Dear Readers: You overwhelmed me with interesting replies to “Too Impersonal,” the letter saying that there is a lack of customer service today. Here is a sampling:
Dear Annie: I’m younger and, on the flip side, most people of my generation hate talking on the phone and also find the internet easier and better for many reasons.
First, it’s easier to visualize your seat on a plane or date on a calendar or whatever else when picking online. Second, all answers to your questions are typed out and on record, so you won’t accidentally be screwed by a person giving you a wrong answer. You also can go back and reference them when needed.
I see all of these things as customer service, just a different form. I honestly get very frustrated when I email a question and get called back, because then I have no record of what I was told, and if it was wrong, I’m stuck with no recourse or defense.
— Millennial
Dear Annie: I am approaching my 40s and have worked in customer service my whole life.
What many call “efficiency” is essentially taking resources away from the workers at the bottom — call centers, grocery stores, doctor’s offices — in the name of cost effectiveness. Why pay workers in America an American living wage when you can pay workers in India or Mexico pennies on the dollar in wages?
Our current work and business culture puts profits over people at every turn, and this includes the customers and the workers.
— Bigger Issue
Dear Annie: I worked for 25 years in the corporate world in customer service at an insurance company. The company motto was, “establish lifetime relationships with our members.”
But once I got them on a plan, I was never able to talk to them. They had to be transferred, and they could never talk to the same person.
I decided to become an independent agent specializing in Medicare. Now I’m living the dream, meeting face-to-face with seniors in their home. I meet their dogs and their grandchildren, and sadly I attend their funerals. They get “snail mail,” handwritten cards in the mail.
I feel like I have about 400 grandparents.
— Living the Dream
Dear Annie: I, too, remember having a personal physician who took such great care of me and spent time making sure to take care of my health. I was devastated when she retired and I was forced to use a hospital with a rotating staff of whoever is available and seven-minute biannual appointments.
I haven’t seen an actual doctor in years. I once noticed that my chart had been checked by a doctor, but I never spoke to him. My suggestion to “Too Impersonal” would be to try small or new businesses.
— Keep Trying
Dear Annie: I am also frustrated by the lack of customer service today compared with years ago, but computers make many other aspects of our lives much easier. Younger generations seem to thrive in this scenario today.
I’ve learned to adapt and now get compliments from younger people who are surprised by my ability to utilize the computer and iPhone.
I used to work in a bank and often saw long lines of customers waiting to handle their transactions, as everyone at one time did all their banking in person. I still go to my bank, and there are no long lines of customers today.
— Computer Savvy in the Midwest
Dear Annie: Gone are the days when doctors could spend as much time as they want with a patient, unless the doctor has a “boutique” practice where insurance is not accepted and the patient makes the claims themselves, plus pays an annual fee to the doctor for access.
What I am saying is that the old country doctor of years past is an anachronism, and many solo practice doctors have had to become employees of for-profit hospitals and corporations in order to survive.
Trust me, most don’t like it. And the newer younger doctors who graduated from medical school since the mid 2000s don’t know it any other way.
— Adapting
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— A native Californian, Annie Lane writes her Dear Annie advice columns from her home outside New York City, where she lives with her husband, two kids and two dogs. Her latest anthology, How Can I Forgive My Cheating Partner?, features favorite columns on marriage, infidelity, communication and reconciliation, and is available as a paperback and e-book. Email your Dear Annie questions to [email protected]. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.
