Fighting Bad Customer Service: When Employers Share the Blame

Companies can’t control everything causing poor customer experiences—but they play a crucial role

Customer service continues to decline, and Americans are fed up with it. Many people are taking their dollars and goodwill away from poor-performing companies, and many service workers share horror stories about impolite and impatient customers.

Employers share the responsibility, including but not limited to the frustrating tech systems they implement. How they hire, where they source employees, and how they treat and set them up for success contribute to a negative feedback loop where workers get lousy treatment from all sides.

Let’s look at the state of customer service, what’s driving it, and where employers can improve.

Customer service continues its decline—and “rage” is more common

A recent Customer Care Measurement and Arizona State University survey revealed that “74% of customers” reported customer service issues, “up from 66% in 2020 and 56% in 2017.” Straight-up “customer rage” hit 63%.

The number of people seeking revenge for these slights—actively badmouthing a company and seeking forms of redress—tripled from 3% in 2020 to 9%.

Many of these issues stem from companies having trouble keeping up with demand and turning to cheaper customer service methods. The poorly understood overseas call center representative with a limited ability to fix problems has been joined by frustrating chatbots and AI phone systems that do not understand—much less fix—complaints.

Nevertheless, human interactions aren’t faring much better. By the time a customer reaches an actual person, they not only have the original problem but may have had to jump through many automated hoops to get there. Then, they are asked to repeat much of the same information, upping the frustration and tendency to lash out at the rep.

In-person service workers don’t deal with many tech issues but also face significant abuse. Georgetown University Professor Christine Porath conducted several surveys gauging the treatment of all “frontline workers.” She reports that the proportions “treated rudely at work at least once a month” were:

• Nearly half in 2005
• 55% in 2011
• 62% in 2016
• 76% in 2022

An overwhelming majority of respondents reported that “it’s not unusual for customers to behave badly” and said that more customers are treating workers and other customers rudely. And various industries, from airlines to restaurants to retail, see the treatment only getting worse after the height of the pandemic.

Why customer service is falling short

Experts cite many macro trends, including “a shortage in workers in some industries, the proliferation of tech as a part of the process, and a lack of incentive for companies without competition.” “[I]ncreased customer expectations not being met” gets to the root of the problem.

But narrowing it down to what employees go through illuminates what employers may be able to influence. For example, two former customer service reps told ABC News that “it’s one of the worst jobs in the world.”

“It’s not an easy job, because you’re trying to appease the company that you work for and then you’re trying to appease the angry customer who disagrees with the policies,” said Mark Pavlic, a former cable company rep.

“You’re just [an] entry-level position. You just do what you’re told,” added Jacob Curtis, who worked for a home security firm.

Among the challenges are dealing with the volume of customer issues, high-pressure workplace standards, micromanaging oversight, “a focus on sales over customer service,” and rigid policies that give service workers little autonomy to make things right.

Company systems and policies contribute to a poor customer service experience and often set up this dynamic in the first place. By the time a consumer has communicated an issue, resolving it may have vastly grown in time and difficulty, along with their frustration.

“I was trying to cancel this contract we’d been roped into, and it became this whole ordeal,” an Oregon woman named Caitlin told the BBC. “[The representative] was stonewalling me, and just kept using these scripted phrases […] Somehow, I got so enraged that I was swearing at him.”

These problems go way beyond call centers and exasperating automated systems, as everyone from flight attendants and waiters to cashiers share them.

And when a worker gets pressure from both sides—customer and employer—and has little power to change things, what’s the motivation to provide good service or stay at the job?

What employers can do to improve worker satisfaction, engagement, and service

The US started shifting rapidly to a service economy in the late 1960s, a trend that accelerated and solidified by the 1990s and early 2000s. US companies generally don’t make things anymore—they sell them or provide other services to consumers.

So, the problem of poor customer service isn’t going away anytime soon, and it points to a fundamental vulnerability in many business models. We have a perfect storm of workers who are not necessarily predisposed or prepared to give good service. And whether or not they don’t or can’t, they’re poorly treated no matter what.

The overall advice for companies attempting to remedy these issues is simple: control what you can control.

Executives can’t change the overall customer service breakdown but can at least do their part. Here are some steps:

• Understand who you are hiring and training—know if they have a mindset for customer service or can develop one with guidance.

• Provide training and create a culture that instills a service mentality and sets workers up for success.

• Controlling what you can control may extend to tech systems, standard operating procedures, and worker autonomy. Identify and eliminate inefficiencies that challenge customers before they deal with a human, where feasible. And empower reps to actually solve problems to the extent possible.

• Treat workers right, as there is a direct correlation between customer service and employee satisfaction. This effort includes setting realistic expectations and providing competitive pay and tangible rewards for good performance.

We are all consumers, so a last piece of advice applies to everyone: try to be a little more understanding and respectful.

Though employers can’t influence every cause of poor customer service, they play a role. And the smart ones change this dynamic one company at a time, often gaining a competitive advantage in the process.

Karp HR Solutions helps businesses master the mix of finance and human resources. Contact us today for a free consultation.