Common Led Questions

1. What happened to "customer service", and why is the customer never "right" anymore?

This question seems to suggest that u201csomethingu201d has happened to customer service that is bad and also that the customer is u201calwaysu201d right.

In general there has been a move away from u201cpersonalizedu201d services particularly in big box retail stores. Just try and find a sales clerk or even an open cash register in some of the larger department stores. This was caused of course, through the realization that the shopping public could wander through the store and would self serve itself and likely would purchase more things impulsively.

Most importantly these companies recognized that they could significantly reduce their costs and improve the bottom line by eliminating large numbers of employees and staffing with more part time people. They created a depersonalized shopping environment. This was one factor that contributed to growth for the big box retail.

With only a limited number of people to speak to particularly when there was a problem generates increasing levels of frustration leading people to believe that they are not valued. On the management side the industry becomes caught in a no win situation. On the one hand there is recognition that improving customer satisfaction increases sales.

However, the best way to do this means increasing staff. The frustration is that retail has past the tipping point; operating cost vs staffing increases will not drive profitability. This is because another player entered the retail arena; Internet retailers.

Now the customer can wander through an online store from anywhere they happen to be. For the retailer infrastructure /overhead can be significantly reduced as can staffing while providing a somewhat better and more competitive shopping experience. One additional benefit is the large online retailers can afford to hire large numbers of people to answer customer questions, resolve technical issues, and manage disputes; enter the call center representatives (CSRs).

CSRS are the in personal face of many companies. There are many factors that play into providing high quality customer service. It all begins with a corporate vision of how valuable the customer is and a willingness to do everything it takes (within reason) to build customer loyalty.

Two industries that fail at this are the telecommunications and cable/satellite services companies.Generally speaking if you create a retail environment that is governed by a set of arbitrary rules whose only purpose is to serve the financial goals of the company without any regard for the needs or wants of their customers then no matter how well trained or skilled the CSR is the customer experience will be lacking. My father who built and owned a small but very successful business told me the secret of his success.

I had watched him deal with an angry, frustrated, and verbally abusive customer who was clearly in the wrong and knew it. I was absolutely stunned when he took the customeru2019s side, appologized, and resolved the issue. My dad was not a nonconfrontational peson.

Quite the opposite. He was very opinionated and argumentative. Not so with his customers.

He shared his business philosophy with me as follows; u201cThe customer is not always right. But, the customer is always the customer.u201d The most valuable asset a company has is its customer base.

Companies that lose sight of this and specifically corporate executives who do not walk a mile in their customersu2019 shoes are doomed to living in anticipation of the next PR disaster or class action lawsuit. Today we see this with the airline and I wonder when and how often the CEOs of these companies have flown an economy class customer. Or when has an executive for a telecommunications company spent a day on the phones as a front line CSR.

No the customer is NOT always right and yes some customers are assholes. Similarly, some companies just see their customers as dollar signs on a balance sheet and worse yet as inconvenient middlemen between the company and the customers bank account. These are the companies that we will continue to see in the headlines living with public relations disasters, lawsuits, and congressional hearings.

They will also be the ones spending ludicrous amounts of money with spin meisters to paper over their failings. Unfortunately, we seldom hear about the companies who lead the way in delivering outstanding service, who empower their front line employees to fulfill the philosophy that the most important asset is the customer even when they are an asshole because at the end of the day the customer is still the customer and as a business you want them to come back and purchase something once more

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2. ?

What causes the rise of sociology

All the previous answers are wrong.There is only one cause of the emergence of sociology and that is CAPITALISM.It is that simple.

Capitalism is based on ever expanding division of labor, wealth accumulation, and private property rights. It takes a great deal of wealth to run a sociology department at most any big U. Where does that money come from?

It comes from the taxpayers and donors and 200 years ago it from the landed gentry that was being financially damaged by capitalism. Today it would be anti capitalists that got rich from their dadu2019s capitalism or even their own (Jeff Bezos). Capitalism destroyed feudalism.

The Barons and such were losing their indentured servants to the crowded factories with miserable working conditions. Why? Because as miserable as it was, it was much better than living like a destitute share cropper on someone elseu2019s land.

Thus the war on capitalism started as soon as the rich old money started getting hammered by capitalism offering something better to the peasants. Sociologists were the emergent answer. The landed class needed someone with credentials to explain how bad capitalism was.

The war on capitalism started the same time that individuals began obtaining private property rights. Sociology was a tactic the resentment filled anti capitalists created to fight capitalism.But Sociology has nothing to offer.

It creates no wealth. It is the Entrepreneurs who are the magic sauce in capitalism. They createthe wealth for ever increasing division of labor (specialists).

Entrepreneurs advanced our living standards and our wealth. Entrepreneurs and sociologists are the result of capitalism. Entrepreneurs create wealth and make lives better.

Sociologists complain and want to eliminate capitalism in favor of tribalism. I find it humorous that the Soc Profs pull out the long knives to kill the very system that creates the surplus wealth so sociology can even exist as a department at some university. Let me restate: The chief cause of the emergence of Sociology was Capitalism.

How you may is this possible? Four reasons:Capitalism created enemies among the old landed rich. They were losing their serfs.

And they needed an ally with credentials to attack Capitalism. For them to do it directly would show how greedy and self serving and how much contempt they had for the u201cserfers.u201d Sociologists; environmentalists; leftists these wealthy subsidized to undermine capitalism.

The old money sponsored Hitler. Hitler was a back to the land green vegitarian anti vivisection anti factory guy. Just the man rich old ladies wanted around.

Plus the Jews were creating wealth in factories, because they were not allowed to live like the landed gentry. Sociology even reeks of antisemitism.Sociology is nothing more than tribal study.

Sociology was a name invented to make it sound new and important. It is not based on anything new; sociology promotes command and control top down central planning that is found in primitive cultures. There were clever well read guys that put lipstick on a pig and called it sociology.

Sociology sounded modern. Sociologists couldnu2019t advance the idea of primitivism as a better way of life than an advanced socioeconomic system known as capitalism. The created a field that actually should be called tribalology.

That Capitalism creates the excess wealth to create new specialties. Sociology would never ever have appeared were it not for the Capitalist Revolution. And why would it not have appeared?

Because the peasants would still be down on the farm eking out a living. There would be no entrepreneurs creating wealth. The landed gentry wouldnu2019t have the enemy capitalism so would not have to invest in promoting back to the land movements, environmentalism, and sociology.

The professors today do not actually create wealth. Sociology survives off of the profits of capitalism in spite of the sociology profs contempt for capitalism. No capitalism no department of sociology; no tenured profs in sociology; there just wouldnu2019t be any money.

Again: No capitalism means no wealth>no wealth means no division of labor> no division of labor means there would be no sociologists.It is quite ironic that Sociology professors are resentful of capitalism. The invention that created the excess wealth that allows payment of their salary in modern times.

And it is the anti capitalists that also promote Sociology with donations. Anti capitalists that got rich from capitalism. What causes the emergence of sociology?

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