Customer Service

How are we preparing the next generation to treat customers?

I grew up being a boy scout in the early eighties. To raise money for the troop, we used have annual bottle drives. We would walk the communities, in pairs, wringing doorbells, while a parent would follow in a vehicle, which we would load with donated bottles and cans. When asking for donations, even the youngest were taught to always smile and be polite. We wore the uniform of our troop and would diligently explain what the donations would fund. Whether a contribution was offered or not, we kindly thanked the member of our community before leaving.

Over the last few years, my observation is that scouts wringing the doorbells look like more disgusted and resentful at the process than anything. They stare at their feet – offering no explanation for their being there other than a curt “Got any bottles?” Is it a sense of entitlement? Laziness? Fear?

This year, no scout visited at all. Instead we received a notice. It stated that our local boy and girl scouts would be accepting donations, and if we wanted to contribute we were to have our bottles bagged, labelled and on the curb by nine-o-clock Saturday morning.

The kids are no longer required to interact with the community, asking for donations personally. Instead they whizzed through the community – no uniforms – parents doing much of the work. I can appreciate that this affords greater efficiency on a cold Canadian morning, but what is the cost? I think it’s an example of how we are contributing to an ever-lower level of customer service.

All successful relationships are based on empathy and interaction… and those are traits that have to be taught and practiced. How are we expecting these kids to develop the subtleties of interacting with strangers if they are spared the challenge? Why are we rescuing our children from character building experiences such as where they have to initiate a conversation, or make a request from an adult?

It’s no wonder that so many young adults manning tills and taking phone calls today have no idea how to treat a customer. I don’t believe that the youth is to blame… they are traveling the road we have laid out. Unfortunately, we are all poorer for it.