Where has customer service gone?

Remember when customer service was your life line to rectify a problem? Now you’re lucky if you reach a person and, if you do, you get someone who is either clueless as to how to resolve your problem, has the personality of a wounded groundhog, informs you the problem is yours and yours alone, has a voice that would scare a wild buffalo, smacks his or her gum while talking or has a sarcastic attitude.

When you do get a friendly, cheerful, responsive, sincere, helpful person on the phone or in person, you just want to reach out and hug them. Companies today are more interested in their bottom line than the customer’s needs and wants. We recently had a new home built by what we thought was a great company. We had several problems come up and the people in charge were either unresponsive, disrespectful, or blurted out “your 30 days are up.” The woman who took the phone calls and tried to help was very nice, helpful and sincere, but trapped in the greedy web of her bosses.

I want to mention a couple of companies we dealt with in order to get our new home completed. CRA, Venice did the extension of our lanai and a mistake was made. I called Larry, the sales manager, and within 48 hours the problem was rectified. He then came to our home to make sure we were satisfied. Dan’s Fans, Bradenton, ws extremely helpful in selecting our ceiling fans. LyteWorks, Bradenton, also was very helpful. Vickie LaMotte, South Lake Design, Sarasota, went above and beyond in assisting us with the selecting, ordering and installing of our window treatments and backsplash. No, I’m not going to mention the builder. Remember, before signing any papers, you need to investigate by asking homeowners if they are satisfied.

This story was originally published February 15, 2017 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Where has customer service gone?."