How do we save customer service

Great Debates
1

In the spirit of these two pit threads I have placed this in GD.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=68289
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=69727

So the question is, how do we fix this?

How many of us are managers, business owners, know a member of congress, are authors or artists who could get work published to send our message. The 15,000+ readers of the dope just might be able to make a difference that will make this country a better place to work and live.

What is the core problem we are solving by keeping bad employees or not retaining good ones?

Get specific?

More pay/benefits?
Fewer hours?
More individual accountability and rewards?
Are we all just to damn greedy?
Protections to prevent cheap sweatshop made products from flooding our markets?
Are we too swamped with labor laws and lawsuits to be able to afford to do business properly?
Are we looking at things the wrong way?
One example of the last question,

We as a company are also going through some heavy changes in our purchasing, shipping/recieving, and inventory. All of them IMHO are for the better. One of the things part of these systems will do is give us much better analysis of cost of sales on a given customer. Many of our sales force are bucking at the leash on this because the inventory people are saying “why are you giving away the store” while the sales force cries what “uncooperative attitudes” we have. Its kinda scary when you see people who don’t care that we spend $9,500 for a $10,000 customer by kissing their butt when other “less favored” customers are actually pulling the load. I realize that the bigger customers move more product therfore enabling us to aquire new product but jeez.

2

Ok, so now we’re expecting Congress to fix the lousy service at KMart. I’ve already expressed my opinion that the companies are at fault. How are you going to pass a law that makes companies give employees an incentive to put more effort into their work?

I doubt it. After all, WalMart just ignores labor laws that it doesn’t like. If the respective justice departments do bother punishing them, they just pay the fines, which are tiny compared to profits. Examples of WalMart breaking laws include firing any employee who tires to unionize and breaking child-labor laws such as most states’ laws about maximum hours for certain age groups. And while you often hear about consumers winning huge settlements, the amounts are always reduced drastically during the appeals process.

So how do we fix this?
I’m not convinced there’s a problem as far as the customers are concerned. It’s a tradeoff in terms of what the companies are willing to provide and what the customers are willing to accept. The customers are still eating fast food and shopping at discount retailers, so where exactly is the problem?

3

Just looking for angles to get the message out and or influence things like trade agreements that make it difficult for domestic business to compete. Not asking for a legal solution to laziness.

Yes but often the customer dosen’t see the problem. For example, clothing that starts to fall apart after a 20-30 wearings and not even remembering that all of the poorly made stuff all came from the same store.