $5 billion, while the NAB’s bottom line improved by over 19 per cent.
It’s sickening greed. But to the average person, as well as all the bank staff who have lost their jobs across the country, it comes at a significant cost.
Personally, good old-fashioned customer service still matters a lot.
And, increasingly, I find myself shopping, and remaining loyal, to those smaller businesses who offer just that.
It may cost an extra dollar or two here or there than you may get from the big franchise stores, but it’s worth every cent. Plus it’s going straight into a local pocket.
So, this morning, like every Saturday, I will pop into my local Nichols Point General Store, pick up the papers and a few odds and ends, and have a laugh and chat with the staff who have been serving us with a smile for years.
I then have to pop into Cooke’s Pools for a water test, where those guys have always been super helpful with any issues I’ve had with our pool.
There are so many small local businesses like this in this region, who give the customer a good experience.
Why go anywhere else?
