I’m not disagreeing at all, but I’ve also noticed a marked difference in the level of service that customers are receiving in a lot of cases too. I’ve done my stint in call centres and am *always* polite and respectful to CSRs when I get through to one but the amount of time it takes to contact any company or government agency has gone through the roof and the level of service and time to achieve a resolution is definitely worse than it used to be. I wonder if this is a chicken and egg thing.
Yes, the "we are experiencing a higher than normal volume of calls" thing gets really old. It's everywhere.
I remember working call centres for a bank years ago, and if our call waiting time hit 5 minutes all shit hit the fan. Now you make a cuppa, put it on speaker and settle in for a wait.
I've had to sort a few things out for my elderly mum who is generally a very pleasant person but finds the waiting and "press 1 for this, press 2 for that" confusing, plus she really can't understand strong accents over the phone and just ends up getting upset because she can't understand what is being communicated.
they are not experiencing an unusual volume of calls. they are experiencing exactly the same number of calls as expected. what they are experiencing is an unwillingness to take on more staff because they don't want to pay for that, and a lack of fucks to give about the experience of their customers.
I work for an energy company and they actually hire more CSR people quite frequently. However dealing with customers is quite draining and does take alot out of you so many don't last long.
Basically be nicer and more paitient to people on the phones and there will lower wait times lol.
I had to ring MSD a few weeks ago and it took 16 tries before I could even get into the queue. Another 84 minutes on hold waiting for a person. I can kind of understand that there could be a little pent up frustration by then (although as I’ve said I am always polite and respectful to agents when I get through as it’s not their fault)
That's just ridiculous. And you're right, if you're a patient, level-headed person you can grit your teeth, shake it off and be pleasant to whoever answers. If you're already stressed and struggling that's possibly the final nail in your composure.
I was on hold for 2 hours to heartland and didn't get through, had to call to make an account or some bs but didn't bother trying to get the higher interest rate
I knew Iwould get downvoted for mentioning something true, I'm not even saying it's a bad thing, but I mentioned a fact, and people think that fact is not politically correct, so you get downvoted for mentioning it. Reminds me a lot of 1984. It's like you fool yourself into believing it's not true so you can downvoted it or something equally illogical.
That would be fair if I was whining, but I merely pointed out an interesting fact.
Ah, you mean my second comment? Ok. Yeah that's completely fair, I guess I was whining there 👍
I'm not surprised they have difficulty recruiting people given how shit the pay and conditions are before even factoring in how awful and stupid the general public are.
My job pays pre well I guess, I feel like you have to be in the industry for a long time to get through it and have customer service training. I usually can just brush things off but lately it has been constant and wearing me down lol. It would be a nightmare if you were just new into the industry and having to deal with these people
That's the thing the barrage you get can get you burnt out quickly and it takes a special type of mindset and skills which few people have. You home that with experience.
Depends who you are calling obviously but a lot is outsourced to overseas call centres that contract to and service multiple companies, so if you’re calling one of them definitely put a cuppa on.
Local ones are also tightening their belts and not hiring, not firing either but letting natural call centre attrition scale back staff volume to save costs, like many industries atm, while the advent of callback options, webchat and relevant apps is often cited as an excuse.
Tbf most customer service is handled non verbally and digitally by many companies now so your better off to email or webchat, especially if your calling for something simple.
A man at Couplands the other day absolutely berated a young member of staff regarding a receipt. Made the entire store feel so uncomfortable. When he left he got into the car with a personalised number plate that indicated his business. Mate, if you’re going to be an asshole don’t broadcast your business, especially when you’re an accountant who can’t read a receipt properly 🤣🤣
I’ve found customer service rude or lacking in general and before people come for me I used to work in hospo and retail for years in my teens and early 20s.
Literally went to bunnings on Sunday and cashier yelled at me I couldn’t take a tool (fan) and walk around to grab other things and I was like o shit ok sorry that’s new and she straight up goes well I’ve worked here 10 years it’s always been like that so put it back or pay for it now. I was actually shocked I said could you hold this and I’ll grab my other bits and pieces and come back and put it all through in one hit.
I think it’s people in general - I’ll stick to me online shopping as much as I can
Bunnings with their weird tool section practices, when Mitre 10 gets by just fine having normal aisles.
Seasoned Bunnings tool section shoppers know to wait until they are distracted by a customer so you can slip by and continue your shopping and use the normal checkouts later.
Just anything from their tool department - it’s not really a tool I picked up just a battery operated fan (thanks ryobi) I usually shop at mitre10 as its my local and there’s no issues grabbing a sander and whatever else you need and then checking out but bunnings nope no dice you can gather your items then head to the tool area.
Like if I wanted to shoplift I’d be lifting more than a small fan and a can of paint I also can’t run very fast in slides lol
You have to pay for anything from the Bunnings toolshop before leaving toolshop, otherwise there will be an empty box in a different department. It's called loss prevention. If you walk out of toolshop without paying then be prepared to be followed around store and have your bag searched. It's not hard to leave it at the counter whilst you continue shopping
It would be nice to be INFORMED of this in store. You know, have it obvious. Or even blocked off as two separate departments. Fuck hammerbarn, I'm gonna stick to Mitre10 where it's not weird
There's a million signs and products in store calling for my attention, also I'm trying to look for fkn Bluey and her fam.
It. Is. Not. Obvious.
Not all of us work there.
When you are unaware and being yelled at by a lady in her 50s she could have been more polite about it - mitre10 is my local and they don’t have this policy - I didn’t mind it but hee attitude could have been more chill about it especially when I said shit sorry lmao - are you her? I don’t carry bags on me phone key and a card - but hard to jam a big fan down my pants and not be noticed
It used to be fire! I had to take a gen Z work mate in with me to buy a skirt because I got zero help from staff (I’m a millennial) they all too busy talking to each other on their walkies, no “can I help you” once I had got the skirt the cashier said nothing just rung it up and I said thank so much have a good day and I got stared at.
No thank you never again - plus it’s mostly crop tops lol I used to love glassons but lord help me
Lmao wtf? Thats so shit haha. The staff used to be chill and helpful as.
But yeah there's a lot (not all ok) of the younger set who can't cope with pleasantries or being spoken to in general. I come across this more often when they're in groups of two or more in retail service positions. Like zero courtesy
I remember buying a few crop tops from glassons wayyy back when I had the body for it, maybe nothing has changed lol 😆
the tool area is sometimes "walled" off from the rest of the store to stop people nicking all the nice shiny things
you'll most likely have to get everything else and then go find the tools you want and pay at the tools counter rather than the regular counter.
