GRIPES : Is Customer Service Dead? : Yes: The whole concept of service has gone down the tubes. Don’t employees understand that they’re not being paid to loaf and gossip?

Whatever happened to the concept of service with a smile? That old slogan, “The customer is always right”? We don’t see that kind of attitude much today, do we? Instead we have sullen clerks who care nothing about the customer, workers who are just putting in their time and who consider it an injustice when they are called on to administer service.

For example, when walking into a local hardware store, I noticed two clerks standing around talking at the cash register. No one else was near them--they were not waiting on a single customer. One clerk’s badge said she was the manager of this small, local store branch. I asked where a certain item was located and she said, “Hardware on the right.” Since this was a hardware store, I assumed she meant, “This is a hardware store, lady, and the item is on the right side of the store.” I said, “Which aisle?”

Angrily she barked, “Hardware down the aisle.” Meekly, I accepted that and I spent considerable time searching up and down the designated aisle, to no avail. As I walked out, the clerks were still deep in conversation and oblivious to whether or not I found the item. Needless to say, I won’t return to that store, and since it’s already struggling in competition with the larger stores of the same type, we will see how long it survives with such poor management.

At my supermarket, the meat-section workers gossip and laugh and tell jokes to each other. This has happened every time I’ve been in there. Again, if you ring the bell for service, asking for a special cut, they act disturbed that you could have the nerve to interrupt, that this was cutting down on their social time. It’s as if we are the enemy and they, the store employees, are the privileged few, as they have dominion over us and the right to do whatever they please. They are getting paid for their hours whether they attend to the job or not, so it never occurs to them that they are cheating their employer.

Are the customers at fault because they have to barge in on a coffee klatch in order to get service during so-called working hours?

At a gas station, it used to be that you got something more for your money than just having your tank filled up with gas. And it used to be that you didn’t pump it yourself. The attendant would clean your windows, check your oil and put air in your tires. Now we do it ourselves. Why do we put up with it? Is it because we’re too busy or too apathetic or is it because we just don’t care enough to complain?

I think we do care. A friend of mine travels considerably out of her way for groceries because the market near her has service so poor that she was turned off. This is not an isolated incident. Many people take their shopping needs to the store that greets them with a smile and not a gripe. Where are our consumer advocates? One or two TV commentators aren’t enough. We need some kind of enforcement for good employee-customer relationships. Better yet we need to live by a different standard--one that doesn’t see each person as a potential drag on our time.

But deeper than that would be an inner set of standards. One that doesn’t prompt you to do everything for money, that includes consideration for everyone’s requirements. This showing of consideration for others comes from a tried-and-true standard. It’s called the Golden Rule.