"Uncle Fester" wrote

Work on public transport long enough and respect for travellers goes
down the drain.

You want to try working in an environment where your respect for and
treatment of customers has a direct impact on whether or not you have a pay
packet at the end of the week/month. You'd soon change your attitude.

John.

On Sat, 23 Jul 2005 17:28:47 +0100, John Turner wrote in
, seen in uk.railway:
"Uncle Fester" wrote

Work on public transport long enough and respect for travellers goes
down the drain.

You want to try working in an environment where your respect for and
treatment of customers has a direct impact on whether or not you have a pay
packet at the end of the week/month. You'd soon change your attitude.

Would you like to tell me which environment that is, John?

I'm *not* backing "Uncle Fester" up, believe me. but I can honestly
say that I have not seen any public-facing organisation which
consistently shows any reasonable amount of respect for or decent
treatment of their customers.

"Some good points, some bad points, Adequate overall" would be my
report card on most service organisations in this country.

Shouldn't be that way, of course, but I think that's the way the
British are, so it's what we get.

--
Ross, Lincoln, UK

We're *not* afraid
http://www.werenotafraid.com

"Ross" wrote

Would you like to tell me which environment that is, John?

Self-employment where you survive or fail by your own efforts.

John.

On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 00:39:40 +0100, John Turner wrote in
, seen in uk.railway:
"Ross" wrote

You want to try working in an environment where your respect
for and treatment of customers has a direct impact on whether
or not you have a pay packet at the end of the week/month.
You'd soon change your attitude.

Would you like to tell me which environment that is, John?

Self-employment where you survive or fail by your own efforts.

That would be like, for example, plumbers and jobbing builders,
neither group being people exactly famed for their customer service
abilities? Yet both groups seem to live pretty well, going by the
anecdotal evidence.

I think you can find people in *any* walk of life with the customer
service skills of a angry wasp. It's not really reasonable to say or
infer that "[$Specific Job] must equal Good Service Skills".

--
Ross, Lincoln, UK

We're *not* afraid
http://www.werenotafraid.com

"Ross" replied to

John Turner who wrote

Self-employment where you survive or fail by your own efforts.

That would be like, for example, plumbers and jobbing builders,
neither group being people exactly famed for their customer service
abilities? Yet both groups seem to live pretty well, going by the
anecdotal evidence.

Yes but I wasn't including *criminal activity* in my argument. ;-)

My wife and I run a small model shop where we are totally reliant on the
good will of our customers. We've been doing that for almost twenty years,
but not many customers come back if you treat them with contempt, so we have
to treat them well.

John.

"John Turner" wrote in message
. ..

My wife and I run a small model shop where we are totally reliant on the
good will of our customers. We've been doing that for almost twenty
years, but not many customers come back if you treat them with contempt,
so we have to treat them well.

The difference is that bus drivers, TOC staff et al know full well that we
*have* to use their services - we can't take our business elsewhere at a
similar cost - so they can treat us with as much derision, contempt and
sneering bad-attitude as they like and we are powerless to do anything about
it.

On the odd occasion when I have reported to a company an instance of
appalling behaviour, I have no doubt that, despite the palliative letters
and promises that it would be dealt with, no mention of it would ever have
been made to the offenders.

Ian

John Turner wrote:
"Ross" replied to

John Turner who wrote

Self-employment where you survive or fail by your own efforts.

That would be like, for example, plumbers and jobbing builders,
neither group being people exactly famed for their customer service
abilities? Yet both groups seem to live pretty well, going by the
anecdotal evidence.

Yes but I wasn't including *criminal activity* in my argument. ;-)

My wife and I run a small model shop where we are totally reliant on
the good will of our customers. We've been doing that for almost
twenty years, but not many customers come back if you treat them with
contempt, so we have to treat them well.


But there again, running a model shop you're meeting only those people who
*want* to be there and are induging in their hobby (unless they're buying a
prezzie or somesuch). On that basis I would suggest that you will almost
always be dealing with people who are pleasant and polite. The only time
that someone is likely to be upset about anything is if something they've
bought is defective in some way, but even then most people realise thet you
didn't do it deliberately and are happy to accept your efforts to put things
right.

Does such a situation prevail between railway passengers and station staff?

"John Turner" wrote:

My wife and I run a small model shop where we are totally reliant on the
good will of our customers. We've been doing that for almost twenty years,
but not many customers come back if you treat them with contempt, so we have
to treat them well.


My experience of model railway shops was that they were almost all run
by eccentrics who were decidedly hostile to people. It didn't seem to
prevent them from prospering.

However, times have probably changed since then.

;-)