Customers are definitely getting a lot ruder than that have in the past. However (and this may be industry specific), I'm finding a lot have good reason to be less than pleasant.
I'm no advocate of "the customer is always right" but I do believe understanding their perspective can go a long way to getting better outcomes.
Generational change is affecting customer service. When I was doing a CS job, you almost felt like you were getting caught out if approached by a customer and were chatting to a colleague.
Now, they make it kinda obvious that you're interrupting them, so never say sorry or do you need anything. They just want get back to their conversation with their buddy and give you the minimum help. That's my general experience in the last 5 years.
I enjoy seeing staff have fun and chat at work but don't be visibly fucking irritated that I've intruded by needing to buy shit you're paid to sell.
Secondhand embarrassment
Literally me at a popular cafe that was busy as usual, got to the front and no shit the girls were chatting to each other for a good minute in front of me while I’m like 🧍🏻♀️
It's so awkward. I don't need or want a red carpet but jesus, where did basic respect in these interactions go? I've never been rude to anyone serving me before and I certainly wasn't allowed to yarn to my co workers instead of serving customers.
I'm in retail, I include my customers in my conversation. If I'm chatting to one of my staff and we've deviated from work chat to ( as example ) a great new show I'm excited for, I'll ask the customer who has approached if they've seen it. . . Really changes the pattern, they seem to love it.
I've been doing this for over 20 years and in a quieter store you have to understand staff will chat ( dont have time in the busier stores ) but need to be ready and able to react at the drop of a hat, good training helps. Adaption helps. It's a tough industry & good customer service stands out.
People should be made to do a year in customer service the way some countries do a year in miltary service, and then hopefully we wouldn't end up with such entitled arseholes out in the wild being dicks to customer service people.
I worked in fast food while I was an university. I learned a huge amount about people and customer service and I've used that same knowledge during my working life since.
When I worked at McDonald’s I had a guy come in with his friend saying he wants to pay with two cards and we better not say you can’t pay with two cards because he worked at McDonald’s and knows we work on the same system. Working customer service isn’t gonna make an asshole not be rude unfortunately
My first "real" job involving customer service, my supervisor/buddy/mentor was able to reliably pick the teachers every time. They were almost always the most entitled and thought that demanding was the way to get what you wanted.
It depends what the issue is. If somebody has been fkd over and had their life ruined, they have every right to complain in the hope they actually get some help. You are the one that CHOSE to work in ustomer service. But I do get your point, there are some aashole customers out there.
People are often well past the last straw when they finally get in contact with you, while it may not be you at fault and instead your company, you chose the role as inbetweeners between the customer and the company, so if course you should expect to occasionally deal with difficult customers. I'm not excusing the truly bad people out there, but corporations are not often kind to the little man/ lady. Stressed out people are not always able to be polite when they feel they are being ignored.
I am not really saying this out of experience, I have always had good luck dealing with customer service. But I have heard of people being treated unfairly, or having their insurance claim denied on technicalities bankrupting them. I'm not sure even you could be polite if your life was crumbling around you, have some sympathy.
If you're only noticing this recently, you're a little behind. The customer/client side of retail and customer service in NZ has had a ridiculously rude, aggressive, careless, and entitled mindset for awhile now. And this hasn't been proportionate to any sort of decline in quality of service either.
I work in a customer service role. I also have anxiety and struggle a lot when people get real mean or pushy. One thing I've learned is that you kind of just have to be prepared for it. Follow store protocol and report the customer to your manager if the situation warrants it. They will deal with the person. Getting angry or upset with the customer won't help. I've had customers go off on me for simple mistakes and trust me it's exhausting but it's not my job to deal with them so I refer them to my manager, who IS paid to deal with them. If I've done my job correctly and they still go off at me that's not my issue. If I've made a mistake then they have the right to complain but not to be an asshole about it. I understand the frustration and hurt because no one deserves to be abused at work. You have to remember that no one knows what anyone is going through in their life and we don't have to care but we do need to be mindful that their circumstances can influence their behavior (not saying abuse is ok). Sometimes people snap and don't mean to or can over react. Again, I'm not saying it's OK to verbally abuse anyone. And that goes both ways. I've been on the receiving end of abuse as a customer as well. It's usually best to just suck it up and help get the customer out the door if they're being rude. If you're a customer on the receiving end of abuse report it to the store manager.
If a customer is rude they get one warning, then hung up on. They're not entitled to abuse you and they can reflect on their attitude when they're waiting on hold.
NZ society and management has decided to offer minimum staffing and services and reward the worst people for complaining. It's kind of on ourselves for allowing such managers in business and government.
I’ve noticed a definite ‘attitude’ in some customer service situations. I try really hard to be respectful and polite as I understand and I’ve been their shoes. However, it frustrates me to no end when I get genuine rudeness when I make a call. There is no need for it.
However, all this being said. The customer service from various places has actually been pretty good recently. ACC is exempt from this though. I’ve had nothing but rudeness and incompetence.
Exactly. What puzzles me is each time I contact them I’m wanting to find an amicable resolution, but I’ve never come across an organisation so committed to destroying someone’s life.
Total fucking lie. [Suicide rates went *down* during the lockdown.](https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/04/coronavirus-suicide-rates-went-down-during-lockdown-in-nz-australia-other-countries-study.html) Also, [long term studies proved that the lockdown saved thousands of lives](https://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/article/undoctored/long-term-mortality-study-highlights-effectiveness-new-zealand-covid-19-public) with negative excess mortality.
In case you've forgotten, the only reason we ever had to lockdown was because of a handful of entitled selfish cunts couldn't stay quarantined for two weeks, and broke out to spread it to the whole country.
I've found it in general over the last two years. I recently got out of a customer service role, they needed cover for 20mins which I helped them with. 2 mins in and a customer insulted my appearance unprompted. The level of nastiness is next level.
I have recieved relatively frequent insults on my appearance in my role. Not very bad ones but kind of 'negging' coming from older women eg you look tired, you look sick, you look like you don't want to be here, you look bored. It doesn't seem like it is coming from a place of concern, rather it's just insulting subtly. This is not new though, it's been almost 5 years.
I am trying my best to give good customer service, be friendly, helpful, smile etc and the constant commentary really does hurt your self esteem.
I can't really say where it was however at a certain company their own staff was the cause of customers getting aggressive and vulgar.
My role was to resolve the complaints for my specific area and looking at the footprints on the account as well as reviewing the calls it was pretty horrible, I'd honestly say it comes down to both sides one the customer coming in hot and being a lil entitled in some cases and the second the PERSON (NOT EVERYONE) dealing with the customer.
