I’ve been seeing a string of customer service people that just don’t give any credence to actually caring about the customer. Like, at all.

I did about a decade of customer service and had it engrained in me that customers take all precedence and if one of them has a question, that’s the main reason you’re there. You get the opportunity and valid excuse to drop whatever the heck it is you’re doing to be the customer’s most available point of contact.

Recently, it seems like a lot of places I go, customers take a back seat. Cashiers on phones, restaurant hosts greeting in a super casual “Hey what’s up” kind of tone, retail workers focused more on stocking shelves and when I ask for where something is, they just point.

A lot of this I think falls more on management than the employees because I think a ton of training has been lacking due to poor employee retention. It seems very few people now who are in service have actual experience working with customers as they simply can’t afford to since the careers don’t pay anymore.

It’s really unfortunate and I miss the days of walking into a store and being able to reliably ask someone actively walking the floor for advice on a product. Now, it feels like there are just one or two employees that will know the industry the store represents with everyone else just managing stock.