Customer service: Lost art in the 21st century

Call the Sierra Club, Audobon Society and the Environmental Protection Agency. The newest of all American endangered species needs immediate help.
Look in the mirror; it’s you - the lowly Americanus consumeris (American consumer). Little by little (actually, in real big chunks lately), being a normal consumer is becoming dangerous to one’s physical and mental health.
Once upon a time, as in all fairy tales, the customer was always right. You got service with a smile. Today, you’re lucky to get anyone’s help (or attention) in a department store, a prompt checkout in a supermarket or a small dose of kindness when you spend your hard-earned money.
Businesses have no problem putting you on hold for long period of time and then ask you to hold some more while they fiddle-and-faddle for this-and-that. In reality, they really want you to just disappear into outer space so the time clock can just keep ticking.
Nope, a consumer’s dollar buys very little respect these days ... if any at all. The attitude is to take the service you get or go somewhere else ... if you can. It seems to be the all-too-common practice of the service provider.
It is also the all-too-common evolution of retail commerce, moving far away from the Mom and Pop establishments where individuals knew other individuals and their needs. What has emerged from the swamps are these mega-store, warehouse-type, big box outlets where you need a green card (as in American Express) just to get so much as a grunt.
Consumer confidence?!? How about a little consumer courtesy?!?
In sports, the fan who puts his or her fanny in the stadium/arena seat is the average customer and no group in that industry has been more abused. All new venues are being built with corporations in mind, not the in-house customer. Marketing is aimed at the casual observer - either sitting in the Laz-Z-Boy at home with the remote control in his hand or the teenager just looking for something to look cool.
The casual fan has the attention and loyalty span of the average UPN sitcom. Prices to attend games have skyrocketed (just look at how much it will cost to see a Texas Ranger game in 2005 and up in Frisco, ticket prices for the minor league Roughriders are the HIGHEST in ALL of minor league baseball). The interaction between that group (doing the charging) and the people on the receiving end (doing the cheering) has all but disappeared.
But does anyone care? Not really. This leads me to the airline industry - a victim of its own ineptitude. Two of the biggest companies – American and Delta – each reported record losses in the fourth quarter of 2004. Coincidentally, each suffered mightily during the busy Christmas holidays, inflicting plenty of pain upon passengers trying to travel around the country.
Bags got lost by the thousands, too many flights are delayed without notification, and information was not forthcoming. All the while, ticket prices continued to balloon.
Consumer choice has been reduced with each passing merger announcement - something that can be said in every economic sector. Mergers mean families are without jobs and there are fewer outlets for people to choose.
The airlines have gone begging, hat in hand, for government bailouts on two occasions, blaming Sept. 11 for all their woes without full disclosure that problems existed before Sept. 10, 2001. And no one can then explain why Southwest Airlines, expanding and providing good service, continues to make a profit quarter after quarter after quarter after quarter …
The industry has always been horribly reluctant to change and implement voluntary measures to stem the poor customer treatment. They’d rather cut OUT service (no more food and even no more pillows) than provide that which once made them so special to use to travel … SERVICE!
Here’s the bottom line: You cannot scrimp on customer service – period – in any business. It makes no sense to ignore or disrespect the people who buy your product/service. It is so simple a concept that it makes you wonder why all businesses don’t do it better.
As is the case with too many things in our society, it is all a matter of common courtesy. Fewer people are just not bothering with it any more.
Those who do are on that endangered species list, too.