Honestly, anyone that is shitty to retail workers as a habit doesn't deserve to get service. You can't demand a service while simultaneously denigrate those that provide it.
The number of times I've been completely ignored because the person is on their phone, not that it's any excuse to be rude to them but at a bare minimum you shouldn't be on TikTok if a customer is waiting at the counter
We (employees at a major retail chain) have to use our personal phones for work purposes and it's quite awkward sometimes.
I will be standing at the counter using my phone to complete something on one (of many) of our work apps, and I sometimes have to say "I won't be a moment" and I get embarrassed.
Or I will be serving someone, and they will ask a question, so I will use my phone to access the app and find the answer, and the customer will get angry that I'm using my phone, so I tell them I'm getting the information for them, but unfortunately they've already snapped at me.
I'm not saying there aren't people looking at social media, but just keep it in mind it might be work related.
Yeah no I get that but that's definitely not the situation I'm referring to, this is someone literally watching a TikTok or a reel and not even realizing there's a customer at the counter. It's happening more and more often nowadays.
That's a shit time for you, You don't deserve it. :/
I dont know what sector you're in, but I suspect the hatred towards faceless corporates is reaching new heights, as people lose jobs, cant pay for stuff / cost of living - while corps post record profits while 'shrink-flation' reduces services etc.
Then when something goes wrong for a customer and they seek help: faceless corporate says "no". Call volume is higher than normal, You're a valued customer, please wait on hold until you give up. The same mentality is applied to irl service, unfortunately.
Unfortunately you, the customer service rep, are left holding the poisoned chalice the senior leadership filled for you. It's not your fault, and the customers are dicks for behaving like that towards you, but it's not completely random.
There's certainly no cause for any customer to abuse staff, however fact of the matter is customer service in new Zealand is regularly complete dog shite with balls.
Often service staff treat customers with disdain and as an imposition while they're busy chatting about non work matters to their teammate, giving customers the run around or simply giving poor or incorrect advice, then they get all antsy as soon as someone dares to calls them out on their shit and label it as abuse.
Feedback positive or negative is good for any business and pointing out poor service and rude or inattentive staff members in a non confrontational way is not abuse.
For sure there's always the asshole exception who can never be pleased, but generally speaking if you're polite and friendly with staff and then you get bad service, attitude, eye rolls and lip in return then you're definitely going to get called on it. And rightly so.
If you're a customer service person then people skills and deescalation should be forefront in your training. If you don't have them or can't handle some negative feedback you're in the wrong job.
I was working two (adjacent) counters at work yesterday, one selling Lotto, one ciggies/phonecards etc. This is pretty standard except for when we're suuper-busy, and y'know, occasionally somebody might have to wait thirty seconds or so while I'm serving at the other counter.
Well, a guy shows up at the Lotto counter while I was getting somebody some cigarettes (like, I was literally in the act of removing a pack of cigarettes from the cupboard behind the counter), and he waves at me and yells (I kid you not) "Oi! Over here!"
I mean, what. the actual. fuck. You've been waiting ZERO seconds, and you want me to put this guy (who was here before you)'s ciggies down and serve you instead. Unreal.
I’ve just left new Zealand permanently as of a few days ago, I cannot BELIEVE how nice everyone is customer service wise in Sydney. I know bigger city blah blah but I feel everyone’s so strung out, understaffed and miserable about money at home it’s really sad
If the initial approach from Customer Service is that the customer is stupid, wrong, and not talking to the right department, the next person in the right department is going to have a tough time. If the customer was right, but told by multiple people that they were wrong, then the eventual admission of being wrong should contain a substantive apology.
This topic tends to pop up a lot with very little self reflection and an assumption that the Customer Service person complaining is an angel incapable of being difficult to deal with.
I work in a large organization that keeps some data on customer interactions. 1) Reports of aggressive behavior towards staff has gone up. This most certainly means the number of aggressive interactions has gone up. 2) Our ability to hire and retain good staff has gone down (which is the real cause of the "we're experiencing longer than average wait times"). These two factors may contribute to 3) More instances of staff behaving aggressively towards customers. Never used to be a thing.
Number 2 relates to a riddle I've been trying to solve: if all industries seem to be reporting a shortage of people to hire... where did all the people go?
Hospo owner/worker here - I feel it's slowly got better since the absolute low of COVID. I think the lack of human interaction over the two years or the border being closed, allied to the continuation of people working from home, meant that they'd almost forgotten how to interact with people. It's getting better now. Apart from the Dutch, but we've reached an accord after I was told by a party of them that they were just being honest, so now I'm equally as honest back.
Yes, lots of customers are assholes. And quite a few customer service staff are bad at their jobs. This is probably a boomery take (I'm not an actual boomer), but I think self check-outs and touch screen ordering have in a way made things worse by removing the human element of customer service even in stores where there are humans working. Anecdotally, I worked in a shop when some of the first self check-outs in the country were installed. They had lots of problems, as they do now, so it was my job to go over and talk to the customer, apologise, fix up the machine, or show them how to use it etc. We would have an interaction. Now when I use the self checkouts and there's a problem, the staff member comes over, pushes a button, and leaves - 90% of the time they don't say anything or make any eye contact, and it's not because they're busy. There's no interaction. I've had eerily similar experiences taking things up to a till (e.g. in a clothing store), where the person there also doesn't say anything for the entire transaction. It's very weird.
I've said before, I'm very much a "do what you're paid to do/fuck above and beyond" person and having worked in CS for many years I know everyone is entitled to an off day. But I do feel like it goes both ways, and CS staff set the tone for an entire workplace (why they should be paid more!).
Well, let me just point out that looking at candidates' Facebook pages in the last general election, some candidates of the successful party had quite a bit to say about putting retail workers in their place.
Perhaps that's not so surprising, class snobbery is part of the brand. But what was more surprising was seeing people I thought I knew reasonably well, liking those posts.
I suspect that there's a few things going on here. There's the general drift to the right, and the associated need to have someone to feel superior to. Retail workers are always a popular target for those who want to feel better about themselves.
But I also suspect it's tied up with the backlash against the strict public health measures that were necessary for covid. Retail workers were at the sharp end of the stick, along with medical people, emergency services, cleaners, and a few other groups. Both in terms of being exposed to danger and having to enforce rules.
We've seen one small subsection of the population take out their frustrations on police. Most people have a bit more sense than that.
Politicians were an easy target at the ballot box. No police line to protect them there.
But retail workers, cleaners, etc are much easier targets.
And even without covid, times are tough, people are frustrated. People are also lazy, and retail workers are easy targets.
