Fed up with bad customer service in England
I have mellowed considerably over the years during my time living in the UK with regards to customer service. When I first moved here I was shocked and appalled by the lack of good service and ‘friendliness’ in stores, cafes and restaurants. In stores, customers are made to feel guilty and rushed at the checkout counter if they do not pack their bags in a timely manner and vacate the checkout spot before the next customer is ready to pack their bags. The checkout person is already ringing up the next person’s goods and glaring at you to get out of the way. I remember once when I was pregnant and struggling to pack my bags quickly enough due to being literally hugely encombered and making sure my small child didn’t wander off. The checkout lady just sat there (not helping me pack the bags) and stared at me with a look of utter contempt on her face. The next person in line looked like they were going to explode with impatience. Clearly I was inconveniencing everyone around me. I was both outraged and embarrassed.
Rule of thumb for store owners and store assistants: Make sure your customers are neither outraged or embarassed or else they will never spend money in your store again.
Well I am used to this checkout procedure now and it doesn’t really phase me any more although I still chuckle and can’t really see the point. When I tell my kids about how different this is in America they are amazed. But they have different opinions – my son loves the idea of someone helping you pack your bags and my daughter thinks it’s a waste of resources.
Anyways, I have generally kept my opinion of bad customer service in England to myself but a recent event which made me really mad has sparked this rant. My main hates about bad customer service in England:
- Checkout people rushing you to pack your bags and leave as fast as possible so as not to slow them down
- Checkout people glaring at you and sighing loudly when you do not pack your bags and leave as fast as they want you to
- Surly and sloppy manner of waiters and waitresses makes you feel unwelcome
- No eye contact or nice greetings in stores and cafes on buses and in train stations
- No help or assistance in general
- Rudeness in general
- Rude and incompassionate manner in which staff inform you of things
- Shop and store people being rude with regards to my children (ie., looking at them like they are unwelcome when they are doing nothing wrong) Their attitude towards me and my children suggests they do not want me in their establishment even though we are doing nothing wrong.
I think what it comes down to is attitude. If I am requesting something that is out of stock or unavailable or whatever the case may be then that’s fine, I need to be told that. But it is the manner in which staff inform customers of these things needs to change. Often they are impolite, curt and make you feel like you are inconveniencing them! When I complain about something it only makes it worse. I have mortified my husband on serveral occassions when I have made complaints and simarlarly when I have complimented or thanked someone for their help. I think it’s important for people to know when they are providing good customer service. My poor long-suffering children will definitely grow up knowing the difference between good and bad customer service!
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I will admit that sometimes I used to complain about how helpful people were in the US and how annoying it was to go into a shop and have 3 people ask me if I needed help. Now I would gladly have 3 people ask me if I need help finding anything because NOBODY ever seems to be around when I want to ask for help.
My most recent incident lacking in customer service was at the post office. It was at a small one with 2 windows and I patiently waited behind the line for a signal from the employee to let me know he was ready to serve me. There weren’t any customers in front of me, but he was speaking with his colleague so I waited thinking it was business related. When he finally served me I felt like I was an inconvenience and that my questions were silly. He continued to carry on his conversation with his colleague, which was clearly not business related, whilst somewhat helping me. Just as I was paying he shouted his lunch order to another colleague as she walked out the door. I have had similar service each time I’ve been there, but that was the worst!
One time, a post office teller was talking on her mobile phone while I was trying to get service. WOW. I was so shocked I couldn’t even complain! And yes I know what you mean about the service in the States. It can be OTT, but at least they don’t make you feel like you are inconveniencing them!
And to think that I just complained in a blog post about bad customer service in South Africa (Note to Africa: Good Service is Possible!). But the one thing you DO get here are friendly people. They never call you back, but they are incredibly friendly while telling you cheerfully they’ll call you back “just now” – except they never do. I must say, after being reminded about rude European service by you, that I’m probably better off here and shouldn’t complain. Plus, the sun shines 355 days a year:-)
Enjoy the sun! thanks for your comments.
Yes, yes, and yes! Too often I am left bewildered by a complete lack of customer service. My British husband, after many trips to America, agrees. I love many things in the UK, but this certainly isn’t one of them.
Yes, there are some great things about living here but, as you say, good customer service does not make the ‘positives’ list. But it certainly adds to the experience!
I joke that the shops don’t actually like to sell anything since it’s an inconvenience to them! I remember going into the dry cleaners a few years ago at 5:28pm. They closed at 5:30 pm but their tills were all cashed out.
Also frustrating when trying to sort out your phone, internet, etc but they won’t speak to you because your husband’s name is on the account.
So funny Gail!
I’m having the issue right now of sorting out phone service. It’s sooo much easier in the US to do all these things (even for foreigners). We just think alot of the paperwork is illogical.
I called the US via skype to a free 1800 number. They had already completely filled out the form of my request for me before we ever got on the phone. I gave them my payment and it was done. So relaxed and easy. I’m going to be missing that for the next 18 months. sigh.
