Is customer service becoming obsolete?

I seem to recall a time when the saying the customer is always right was followed not just because it was good business, but because workers cared enough about their that it just came naturally. This seems to have almost disappeared. I may be exaggerating a bit here, but it does seem more and more that getting good service is now as rare as getting bad service used to be.


Just last night my mother picked up food from Taco Bell and she carefully checked to make sure the order was correct. She did what she reasonably could do which is to look at all the items including unwrapping a few to make sure that everything was accurate. It wasn't until we got home and my 5 year old daughter bit into what was supposed to be a regular cheese quesadilla that we began to delve into the world of unwanted spiciness. My 5 year old summed it up succinctly "They should have just done what we asked them to do." How difficult is it to see that the order does not have the word spicy before any of the items and thus put in the regular sauce. The quesadilla my daughter Hannah took a small bite from was not just spicy, but jalapeno spicy. Come on people I know you get paid minimum wage, but take some pride in your work.

I once went through a KFC drive thru and was asked if I wanted my chicken order crispy or regular. After some pondering and a decision to forego any health concerns that remained in my brain I asked for the crispy. It was only then that the drive thru attendant informed me that they were out of crispy. Maybe her brain had gotten fried that day because if she had told me this info when I asked for the drumsticks, she would have saved my salivary glands some extra work and kept me from being annoyed.

These are just a couple of my experiences. I could go on and on including the waitress who called me Your Highness because I dared to ask her to bring my soup before my meal. This was her last day at work because she was getting married and apparently she decided to take out her waitress rage out on me and my vegeterian friend whom she gave a bowl of soup that she described as vegeterian except for the big hunk of chicken she scooped up with a spoon. I hope she used my 13 cent tip wisely on her honeymoon and I feel for the man she marries if he ever complains about her cooking.

It is easy to pass the problem of poor service on the lax parenting of the 1960's, but that would be unfair and I believe inaccurate. This is a question of values and respect for people that is the responsibility of managers to enforce and workers to learn throughout their life. I believe that children need to be brought up with a spiritual backing or at least a strong value system that is based on the golden rule. No matter what religion you look at, one thing is in common, if you follow the golden rule you are doing something that the religion advocates. These same values can and need to be taught in schools, in my opinion. I am not suggesting we teach religion, but that we make sure positive behavior is rewarded. I was a teacher and I know this occurred, but unfortunately as I was leaving education it seemed more and more focus was on testing results and not making sure children are socially ready for the world. Hopefully, this will come from the teachers and parents and other people in society by leading by example. There are no guarantees in life, but I am sure that if the golden rule was followed more often, many of our arms wouldn't be so sore from trying to flag a waiter down to refill our glasses of our favorite refreshment.