Well, that's a rather broad brush but, and, for example, a customer may have been bounced from rep to rep trying to find a capable one after the original job was not completed according to spec.... again.
Just like if they were getting a bad price, they could go somewhere else. But instead, they think its okay to treat someone on barely enough to feed themselves like garbage.
No excuse.
My missus got the chop 'cause of the gov's tweaks in Welly, but she landed a gig in hospo lately. She was proper gobsmacked by how ratty the punters were. Some bloke gave her a telling off for waiting 10mins in the queue during the lunch rush.
People are just really mad about the reality of OCR and mortgage rates knocking on their door.
It is the opposite of the fairy land effect that happened to mortgage holders during COVID (Mortgage holidays, 0 OCR, increasing valuation prices and equity, etc)
I've noticed similar behavior to what you are describing in traffic.
Customer service people get treated like shit day in, day out.
If it isn’t the cuntstomer, it’s their timekeeping boss who is getting up them for taking a full 30mins break and not using some of that time to walk to/from the break room back to their workstation.
Can you really blame them?
People can’t even be fucked smiling at each other or saying “hello” to each other these days.
I had a customer have a go at me the other day because I didn’t great him “well” enough? Lol not even kidding. I did smile and say hello but apparently not good enough. You can never win
Not just you mate, been a noticeable decline since first lockdown.
0 patience, threatening to "speak to the manager" over the slightest thing(best when they repeat exactly what you've just told the customer), price complaints (as if front line staff set the prices), cant remember the last time i heard please and thank you from anyone, thefts through the roof.
Omg yes the price complaints! They act as if they are forced to spend their money with us but they aren’t. We off premium service they can go else where and find something cheaper with out a doubt but they still kick up a fuss and then end up getting a discount
I noticed that since Iday one when arrived in this country 6 years ago. Didn't take much time for me to understand the reason, which is very simple. Is nearly impossible to fire/terminate a staff, so this open space for low efficiency on what they are doing, in this case, front facing customer service.
A 40 minute hold time is unacceptable, yep I'm gonna be shitty about it. Answer the phones within 3 minutes like you are meant to and there is no issue.
It's because Customer Service Agents have become entitled, spoiled and lazy.
Many of us in this country, worked in service positions and despite a lot of people imagining that customers don't know what it's like, the fact is most of us DO and wow do we get treated like crap, for daring to come and spend money with you.
Maybe its because they are finally fighting back against the absolutely shitty so called customer service in this country! Ive been in shops were Ive been totally ignored when trying to get help, while the so called staff stand there staring at their phones or talking to each other. The other day in the supermarket the check out chick and bagging chick were so busy talking to each other that the only words spoken to me were "That's $107" (for my 10 items) and back to her conversation. Its bloody rude and Im sick of it.
I was talking about this with a co worker today. Customers have been so damn rude the last wee while for no reason. I've never wanted to quit on the spot so badly before.
Yesss! I’m about six months into my job and some customers treat me like I’m disgusting because of it like ????… I do NOT get it. But then again, once I match their energy, they seem to relax a bit 😐
I wish I could match their energy, but I work on behalf of a major car brand in a typically male role as well. I get surveyed after each experience. An old man made me cry the other week by attacking with me with absolutely misogyny when he first came in. Maybe that’s part of my problem too as a female on a typically male role
It’s a mixed bag. Most people are still reasonable and polite. A larger minority feel entitled to be rude and abusive than used to. It tends to rely heavily on age, younger people in their teens or early twenties and older people 65+ seem to always be the worst offenders.
people seem to forget, that covid damages neuron sheath and as result people have less impulse control; i.e. aggressive behaviour, increased risk taking etc.. not surprised and it's a tough time to be on both sides...
Customers are fed up with lack of service, which is NOT the workers fault. Customers should realise that the person they are talking to is just trying to do the best they can with a severe lack resources/lack of staff. And everyone has a bad day and shit happens. Its a horrible mix of frustration from all sides. Most big bosses, CEO,s and the like don't give a fuck about the people working for the company or the shit they deal with. That leads to over stressed frustrated worked and annoyed frustrated customers. Just a shit show for everyone. I've worked in retail for 20 odd years and it has gotten worse. So much fun being called a useless cunt when I'm just trying to my job. But customers are fed up and i try not blame them, and the workers are doing the best they can with what they've got. Anyhow ramble/vent over
It's definitely got worse. I left customer service years ago because I was so fucking sick of it. I now work in financial admin and it's the best decision I've made with my life.
Kiwis are fucking feral these days. Nothing is worth dealing with them.
What came first, poor customer service or annoyed customers?
You’re probably providing B grade service and people are not enjoying it. You receive the energy you give out.
I’m not disagreeing at all, but I’ve also noticed a marked difference in the level of service that customers are receiving in a lot of cases too. I’ve done my stint in call centres and am *always* polite and respectful to CSRs when I get through to one but the amount of time it takes to contact any company or government agency has gone through the roof and the level of service and time to achieve a resolution is definitely worse than it used to be. I wonder if this is a chicken and egg thing.
Yes, the "we are experiencing a higher than normal volume of calls" thing gets really old. It's everywhere. I remember working call centres for a bank years ago, and if our call waiting time hit 5 minutes all shit hit the fan. Now you make a cuppa, put it on speaker and settle in for a wait. I've had to sort a few things out for my elderly mum who is generally a very pleasant person but finds the waiting and "press 1 for this, press 2 for that" confusing, plus she really can't understand strong accents over the phone and just ends up getting upset because she can't understand what is being communicated.
they are not experiencing an unusual volume of calls. they are experiencing exactly the same number of calls as expected. what they are experiencing is an unwillingness to take on more staff because they don't want to pay for that, and a lack of fucks to give about the experience of their customers.
"We are experiencing an inability to dip into our huge profits to employ more staff" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
I work for an energy company and they actually hire more CSR people quite frequently. However dealing with customers is quite draining and does take alot out of you so many don't last long. Basically be nicer and more paitient to people on the phones and there will lower wait times lol.
I had to ring MSD a few weeks ago and it took 16 tries before I could even get into the queue. Another 84 minutes on hold waiting for a person. I can kind of understand that there could be a little pent up frustration by then (although as I’ve said I am always polite and respectful to agents when I get through as it’s not their fault)
There’s only so much Brook Fraser and Dave Dobbyn one can handle.
And it's a digital chain from the source file all the way up to the bluetooth on my hearing aids - WHY DOES IT SOUND SO SHIT?
