Imaginative Service: Has Customer Service Really Gotten Worse?

The ‘50’s version of Dilbert was a very popular comic strip called Mutt and Jeff.  The clever “tongue in cheek” style made many a reader chuckle over their eggs and bacon before rushing off to the office.  One strip had Mutt and Jeff enjoying a bit of verbal sparring.   

“If everyone saw like I did,” boasted Jeff, “Everyone would want my wife.”

“If everyone saw like I did,” quipped Mutt, “No one would want your wife.”

It provided a humorous lesson on the “eye of the beholder” side of understanding relationships and experiences.  When someone asks us, “Why has service gotten so bad,” we think of that comic strip.

Remember the scene in the movie Back to the Future when a customer pulled into a gas station and two squeaky clean attendants cheerfully washed the windshield and carefully checked the engine fluids?  Audiences laughed at the obvious spoof.

Was that great service?  We do not remember thinking it was back then.   It was typical neighborly care by loyal employees with time to leisurely serve one customer at a time.  They worked for an enterprise with healthy margins, friendly competition; and without the scrutiny of regulators, the screams of litigious consumers, or the impatience of shareholders.  They served customers with limited choices, relatively low expectations, and plenty of time to wait.

Perhaps the gap between good and bad service is less about how far the bottom has dropped and more about how high the ceiling has been raised.  As customers, we are a lot smarter than we have ever been.  Recall buying your last car?  You probably had more information than the sales person had tactics.  Additionally, as customers we have witnessed great service in pockets of our lives.  When the FedEx or UPS delivery person walks fast, we assume the postal service person should do likewise.  If USAA Insurance’s call center can answer their phone in one ring, why can’t the power company.  Everyone today wants service to always be Disney friendly, Amazon.com easy and Southwest Airlines frugal. 

So, has customer service deteriorated?  It depends on whether you are asking Mutt or Jeff!