SPOILER: You know that bit of internet/journalistic wisdom that says anytime an article title is a question, the answer is no? Unfortunately that’s not the case here.
This is the first of two blog posts prompted by a recent edition of You And Yours on Radio 4 that focused on customer service and featured Graham Roberts-Phelps, the lead customer service consultant at the Customer Service Training Company. From the provider perspective, two key points stood out: that customer service representatives are experiencing more aggression and rudeness in recent years, and that this is the perfect time for businesses to raise their customer service game.
The pandemic did not make us ‘better people’
At the risk of blaming COVID for everything, there’s no doubt that the pandemic affected how we interact with each other. Early on, Institute of Customer Service research found that, “half of the employees in customer service industries experienced increased hostility from customers during the early onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
For face to face service, this effect was in part due to staff’s additional responsibility to police the new social distancing measures (wear a mask, don’t stand too close, etc.) with many customers taking out their resentment on the customer service rep – shoot the messenger.
Then there were the lockdowns and homeworking, periods in which we all barely interacted face to face with anyone. Maybe we got so used to interacting via a screen (which never seems as real as in person) that we forgot the social niceties? What is certain is that communication via a keyboard tends to be ruder – have you seen social media?! – and some of that aggression from a position of distance/anonymity seems to have continued into the real world.
Then there’s the world we’re living in…
Global events impact our lives and tend to influence our behaviour and the pandemic was three years ago. So, what’s happening in the world now? Looking on the negative side for possible answers to the ‘why are we ruder?’ question, we find highly polarised politics with an ever-widening left-right split, various cost of living crises with more and more people living in poverty, basic public services and utilities falling apart, numerous military conflicts and genocides, the changing climate, and ‘culture wars’ stoked by a press and politicians seemingly keen to keep us all angry and divided.
Looked at like that, no wonder that customers are getting ruder. When you’re feeling burnt out, even the slightest problem – such as returning a faulty product or just phoning your bank – can become serious.
The challenges for business
None of the above is particularly good news. Nor, probably, is it ‘news’ at all to customer-facing businesses.
The customers are (broadly) more difficult to deal with.
Your employees are feeling all of the same external pressures as the customers plus the added stress of dealing with customer hostility.
People are quitting (quietly?) their customer service roles and recruitment is difficult.
For businesses, customers are now more difficult to please, and given the general state of the markets and the economy, it probably doesn’t feel like a good time to increase investment in employees’ ability to do so.
So, what’s the answer?
Read the second blog post “When is the best time to invest in customer service?” for the second half of this topic. In the meantime, if you have any customer service issues, why not give us a call on 01582 463464 – we’re here to help.