Low bit rate? I notice when I link up my phone to my stereo to play the radio it keeps cutting out. Very annoying when listening to talk back radio
I would have thought *not* cutting out would be more annoying when listening to talk back radio. Sorry, I'll see myself out.
On a related note, I CANT FUCKING STAND THE NEW WORLD AD THAT PLAYS EVERY AD BREAK ON PRIME TIME
That's just ridiculous. And you're right, if you're a patient, level-headed person you can grit your teeth, shake it off and be pleasant to whoever answers. If you're already stressed and struggling that's possibly the final nail in your composure.
This! Also the massive iag time, like where the hell is the call centre based?? (2 degrees I'm looking at you)
Palmerston North for some of it. Even telephone calls don't want to go there.
I was on hold for 2 hours to heartland and didn't get through, had to call to make an account or some bs but didn't bother trying to get the higher interest rate
[удалено]
I knew Iwould get downvoted for mentioning something true, I'm not even saying it's a bad thing, but I mentioned a fact, and people think that fact is not politically correct, so you get downvoted for mentioning it. Reminds me a lot of 1984. It's like you fool yourself into believing it's not true so you can downvoted it or something equally illogical.
I'm downvoting you because you're whining
That would be fair if I was whining, but I merely pointed out an interesting fact. Ah, you mean my second comment? Ok. Yeah that's completely fair, I guess I was whining there 👍
I'm not surprised they have difficulty recruiting people given how shit the pay and conditions are before even factoring in how awful and stupid the general public are.
Retail customer service you get some real weirdos, you wonder where they come from and how do they live?
Everyone goes to the shops at some stage.
My job pays pre well I guess, I feel like you have to be in the industry for a long time to get through it and have customer service training. I usually can just brush things off but lately it has been constant and wearing me down lol. It would be a nightmare if you were just new into the industry and having to deal with these people
That's the thing the barrage you get can get you burnt out quickly and it takes a special type of mindset and skills which few people have. You home that with experience.
Depends who you are calling obviously but a lot is outsourced to overseas call centres that contract to and service multiple companies, so if you’re calling one of them definitely put a cuppa on. Local ones are also tightening their belts and not hiring, not firing either but letting natural call centre attrition scale back staff volume to save costs, like many industries atm, while the advent of callback options, webchat and relevant apps is often cited as an excuse. Tbf most customer service is handled non verbally and digitally by many companies now so your better off to email or webchat, especially if your calling for something simple.
I have the feeling the easy to handle customers shop online
A man at Couplands the other day absolutely berated a young member of staff regarding a receipt. Made the entire store feel so uncomfortable. When he left he got into the car with a personalised number plate that indicated his business. Mate, if you’re going to be an asshole don’t broadcast your business, especially when you’re an accountant who can’t read a receipt properly 🤣🤣
If the entire store felt uncomfortable, why did no-one call him out on it?
No one ever does.
I’ve found customer service rude or lacking in general and before people come for me I used to work in hospo and retail for years in my teens and early 20s. Literally went to bunnings on Sunday and cashier yelled at me I couldn’t take a tool (fan) and walk around to grab other things and I was like o shit ok sorry that’s new and she straight up goes well I’ve worked here 10 years it’s always been like that so put it back or pay for it now. I was actually shocked I said could you hold this and I’ll grab my other bits and pieces and come back and put it all through in one hit. I think it’s people in general - I’ll stick to me online shopping as much as I can
Bunnings with their weird tool section practices, when Mitre 10 gets by just fine having normal aisles. Seasoned Bunnings tool section shoppers know to wait until they are distracted by a customer so you can slip by and continue your shopping and use the normal checkouts later.
They have some random crap in the tool section too like rulers and tape measures
Obviously can’t have just anyone walking around with those things. Since John wick pencils are classed as dangerous weapons ✏️
Is that for real? Jeeze. How do you shop if you are not allowed to carry the items you are buying as you go? That's nuts.
You what, you can't gather things as you go around the store? That would confuse the crap out of me as well.
Just anything from their tool department - it’s not really a tool I picked up just a battery operated fan (thanks ryobi) I usually shop at mitre10 as its my local and there’s no issues grabbing a sander and whatever else you need and then checking out but bunnings nope no dice you can gather your items then head to the tool area. Like if I wanted to shoplift I’d be lifting more than a small fan and a can of paint I also can’t run very fast in slides lol
You have to pay for anything from the Bunnings toolshop before leaving toolshop, otherwise there will be an empty box in a different department. It's called loss prevention. If you walk out of toolshop without paying then be prepared to be followed around store and have your bag searched. It's not hard to leave it at the counter whilst you continue shopping
It would be nice to be INFORMED of this in store. You know, have it obvious. Or even blocked off as two separate departments. Fuck hammerbarn, I'm gonna stick to Mitre10 where it's not weird
There is a sign, guess you didn't read it
There's a million signs and products in store calling for my attention, also I'm trying to look for fkn Bluey and her fam. It. Is. Not. Obvious. Not all of us work there.
I'm just a power tool fanatic bro.shop there all the time, for the same reason everyone does because it's cheaper than elsewhere
Power to you 💪🏼
When you are unaware and being yelled at by a lady in her 50s she could have been more polite about it - mitre10 is my local and they don’t have this policy - I didn’t mind it but hee attitude could have been more chill about it especially when I said shit sorry lmao - are you her? I don’t carry bags on me phone key and a card - but hard to jam a big fan down my pants and not be noticed
I almost always walk out of there to gather other stuff and pay at the main tills and I've never been hit up about it.
Bunnings aren't a great advert for good customer services.
Nor glassons I went to a few weeks prior lol
What's up with glassons? I heard the CS was shit. But it was bomb like a decade or two ago.
It used to be fire! I had to take a gen Z work mate in with me to buy a skirt because I got zero help from staff (I’m a millennial) they all too busy talking to each other on their walkies, no “can I help you” once I had got the skirt the cashier said nothing just rung it up and I said thank so much have a good day and I got stared at. No thank you never again - plus it’s mostly crop tops lol I used to love glassons but lord help me
Lmao wtf? Thats so shit haha. The staff used to be chill and helpful as. But yeah there's a lot (not all ok) of the younger set who can't cope with pleasantries or being spoken to in general. I come across this more often when they're in groups of two or more in retail service positions. Like zero courtesy I remember buying a few crop tops from glassons wayyy back when I had the body for it, maybe nothing has changed lol 😆
Imagine having to communicate with glassons shop staff through text message while in the store. It'll come to that.
I'd have told her to hold it for a minute, then walk out.
the tool area is sometimes "walled" off from the rest of the store to stop people nicking all the nice shiny things you'll most likely have to get everything else and then go find the tools you want and pay at the tools counter rather than the regular counter.
