Customer Service Please

I’ve noticed more and more lately that the customer service that has been so engrained in my brain from childhood has been thrown out the window in recent times. So much so that my husband, daughter and I have started to take score each time we go to shop or eat in public.

A good example would be your neighbor hood Wal-Mart. Here is a place that millions visit daily, and as I’ve read, the people that work there are pretty well taken care of, in terms of insurance, decent pay and discounts. That being said, why is it that every freaking time I’m in the place the employees seem unhappy, won’t look at you and certainly are not willing to help you in any way? I mean, we are there, shopping, making mounds of money for that corporation and I get to the check out clerk, after waiting in line for a few hours, and she acts as if she can’t be bothered to even say, “Hello! How are you?” What does that say about that establishment? Not much to me. But here is a little nugget for ya. If you happen to live near a smaller, non 24 hour, non SUPER Wal-Mart, you will find that the people there seem to be much happier and actually ask you if you need help and get this, they are waiting for you at the end of their register guiding you in, if you look as if you are ready to check out. This being said, I drive my happy self to the much more out of the way Wal-Mart, that has less selection and nicer people.

Another example of horrible customer service, where it is needed just as much as anything other place, is the fast food industry. Don’t get me wrong, restaurants have the same problems, but they don’t seem to be as predictable as the service you will receive at the numerous fast food places everyone on earth goes to. I mean, am I really putting the person behind the counter of McDonalds out that much to get me a packet of ketchup when there is obviously none available because the little dispenser at the end of the condiment aisle is completely empty and they don’t exactly have the ketchup out for me to get myself. It’s been so bad in some instances that I have actually reached over the counter at a local McDonalds and gotten the ketchup myself. Hello, it’s your job to SERVE me...I am paying your wages child…get off your butt and sell it to me, you know? But instead of customer service we get the lack there of in almost every place we go.