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It depends on the situation of the customer services. With most situations, people are just going to do what they can get away with.
I get great customer service from my car insurance and bank when calling them.
Why? because they are monitored and there are surveys.
I get terrible service calling my doctor's office and talking with the receptionist.
Why? that's no feedback or nothing you can do if you get an attitude from them.
I worked various areas of customer service for an insurance company from 1984 to 1995. Our department had the oldest equipment, most outdated computers and tightest budget of all. Stacks of mail 2 feet high, phones ringing off the hook, people on edge; it was an insane asylum. Little cooperation between home office and field offices, poor training all around. Every computer conversion was poorly planned and resulted in more confusion. Few people could really concentrate on doing the stacks of work, too busy on the phones putting out wildfires. We had no real tracking like some departments so we had to dig the stacks to find a case. Many of our procedures and forms were outdated by several years. Some lines of business got shifted back and forth between us and affiliates in other states. I have no doubt some customers might have to call the insurance department to find out who is actually handling their policies. Last I heard, some things improved about 10 years ago, after several other mergers.
We received 2 FedEx packages several months ago. One was ours, other was not. I could read through the FedEx label to the original printed by the sender, an appliance supplier in Kansas City. Sending it to an appliance store in Lumberton, NC, a couple of hours from us. I called FedEx & explained that a driver needed to pick it up and resend it. Clerk kept saying they could do nothing about it, that the only option would be to resend it to us, since it was labeled to us. So...I took it to our local store. Clerk there took 1 look and saw the issue, said he would get it corrected. He wasn't surprised that the phone rep was so confused. I called the recipient & told them what had happened, that they should get the package soon. They called me a week later & still didn't have it. So I guess the local clerk was the only competent link in that chain. An error is no big deal. Not being able to correct a simple error is madness. FedEx used to be a great business model but they sure hit the skids.
I worked various areas of customer service for an insurance company from 1984 to 1995. Our department had the oldest equipment, most outdated computers and tightest budget of all. Stacks of mail 2 feet high, phones ringing off the hook, people on edge; it was an insane asylum. Little cooperation between home office and field offices, poor training all around. Every computer conversion was poorly planned and resulted in more confusion. Few people could really concentrate on doing the stacks of work, too busy on the phones putting out wildfires. We had no real tracking like some departments so we had to dig the stacks to find a case. Many of our procedures and forms were outdated by several years. Some lines of business got shifted back and forth between us and affiliates in other states. I have no doubt some customers might have to call the insurance department to find out who is actually handling their policies. Last I heard, some things improved about 10 years ago, after several other mergers.
We received 2 FedEx packages several months ago. One was ours, other was not. I could read through the FedEx label to the original printed by the sender, an appliance supplier in Kansas City. Sending it to an appliance store in Lumberton, NC, a couple of hours from us. I called FedEx & explained that a driver needed to pick it up and resend it. Clerk kept saying they could do nothing about it, that the only option would be to resend it to us, since it was labeled to us. So...I took it to our local store. Clerk there took 1 look and saw the issue, said he would get it corrected. He wasn't surprised that the phone rep was so confused. I called the recipient & told them what had happened, that they should get the package soon. They called me a week later & still didn't have it. So I guess the local clerk was the only competent link in that chain. An error is no big deal. Not being able to correct a simple error is madness. FedEx used to be a great business model but they sure hit the skids.
UPS is awful if you need to reach customer service, there’s no way to get a live person.
UPS is awful if you need to reach customer service, there’s no way to get a live person.
I haven't had to call UPS in a lot of years. Sorry to hear they've "joined the pack".
One good thing I've seen lately. I needed to report lost Home Depot and Lowe's cards. Phone rep at Lowe's. She handled it pretty well. Home Depot was a phone tree but a rare good one. Easy to use and seemed to work well. I'll report back if either one backfires.
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