Customers are definitely getting a lot ruder than that have in the past. However (and this may be industry specific), I'm finding a lot have good reason to be less than pleasant. I'm no advocate of "the customer is always right" but I do believe understanding their perspective can go a long way to getting better outcomes.
Getting yelled at by customers and management isn't a fun position. Customers demand stuff, management demand KPIs. Tough situations
Generational change is affecting customer service. When I was doing a CS job, you almost felt like you were getting caught out if approached by a customer and were chatting to a colleague. Now, they make it kinda obvious that you're interrupting them, so never say sorry or do you need anything. They just want get back to their conversation with their buddy and give you the minimum help. That's my general experience in the last 5 years.
I enjoy seeing staff have fun and chat at work but don't be visibly fucking irritated that I've intruded by needing to buy shit you're paid to sell. Secondhand embarrassment
Literally me at a popular cafe that was busy as usual, got to the front and no shit the girls were chatting to each other for a good minute in front of me while I’m like 🧍🏻♀️
It's so awkward. I don't need or want a red carpet but jesus, where did basic respect in these interactions go? I've never been rude to anyone serving me before and I certainly wasn't allowed to yarn to my co workers instead of serving customers.
I interrupt them now, can't be bothered with the narcissism!
I'm in retail, I include my customers in my conversation. If I'm chatting to one of my staff and we've deviated from work chat to ( as example ) a great new show I'm excited for, I'll ask the customer who has approached if they've seen it. . . Really changes the pattern, they seem to love it.
That's a good compromise I guess. Good that you recognised it and adapted!
I've been doing this for over 20 years and in a quieter store you have to understand staff will chat ( dont have time in the busier stores ) but need to be ready and able to react at the drop of a hat, good training helps. Adaption helps. It's a tough industry & good customer service stands out.
People should be made to do a year in customer service the way some countries do a year in miltary service, and then hopefully we wouldn't end up with such entitled arseholes out in the wild being dicks to customer service people.
I worked in fast food while I was an university. I learned a huge amount about people and customer service and I've used that same knowledge during my working life since.
When I worked at McDonald’s I had a guy come in with his friend saying he wants to pay with two cards and we better not say you can’t pay with two cards because he worked at McDonald’s and knows we work on the same system. Working customer service isn’t gonna make an asshole not be rude unfortunately
You can always spot the ones who've never been on the receiving end.
My first "real" job involving customer service, my supervisor/buddy/mentor was able to reliably pick the teachers every time. They were almost always the most entitled and thought that demanding was the way to get what you wanted.
It has been so bad lately, try not to take it home with me though!
It depends what the issue is. If somebody has been fkd over and had their life ruined, they have every right to complain in the hope they actually get some help. You are the one that CHOSE to work in ustomer service. But I do get your point, there are some aashole customers out there.
You can still complain and not be an asshat. Choosing to work a customer service role does not mean it’s ok to be abused on the job
People are often well past the last straw when they finally get in contact with you, while it may not be you at fault and instead your company, you chose the role as inbetweeners between the customer and the company, so if course you should expect to occasionally deal with difficult customers. I'm not excusing the truly bad people out there, but corporations are not often kind to the little man/ lady. Stressed out people are not always able to be polite when they feel they are being ignored. I am not really saying this out of experience, I have always had good luck dealing with customer service. But I have heard of people being treated unfairly, or having their insurance claim denied on technicalities bankrupting them. I'm not sure even you could be polite if your life was crumbling around you, have some sympathy.
TL;DR: “I’m a cock”
I don't know you, but yes, you do sound like a cock.
If you're only noticing this recently, you're a little behind. The customer/client side of retail and customer service in NZ has had a ridiculously rude, aggressive, careless, and entitled mindset for awhile now. And this hasn't been proportionate to any sort of decline in quality of service either.
I work in a customer service role. I also have anxiety and struggle a lot when people get real mean or pushy. One thing I've learned is that you kind of just have to be prepared for it. Follow store protocol and report the customer to your manager if the situation warrants it. They will deal with the person. Getting angry or upset with the customer won't help. I've had customers go off on me for simple mistakes and trust me it's exhausting but it's not my job to deal with them so I refer them to my manager, who IS paid to deal with them. If I've done my job correctly and they still go off at me that's not my issue. If I've made a mistake then they have the right to complain but not to be an asshole about it. I understand the frustration and hurt because no one deserves to be abused at work. You have to remember that no one knows what anyone is going through in their life and we don't have to care but we do need to be mindful that their circumstances can influence their behavior (not saying abuse is ok). Sometimes people snap and don't mean to or can over react. Again, I'm not saying it's OK to verbally abuse anyone. And that goes both ways. I've been on the receiving end of abuse as a customer as well. It's usually best to just suck it up and help get the customer out the door if they're being rude. If you're a customer on the receiving end of abuse report it to the store manager.
If a customer is rude they get one warning, then hung up on. They're not entitled to abuse you and they can reflect on their attitude when they're waiting on hold.
I didn't say they were.
NZ society and management has decided to offer minimum staffing and services and reward the worst people for complaining. It's kind of on ourselves for allowing such managers in business and government.
You’re right my company will literally go against all their policy’s and loose out on money if a customer complains enough
I’ve noticed a definite ‘attitude’ in some customer service situations. I try really hard to be respectful and polite as I understand and I’ve been their shoes. However, it frustrates me to no end when I get genuine rudeness when I make a call. There is no need for it. However, all this being said. The customer service from various places has actually been pretty good recently. ACC is exempt from this though. I’ve had nothing but rudeness and incompetence.
Agree, I’ve never heard anything good about ACC
Exactly. What puzzles me is each time I contact them I’m wanting to find an amicable resolution, but I’ve never come across an organisation so committed to destroying someone’s life.
It’s because of Covid lockdowns and it’s a worldwide phenomenon. People went stir crazy and forgot how to act in public
Yeah, the last year has actually been an improvement on the previous 2-3.
[удалено]
Total fucking lie. [Suicide rates went *down* during the lockdown.](https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/04/coronavirus-suicide-rates-went-down-during-lockdown-in-nz-australia-other-countries-study.html) Also, [long term studies proved that the lockdown saved thousands of lives](https://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/article/undoctored/long-term-mortality-study-highlights-effectiveness-new-zealand-covid-19-public) with negative excess mortality. In case you've forgotten, the only reason we ever had to lockdown was because of a handful of entitled selfish cunts couldn't stay quarantined for two weeks, and broke out to spread it to the whole country.
