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SteveFJong -at- aol -dot- com wrote:
> This is all part of the same market economy in which you
> go to a superstore and buy commodities at everyday low prices,
> but if you have a question or a problem you might as well be
> on Gilligan's Island for all the help you're gonna find. It's
> the same deal as going to the gas station and pumping your
> own and never seeing an employee.
I worked through the management revolution in the '80s or thereabouts,
which concluded that what customers wanted was personalized customer
service with a human touch. But I always preferred the commoditized
services. I like doing research on the web, then waiting for the sale
at Best Buy; I don't need to talk to their salespeople. I still think
card readers on the gas pump was the greatest customer service
innovation of the time.
(I think this is on-topic, because as a tech writer I regularly
confront the issue of personalization vs. generalization in information
delivery - think site branding, cookies, conditional docs, etc.)
There are still full-service gas stations and boutique electronics
stores where you can get all the help you need, but they are more
expensive, which reflects the true cost of providing that level of
service.
Some of the older folks in my family talk about old-style stores where
the clerks were experts on their products and could help you with
anything in the store. That's great, but what they forget is that guy
was a career clerk at that store, who probably made enough to raise a
family and had a reasonable expectation of job security. In a
superstore the employees are paid $8/hr or less (US) and are treated
like used Kleenex. So if you want an SME, somebody has to pay the bill
somewhere along the line.
> And when you get your purchase home, if there's a
> problem, you log in to a Web site and hope that yours
> is a frequently asked question.
This is where it helps to invest some time into becoming minimally
geeky, at least enough to research and solve basic problems with
consumer goods. Yeah, I know, not everyone can do this (or wants to).
Mike O.
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