Post Pandemic Customer Service

legend7 said:
Or Google the chief execs name and guess their e mail based on ones you know.
I had a car issue and nobody was coming back to me and that worked.
Mind you they are coming back to you but with horrendous answers, disgraceful really
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It's one of the directors that I've been speaking with. He's so patronising and dismissive in his emails and that's wound me up as well ☺️
 


Covid is a handy excuse for a lot of companies to be lazy and try to claw back money in their customer service. For example a lot of train companies are still not offering full service for meals on board due to covid but are still charging the same price for less service. On board some aircrafts it’s the same crack.
 
I have been trying to contact EDF since last week.

I tried phoning them and you get a message saying they are working from home and nobody is currently available, so try online.

The bill also says to go online and use webchat. On webchat you answer half a dozen robot questions and then it says nobody is available and to use text or whatsapp.

I texted them and answered the same robot questions as the webchat, and eventually got to ask my question. I got an automatic reply that they usually respond within 54 hours! ….still waiting now.

They don’t appear to have any email contact address at all.

There really is no excuse.
The Rolls Royce said:
I think Rey touched on it. The pay is shit and people treat like you like muck, why should anyone working customer service care enough to give a good service?

Until attitudes change RE customer service as a profession (especially hospitality imo), where it can and should be recognised as a legitimate skill, then standards will continue to fall. The reputation of the industry is in tatters, it's not seen as a legitimate career anymore and everyone I've known working in it were always looking for a way out.

Sadly that means companies paying customer facing staff more, allowing better work/life balance, and punters in general to change their perception of customer service staff as modern day servants.
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No chance.

That might eat into the Chairman’s bonus and compromise the shareholders dividends.
 
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Frijj said:
Got to have sympathy with a lot of places mind

With an additional 5% absence or so for anywhere asking known positives to stay home, must be harder to run services
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Yeah I get that but in this case AFAIK it’s down to terrible mismanagement, greed, not backfilling positions once fully trained staff have left or were laid off (which seems to be going on all over btw).
 
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TheRey said:
As someone who works in hospitality, I'd like to put our side across...

We've had, like everyone, two years of hell. But also two years of uncertainty.

In the interim, even during the height of Covid, we've had to put up with customers not taking any notice of guidelines or regulation - regulations and guidelines put in place to protect us as well as the customer - and trying to grab/hug/kiss us, which we know is a danger.
We've had minimal PPE (if any), and from the moment masks and hand sanitising became non-mandatory they've gone out the window.

I work for a brewery that over the last year alone has mad near on £100m in profit, yet used Covid as an excuse to reduce the amount of staff on every single shift.
No, hospitality isn't the hardest or most important job, but we've had staffing levels cut to the bone, while also been thrown to the wolves initially in "eat out to help out" and then after the government went "fuck you, it's back to normal".

I'm a manager where I work, and have always prided myself on my customer service. Despite the persona I can come across as having on here, I do try to help people and do go that extra little bit to ensure our guests are looked after.

However, we're fucked off with the way the government and the companies have shafted us. We're also fucked off with the fact that staffing levels, for in a lot of cases no reason, have been cut to the bone, meaning things take longer - and no matter how much you try to explain it reasonably, people still think it's an outrage to wait more than a few moments for their oh so precious pint, and get incredibly rude - even when they can see it's two deep at the bar, and only two people on shift.

So our patience is thin. We're incredibly overworked, sold short by the breweries or companies we work for, and sold out by the Government with our safety and health seen as a side issue.

So when you get self centred old bastards moaning they have to wait for a pint, or an old Karen complaining her steak is taking too long, our patience is thin.

We are overworked, stressed, understaffed, and criminally underpaid. And so, as soon as someone starts acting flash, or getting an arse on because we don't have enough people on to cope (like that's our f***ing fault), do you really think we're gunna bend over backwards to help them like before?
If the breweries reputation suffers as a result, so fuck? My health didn't matter when they were just trying to make dough before.

We worked through the height of Covid, were then told to stop working but put on 80% of our wage, and not told once how secure our industry is or our jobs are.

We're exhausted, stressed, and at the moment even stacking shelves in Tesco seems a better option than the shit we take.

Most of this country were happy to send us like lambs to the slaughter a year ago so they could get a half price Nandos, and that hasn't been forgotten.

I can only speak for my industry, but I'd imagine that's across the board.

Were seen as unskilled and dispensable, yet still expect to cater to ever whim and request we have thrown at us. So with respect, the care and level of service previously given is not possible. Partly because we're hideously overworked and under-resourced, but also because we haven't forgotten how we've been treated throughout this.
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I think your message confirms, in the first few paragraphs, what most people suspect. Companies are using covid as an excuse to offer reduced customer service or none at all.

The people at the customer facing point and in the service departments are victims too as they face the personal brunt. But I suspect some are better dealing with it than others, just as some customers are better at dealing with the frustration than others.
GordonMuchallNo1Fan said:
Not noticed a difference, found things like my doctors surgery and NHS have improved from a household point of view. Our GP service since they changed their ways at the start of the pandemic have been excellent, very easy now to get to speak to a doctor/sick note/triage etc can't fault it. NHS services also very good, timely manner etc
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Administration has always been the downfall of NHS service.