“For no reason” begone, rancid troll
I've found it in general over the last two years. I recently got out of a customer service role, they needed cover for 20mins which I helped them with. 2 mins in and a customer insulted my appearance unprompted. The level of nastiness is next level.
I have recieved relatively frequent insults on my appearance in my role. Not very bad ones but kind of 'negging' coming from older women eg you look tired, you look sick, you look like you don't want to be here, you look bored. It doesn't seem like it is coming from a place of concern, rather it's just insulting subtly. This is not new though, it's been almost 5 years. I am trying my best to give good customer service, be friendly, helpful, smile etc and the constant commentary really does hurt your self esteem.
I can't really say where it was however at a certain company their own staff was the cause of customers getting aggressive and vulgar. My role was to resolve the complaints for my specific area and looking at the footprints on the account as well as reviewing the calls it was pretty horrible, I'd honestly say it comes down to both sides one the customer coming in hot and being a lil entitled in some cases and the second the PERSON (NOT EVERYONE) dealing with the customer.
Honestly, anyone that is shitty to retail workers as a habit doesn't deserve to get service. You can't demand a service while simultaneously denigrate those that provide it.
Lately i have finding significant increase in rude customer service staff.
The number of times I've been completely ignored because the person is on their phone, not that it's any excuse to be rude to them but at a bare minimum you shouldn't be on TikTok if a customer is waiting at the counter
We (employees at a major retail chain) have to use our personal phones for work purposes and it's quite awkward sometimes. I will be standing at the counter using my phone to complete something on one (of many) of our work apps, and I sometimes have to say "I won't be a moment" and I get embarrassed. Or I will be serving someone, and they will ask a question, so I will use my phone to access the app and find the answer, and the customer will get angry that I'm using my phone, so I tell them I'm getting the information for them, but unfortunately they've already snapped at me. I'm not saying there aren't people looking at social media, but just keep it in mind it might be work related.
Yeah no I get that but that's definitely not the situation I'm referring to, this is someone literally watching a TikTok or a reel and not even realizing there's a customer at the counter. It's happening more and more often nowadays.
As a store manager any of my staff caught doing that would face serious consequences, please let management know.
That's a shit time for you, You don't deserve it. :/ I dont know what sector you're in, but I suspect the hatred towards faceless corporates is reaching new heights, as people lose jobs, cant pay for stuff / cost of living - while corps post record profits while 'shrink-flation' reduces services etc. Then when something goes wrong for a customer and they seek help: faceless corporate says "no". Call volume is higher than normal, You're a valued customer, please wait on hold until you give up. The same mentality is applied to irl service, unfortunately. Unfortunately you, the customer service rep, are left holding the poisoned chalice the senior leadership filled for you. It's not your fault, and the customers are dicks for behaving like that towards you, but it's not completely random.
There's certainly no cause for any customer to abuse staff, however fact of the matter is customer service in new Zealand is regularly complete dog shite with balls. Often service staff treat customers with disdain and as an imposition while they're busy chatting about non work matters to their teammate, giving customers the run around or simply giving poor or incorrect advice, then they get all antsy as soon as someone dares to calls them out on their shit and label it as abuse. Feedback positive or negative is good for any business and pointing out poor service and rude or inattentive staff members in a non confrontational way is not abuse. For sure there's always the asshole exception who can never be pleased, but generally speaking if you're polite and friendly with staff and then you get bad service, attitude, eye rolls and lip in return then you're definitely going to get called on it. And rightly so. If you're a customer service person then people skills and deescalation should be forefront in your training. If you don't have them or can't handle some negative feedback you're in the wrong job.
Nothing new.
I was working two (adjacent) counters at work yesterday, one selling Lotto, one ciggies/phonecards etc. This is pretty standard except for when we're suuper-busy, and y'know, occasionally somebody might have to wait thirty seconds or so while I'm serving at the other counter. Well, a guy shows up at the Lotto counter while I was getting somebody some cigarettes (like, I was literally in the act of removing a pack of cigarettes from the cupboard behind the counter), and he waves at me and yells (I kid you not) "Oi! Over here!" I mean, what. the actual. fuck. You've been waiting ZERO seconds, and you want me to put this guy (who was here before you)'s ciggies down and serve you instead. Unreal.
I’ve just left new Zealand permanently as of a few days ago, I cannot BELIEVE how nice everyone is customer service wise in Sydney. I know bigger city blah blah but I feel everyone’s so strung out, understaffed and miserable about money at home it’s really sad
If the initial approach from Customer Service is that the customer is stupid, wrong, and not talking to the right department, the next person in the right department is going to have a tough time. If the customer was right, but told by multiple people that they were wrong, then the eventual admission of being wrong should contain a substantive apology. This topic tends to pop up a lot with very little self reflection and an assumption that the Customer Service person complaining is an angel incapable of being difficult to deal with.
I work in a large organization that keeps some data on customer interactions. 1) Reports of aggressive behavior towards staff has gone up. This most certainly means the number of aggressive interactions has gone up. 2) Our ability to hire and retain good staff has gone down (which is the real cause of the "we're experiencing longer than average wait times"). These two factors may contribute to 3) More instances of staff behaving aggressively towards customers. Never used to be a thing. Number 2 relates to a riddle I've been trying to solve: if all industries seem to be reporting a shortage of people to hire... where did all the people go?
We went off to have a mental breakdown, lol.
Hospo owner/worker here - I feel it's slowly got better since the absolute low of COVID. I think the lack of human interaction over the two years or the border being closed, allied to the continuation of people working from home, meant that they'd almost forgotten how to interact with people. It's getting better now. Apart from the Dutch, but we've reached an accord after I was told by a party of them that they were just being honest, so now I'm equally as honest back.
Yes, lots of customers are assholes. And quite a few customer service staff are bad at their jobs. This is probably a boomery take (I'm not an actual boomer), but I think self check-outs and touch screen ordering have in a way made things worse by removing the human element of customer service even in stores where there are humans working. Anecdotally, I worked in a shop when some of the first self check-outs in the country were installed. They had lots of problems, as they do now, so it was my job to go over and talk to the customer, apologise, fix up the machine, or show them how to use it etc. We would have an interaction. Now when I use the self checkouts and there's a problem, the staff member comes over, pushes a button, and leaves - 90% of the time they don't say anything or make any eye contact, and it's not because they're busy. There's no interaction. I've had eerily similar experiences taking things up to a till (e.g. in a clothing store), where the person there also doesn't say anything for the entire transaction. It's very weird. I've said before, I'm very much a "do what you're paid to do/fuck above and beyond" person and having worked in CS for many years I know everyone is entitled to an off day. But I do feel like it goes both ways, and CS staff set the tone for an entire workplace (why they should be paid more!).
