by Alex Hutchins
When my wife and I were cruising last
month on Royal Caribbean, we were informed by several top officials
from that cruise lines that Americans make the worst employees and are
seldom hired by any cruise line because they do not understand nor do
they offer outstanding to excellent (decreasing in value here)
customer service. Americans make good cruise directors but that is
about it... so, no Americans are hired to cook, wait tables, clean
rooms, serve drinks, or provide security services because of this
lack of awareness as to appropriate customer service.
However, it is my belief that Americans
do understand customer service, it's just that they do not like to be
told what to do by foreigners for starters, and it would also be my
belief that providing this type of customer service is beneath them
and the ego perceptions that they have of themselves. Thirdly, I
would have to say that most Americans that I know or have seen
working, are basically lazy and really strive towards getting paid as
much money as they can for doing as little as they can.
On the other side of the coin, managers
of service workers here in the USA treat those service workers as if
they were no better than animals; in fact, most animal owners treat
their animals better than service workers are treated by
management... hence, part of the reason for the low quality service.
But, is that all there is to it?
No, I don't think so.
Around 1950, American manufacturing was
number ONE in the world as it supplied all the global countries as a
result of the WWII being fought mainly in Europe, completely
destroying the manufacturing base that was once there. As we
manufactured quantity, we were not so much concerned with quality as
we did not have the time to focus on quality, only quantity.
As American manufacturing grew, so too
did the Middle Class Family in America, reaping the benefits of our
economic abilities. As the Middle Class grew and grew and grew, the
mentality of the parents was to make sure that their children never
endured the same hardships that they endured trying to earn a living.
Children were pushed into a different direction or they were pushed
into the direction of college: white collar work as opposed to blue
collar work.
Children born around 1950 were never
going to be like their parents, so from 1970 (+/-) until 2000 (+/-)
they acquired different skill sets, different experiences than their
WWII parents so that when their children were born in the 1970's, by
the 1990's when they were entering the workforce, their attitudes
towards work were entirely different than the work attitudes of the
1950's. And, the children born in the 1990's, when they started
entering the workforce in 2010, an entirely new breed of American
Worker appeared on the scene, there were so far removed from the
1950's that the workers starting in the 1990's had no clue as to how
to manage and motivate these workers.
But, rest assured that these new
workers are in no way planning to pick fruit or vegetables, work in
Call Centers, or sell any Retail products either in person or over
the phone. None of these workers will ever get their hands dirty, so
count out working in fire fighting, emergency services, or law
enforcement. None of these workers will ever consider the idea of
reporting to work each day and sitting behind a desk pushing papers
when they already know that they can do most anything, once it has
been digitized, from the comforts of their own homes, even if they
are still living with their parents.
This new breed of worker:
- may/may not believe in God
- may not have any social heroes
- is really technology savvy
- has no values or intergrity
- sees no reason for company loyalty
- has no interest in moral behavior
- just as feminine as manly
- has no allegience to anyone
- is totally self absorbed
- feels they are owed everything
Of course, I am generalizing here but
if I am only 80% accurate, how will that impact our American Business
and their ability to remain globally competitive?
And, without going too far into the
future, how will their children be should they decide to have any?
My generation... the baby boomers...
on or a few years before/after 1950 have, at best, only 20 good
years left... and, most of that will be lived in retirement or
under strict medical supervision. And, pretty soon, those born on or
around 1970, will be in the same situation that we are currently; so,
in about 30 years, the OLD GUARD will be dead and gone...
Somewhere between 2046 and 2050 is when
the shit will hit the fan, but, as early as 2030, we will know for
sure that the shit is really going to hit the fan and it may be a tad
earlier... who knows? In 2030, I will be 84 and still around to
see if my predictions come true... But, just as sure as someone is
my witness, when that day comes, I will no longer give a shit nor
will I have any desire to tell you that I told you so.
However, the fact remains that
Americans are not good at customer service and since the potential
employment pool for customer service type workers is shrinking in
size big time, there will be a huge void in the customer service
arena that... believe it or not... will be filled by immigrants
and foreigners, causing many Americans, like myself, to bitch even
louder.
My wife and I this afternoon, ventured
up to the big city of Morristown, TN to see if I was eligible to
upgrade my phone to the new S7 Edge by Samsung. We were told no on
the upgrade but that I would be eligible in about 5-6 weeks. In the
meantime, there was this great promo deal on jet packs that we were
eligible for today. So, based upon what our 20 something service rep
told us, we took the deal... only to find out via email when we got
home, that most of what she told us had been a lie... and, if it
was not a lie, then it was certainly not true.
Our rep is going to call us when she
gets to work tomorrow, but we have already boxed up the item and plan
to return it to the store tomorrow since we anticipate a negative
outcome with our phone call. Not only have we wasted a lot of our
time, but we have put mileage on the car that did not need to be
there and we will be burning additional gasoline that did not need
to be burned had we been told the truth.
How many times do companies and their
poorly trained workforce have to misinform customers before those
same customers take their business to another cell phone provider?
And, does that question even matter to management?
Probably not.
And, would you like to know why it
doesn't?
Because, they are getting more new
customers each month than they are losing each month, so the bottom
line is still positive.
None of the cruise ships that are
currently operating in global waters, would have been successful with
that attitude.
You might just say that I am nothing
more than a foolish old man who has nothing better to do with his
time than to write negative articles about America, Americans, or
American companies... and, you may be right, but, what if I am
right and American companies start a serious decline because of the
lack of customer service that I describe here?
Are you going to apologize?
I doubt it... probably because you
will not even remember this article or me.
But, what you will remember will be the
quality that seems to be getting a little worse since the last time
you paid attention to it. And, it may or may not register with you
either that you are paying a higher cost for that lack of quality
than you were the last time. Still, the only way that you will not
buy American is when they are out-of-stock, and you are forced to
purchase the item from a foreign manufacturer... and, once that
happens, you will never buy American again.
It is called GLOBALIZATION... and, it
was put into place by a Republican, if that really matter now. And,
as I have said earlier... it is just a matter of time.
