On this bitterly cold Sunday morning in Southwest Ohio I stopped by my local bagel shop for breakfast on my way to the office. I know it’s Sunday and I shouldn’t be working, but these quiet weekends in the office allow me to get all the things done that I can’t normally focus on during those hectic weekdays.

When I ordered my breakfast this morning I noticed the counter person was efficient, but not friendly. I didn’t get the impression I was a major inconvenience, but I was certainly not made to feel as though I was the most important customer she would have all day. This led me to think about how much our impression of good service has changed over the years, about how we have become so focused on efficiency and keeping our staff cost low, that the customer has become just another task on our list of things to do today, as opposed to the whole reason we are there. Whatever happened to all of those great books on service, and how we need to be “ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen?”

Whatever happened to the person that answers the phone. Very few companies have someone answer the phone anymore, in the name of efficiency they have an automated attendant. A computerized voice, or a recording of an employee is typically our first interaction over the phone with another company. We are then given a complete menu of options, and the one we want is never listed, so we need to guess which one will work. Many times, once we navigate our way through several menus, we find there is no one to take our call. On occasion we get the opportunity to leave a message, and more often than not we are asked if we wish to be called back by a representative in “X number” of minutes. Don’t they realize if I wanted to speak with someone in 20 minutes I would have called 20 minutes later. I am calling now because I have the time to call now. We have spent years creating all of these great communication tools, only to determine we don’t have time to talk to anyone!

Whatever happened to the person who greets customers when they come in the door. More often than not I find myself standing in a cold, sterile lobby with locked doors, a phone, and a list. When you pick up the phone to dial your contact, you get the company’s automated attendant. We have all of these businesses that are building these fortresses around themselves so they never have to talk to the outside world. I love to walk into a company and find they take the time to have someone work the front desk, they have someone greet me when I come in. As opposed to giving the impression that “they are just too busy to speak with me,” they give me the impression that they have been waiting for me to walk in, they want my business.

How about the idea that the customer is always right. How many customer service people have you had on the phone lately that are doing everything they can to convince you you’re wrong. Sometimes they even try to make you feel bad for complaining about something “so trivial.” I am convinced that some organizations no longer teach customer service skills, they teach negotiating skills. They just keep telling you no until you go away. This is part of the short term mentality that is so prevalent in american business today. Don’t do anything that will negatively impact short term results. When you argue with that customer about an issue, you may very well win the argument, but you will eventually lose their business.

I can’t tell you how many times I have run into the “company policy” argument. If you are a customer and you complain about something, this is a response you will eventually hear, “I am sorry sir, but that is against our policy.” I’ve heard this from employees in my own business. I remember not long after we acquired Logos@Work listening to one of our customer service people tell a customer we could not do something because it was against our policy, she continued to insist it was against our policy even after I told her it was O.K. It was as if her programming would not even allow her to shift gears at the behest of the CEO.

I don’t believe that all businesses have fallen into the efficiency trap at the expense of taking care of the customer, but it seems more and more each day make the conscious decision to put efficiency ahead of the customer. It is ironic, after all we have spent the last several years transitioning our economy from a manufacturing based economy to a service based economy, only to find out we are not that good at service!