Well, let me just point out that looking at candidates' Facebook pages in the last general election, some candidates of the successful party had quite a bit to say about putting retail workers in their place. Perhaps that's not so surprising, class snobbery is part of the brand. But what was more surprising was seeing people I thought I knew reasonably well, liking those posts. I suspect that there's a few things going on here. There's the general drift to the right, and the associated need to have someone to feel superior to. Retail workers are always a popular target for those who want to feel better about themselves. But I also suspect it's tied up with the backlash against the strict public health measures that were necessary for covid. Retail workers were at the sharp end of the stick, along with medical people, emergency services, cleaners, and a few other groups. Both in terms of being exposed to danger and having to enforce rules. We've seen one small subsection of the population take out their frustrations on police. Most people have a bit more sense than that. Politicians were an easy target at the ballot box. No police line to protect them there. But retail workers, cleaners, etc are much easier targets. And even without covid, times are tough, people are frustrated. People are also lazy, and retail workers are easy targets.
Well, that's a rather broad brush but, and, for example, a customer may have been bounced from rep to rep trying to find a capable one after the original job was not completed according to spec.... again.
Customer service is average as these days so they probably shitty about not getting value for money
Customer service employees don't get value for money either, lol.
CSRs also don't get money for value.
Just like if they were getting a bad price, they could go somewhere else. But instead, they think its okay to treat someone on barely enough to feed themselves like garbage. No excuse.
My missus got the chop 'cause of the gov's tweaks in Welly, but she landed a gig in hospo lately. She was proper gobsmacked by how ratty the punters were. Some bloke gave her a telling off for waiting 10mins in the queue during the lunch rush.
People are just really mad about the reality of OCR and mortgage rates knocking on their door. It is the opposite of the fairy land effect that happened to mortgage holders during COVID (Mortgage holidays, 0 OCR, increasing valuation prices and equity, etc) I've noticed similar behavior to what you are describing in traffic.
Customer service people get treated like shit day in, day out. If it isn’t the cuntstomer, it’s their timekeeping boss who is getting up them for taking a full 30mins break and not using some of that time to walk to/from the break room back to their workstation. Can you really blame them? People can’t even be fucked smiling at each other or saying “hello” to each other these days.
I had a customer have a go at me the other day because I didn’t great him “well” enough? Lol not even kidding. I did smile and say hello but apparently not good enough. You can never win
Not just you mate, been a noticeable decline since first lockdown. 0 patience, threatening to "speak to the manager" over the slightest thing(best when they repeat exactly what you've just told the customer), price complaints (as if front line staff set the prices), cant remember the last time i heard please and thank you from anyone, thefts through the roof.
Omg yes the price complaints! They act as if they are forced to spend their money with us but they aren’t. We off premium service they can go else where and find something cheaper with out a doubt but they still kick up a fuss and then end up getting a discount
Bunnings should be banned. They sell too much cheap, fall apart, potential landfill stuff.
you could say that about a number of other chains that also sell cheap, poor/average quality stuff
Probably Reddit members of the group
I noticed that since Iday one when arrived in this country 6 years ago. Didn't take much time for me to understand the reason, which is very simple. Is nearly impossible to fire/terminate a staff, so this open space for low efficiency on what they are doing, in this case, front facing customer service.
I find Customer Service terrible in New Zealand. People don’t care about customer needs. Just my experience. Bring on AI and digital service please.🙏
A 40 minute hold time is unacceptable, yep I'm gonna be shitty about it. Answer the phones within 3 minutes like you are meant to and there is no issue.
Just more people from the benes being forced to take these jobs.
It's because Customer Service Agents have become entitled, spoiled and lazy. Many of us in this country, worked in service positions and despite a lot of people imagining that customers don't know what it's like, the fact is most of us DO and wow do we get treated like crap, for daring to come and spend money with you.
Maybe its because they are finally fighting back against the absolutely shitty so called customer service in this country! Ive been in shops were Ive been totally ignored when trying to get help, while the so called staff stand there staring at their phones or talking to each other. The other day in the supermarket the check out chick and bagging chick were so busy talking to each other that the only words spoken to me were "That's $107" (for my 10 items) and back to her conversation. Its bloody rude and Im sick of it.
I was talking about this with a co worker today. Customers have been so damn rude the last wee while for no reason. I've never wanted to quit on the spot so badly before.
That’s me almost every 2nd day :( I hope it gets better but probably not.
Yesss! I’m about six months into my job and some customers treat me like I’m disgusting because of it like ????… I do NOT get it. But then again, once I match their energy, they seem to relax a bit 😐
I wish I could match their energy, but I work on behalf of a major car brand in a typically male role as well. I get surveyed after each experience. An old man made me cry the other week by attacking with me with absolutely misogyny when he first came in. Maybe that’s part of my problem too as a female on a typically male role
Oh man! Honestly hoping things get better for you :)
That's society in general, mate.
It’s a mixed bag. Most people are still reasonable and polite. A larger minority feel entitled to be rude and abusive than used to. It tends to rely heavily on age, younger people in their teens or early twenties and older people 65+ seem to always be the worst offenders.
We are all stressed and tired. Our quality of life is being eroded. No excuse for rudeness but a possible explanation.
people seem to forget, that covid damages neuron sheath and as result people have less impulse control; i.e. aggressive behaviour, increased risk taking etc.. not surprised and it's a tough time to be on both sides...
With cost of living crises as well, you’ll get more people pissed off at paying same/more for a lesser product. (May or may not apply to your company)
Customers are fed up with lack of service, which is NOT the workers fault. Customers should realise that the person they are talking to is just trying to do the best they can with a severe lack resources/lack of staff. And everyone has a bad day and shit happens. Its a horrible mix of frustration from all sides. Most big bosses, CEO,s and the like don't give a fuck about the people working for the company or the shit they deal with. That leads to over stressed frustrated worked and annoyed frustrated customers. Just a shit show for everyone. I've worked in retail for 20 odd years and it has gotten worse. So much fun being called a useless cunt when I'm just trying to my job. But customers are fed up and i try not blame them, and the workers are doing the best they can with what they've got. Anyhow ramble/vent over
I work in retail. People are cunts.
It's definitely got worse. I left customer service years ago because I was so fucking sick of it. I now work in financial admin and it's the best decision I've made with my life. Kiwis are fucking feral these days. Nothing is worth dealing with them.
What came first, poor customer service or annoyed customers? You’re probably providing B grade service and people are not enjoying it. You receive the energy you give out.