My latest (there are many) example being a letter inviting me to an appointment that didn’t exist. The letter was contradictory and nonsensical but phonecall attempts to clarify it were futile. So I went.

The health care professionals at the hospital were brilliant and confirmed that the letter was contradictory and nonsensical. They are escalating it and invited me to complain. Plus they moved things around and saw me anyway.

My wife counsels that I don’t complain. The inevitable fobbing off and refusal to accept responsibility will infuriate me. So fuck it.
 
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George Kaplan said:
I think your message confirms, in the first few paragraphs, what most people suspect. Companies are using covid as an excuse to offer reduced customer service or none at all.

The people at the customer facing point and in the service departments are victims too as they face the personal brunt. But I suspect some are better dealing with it than others, just as some customers are better at dealing with the frustration than others.


Administration has always been the downfall of NHS service.

My latest (there are many) example being a letter inviting me to an appointment that didn’t exist. The letter was contradictory and nonsensical but phonecall attempts to clarify it were futile. So I went.

The health care professionals at the hospital were brilliant and confirmed that the letter was contradictory and nonsensical. They are escalating it and invited me to complain. Plus they moved things around and saw me anyway.

My wife counsels that I don’t complain. The inevitable fobbing off and refusal to accept responsibility will infuriate me. So fuck it.
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On the flip side to what I've said about my doctor's surgery I've found with my wife that the administration side of things at Sunderland Royal is beyond incompetent and has been for well over a decade in which at one point bad to get my wife's MP at the time involved (Sharon Hodgson) who was superb in finding out the truth. It's frustrating because the surgeon is absolutely superb, lovely fella and takes good care of my wife, just the admin side is very poor. We've complained numerous times as we feel that's the only way to try and make things better. I'm currently under Podiatry at Durham NHS and have had no issues.
 
seen a massive change in Customer service and service as a whole.

Many places and companies are running with reduced staff as they were during the pandemic and hiring the bare minimum to help trim the fat. Also noticed a lack of job knowledge and general experience when dealing with companies/customer service as many have left.

Be under no illusion, most companies have used the pandemic to their advantage in one way or another
 
GordonMuchallNo1Fan said:
On the flip side to what I've said about my doctor's surgery I've found with my wife that the administration side of things at Sunderland Royal is beyond incompetent and has been for well over a decade in which at one point bad to get my wife's MP at the time involved (Sharon Hodgson) who was superb in finding out the truth. It's frustrating because the surgeon is absolutely superb, lovely fella and takes good care of my wife, just the admin side is very poor. We've complained numerous times as we feel that's the only way to try and make things better. I'm currently under Podiatry at Durham NHS and have had no issues.
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The only problem is that complaining to barely literate incompetent people about the issues you face because of barely literate incompetent people’s failures is bound to frustrate the hell out of you.

(Yes I know I’m generalising and that the ‘complaints’ people posting on here are probably equally frustrated about their colleagues failings but what the heck)
 
Sky have normally been pretty good, I got in touch with them to cancel at 12:13 yesterday through there virtual chat. I am still in the queue! Clicked on the link to email them so they could ring me back, got a message saying that is not available to me. Grrrr
 
I can confirm everyone is absolute shite.

Just today:

1 hour onto the usually ok BT business Chat because they forgot to set up a mobile phone contract. Passed to 3 different departments. Shite

2 hours onto EDF because the have royally messed up my account. Shite

1 hour onto Ombudsman because EDFF messed up my account

1 Hour onto Sovereign health care because their website is a pile of shite. which I'm probably now more likely to need to the inevitable aneurysm all the above has caused. Shite

21.17 and I now need to start doing extra work shite #FML
 
Frijj said:
I agree with you. Been awful customer service the last 18 months. Understandable of course, don't get me wrong.

Restaurants have been the worst. Multiple times now I've been turned away saying they're taking bookings only, when there's empty table after empty table. Not the kind of places I'd ever bother booking normally you know - just your basic chain restaurants you get in most shopping centres. Sorry, bookings only. Can only assume they just do not have the staff to cope with walk-ins.

Call centres have been fucked for the last two years. I am sick of hearing "due to unprecedented levels of demand"

Really? At 9am on a Tuesday morning? Fuck off.
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No different than trying to get an appointment with a GP... working from home is the BIG problem.
 
raindog said:
Working from home is the BIG problem.
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Prey tell?
Whilst I think some people WFH are clearly doing so with impunity, i’ve seen just as much bad customer service either face to face or in office environments. People seem lazy, they can’t be arsed anymore, just tipping away in 2nd gear wanting their money for very little (Furlough Culture maybe).
 
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Select coaches said:
Sky have normally been pretty good, I got in touch with them to cancel at 12:13 yesterday through there virtual chat. I am still in the queue! Clicked on the link to email them so they could ring me back, got a message saying that is not available to me. Grrrr
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I had to wait 8 days for an engineer to fix my box which then stopped working within 24 hours. Then I had to wait another 6 days for the engineer to come out again.
 
Ricci's Special Kebabs said:
I had to wait 8 days for an engineer to fix my box which then stopped working within 24 hours. Then I had to wait another 6 days for the engineer to come out again.
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Tbf 3 years ago I had to wait SIX weeks for an engineers visit to repair my box :lol: they had the good grace to not charge me for sky during that period mind :rolleyes:
 

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