This is completly true.I relocated to UK from one of the most advanced cities in Asia with a population of about 25million people.Before now,i have lived in so many places in the world .But my experience in UK was so depressing and shocking.Firstly,when i was checking into the hotel from the airport,i was left by the hotel staff staring at me and struggle with all my lauggage and taking them inside from the taxi to the reception one by one,Nobody bothered to help(i felt it was strange and unprofessional)
secondly,while looking for an apartment to rent,the letting agents were so rude on the phone,does not even want to listen to what i had to say and are so prompt that it left me wondering if i had done anything wrong in the past,One was actually texting and recieving messages while i was viewing a home with him for rent and never payed 5% attention to the business of the moment.
The resturants are even worst because they only DUMP the food on the table for with with little or no curtsey.Sometimes with a scarlet smile that give me a chill.
The last time i felt like i was an inmate in a correctional facility been served,maybe the inmates are treated better.Who knows.
Where i came from,people will actually get you embarrased with so much politeness and care that you will not want to leave again.The level of attention is so high and professionality is super.
I guess the british economy will be loosing billions of pounds as a result of this through competition.This also reflects the level of social and moral decadence in the society. Kids are not tought respect and politeness at home nowadays and they take their ignorance to wherever they go.But i must also say,several times in the underground subway trains,people offered to assist me with multiple bags i was carrying(London),i would not say all hope is lost.
Hi Charles, thanks for your comments. I have experienced times like your hotel story-staff staring instead of helping. It makes me so mad!
I have only been in the northeast of England for about half a year and I would say that there is the absence of motivation to be helpful but at the same time I am pretty sure that the north east is MUCH more friendly than other parts of the island.
My experience with a 2 year old is that people in the northeast love children. Someone is always commenting on how gorgeous he is. I love that!
I find that the restaurant scene here needs an overhaul. We were spoiled by the restaurants in the NYC area. Here eating out is … humpf. Apart from the service which is totally lacking, is the quality of the food– mediocre at best!
Hello expat in the northeast. Thanks so much for your comments. Yes I agree, generally customer service is friendly, if not efficient, so that is a positive point. I think you are right, it’s more friendly up north and people are not shy about speaking to people they do not know. And welcome to Britain! I know a year and a half seems like a long time, but I have been here for nearly 15 years and I’m still getting used to things and still learning lots about the culture here.
Perhaps I can give my view as an Englishman who has lived overseas on and off for several years…
I think the underlying problem is bad parenting in this country. The people who provide bad customer service just have awful social skills because they have never been brought up properly. We have a very divided society in the UK.
You’ll see these people talk to each other in the same surly way they talk to customers – it’s just the way they are. Unfortunately this cannot be solved with job training. It requires a better recruitment process to make sure these people are not employed in customer facing roles in the first place.
On a positive note, the influx of Polish service staff has had a massive benefit to the service industry in this country. We are lucky to have them here.
Thanks for your comment Michael. Interesting point and I can see some truth in it, although I think British people are usually very nice and polite once spoken to. Perhaps it’s their inability to offer it up in an obvious way before they are ‘asked’? However, I’m not sure Polish people come from a society where customer service is deemed important. I’ve never been to Poland though so don’t have any first hand experience, I do have a Polish friend and she says customer service in England is better than in Poland.
PS. I do agree, we are lucky to have so many Polish people in the service industry here – their work ethic is fantastic!
We were hoping to move this summer into a bigger place. I just had a terrible experience with a letting agency. They were so rude and unprofessional. When I pointed out to them that I was shocked that our non-committal inquiry about the property was relayed to the owners as an ‘offer’ which is most definitely was not. What she had done was completely misrepresent our level of interest to the property owners. (We had breezed through this house in 15 minutes, it was a wreck and in the midst of renovations, but it was in an area that we wanted to move to.) Our question about the property emerged during their followup phone call, but in no way was it an ‘offer’. Furthermore, it was completely unprofessional of them to argue with me when I pointed this out to them.
The agent refused to admit to any mistakes and then proceeded to act in a presumptuous way and then she proceeded to mock me! I was truly shocked.
Those who work in the service industry (rentals/property management) seem to respond with contempt when you point out to them that ‘hey, I am uncomfortable with what you are doing, and it is presumptuous for you to describe my question as an ‘offer’ to the property owners.’ You would think that someone with any business sense would try to salvage what they can of the deal/transaction, back-pedal by apologizing and saying in a sincere way: ‘I am terribly sorry, I hope that if this property is still of interest to you, that we could continue to work this out in a mutually agreeable manner.’ Instead, what we got in response was contempt and sass from someone who sounded like she was in her twenties. I am in my forties by the way.
When we called back to complain to the manager, I got the ‘oh, I am sorry that *you feel* this way,’ which is not an apology for her rude behavior of mocking.
The feeling that I got was that both the agent and the assistant manager were drinking buddies and that neither one of them cared much about the company that they worked for and that there was no point in complaining further.
But this is also something that I have encountered before: sometimes I am made to feel that the expectation is that the staff are doing me a big favor. I truly don’t understand this attitude toward work. Having come from America and having worked many jobs myself (some of which were not my dream job!), I have always seen my job to be something that I was expected to do and that I did to the best of my ability in the interests of the company and people whom I worked for, I conducted myself in a professional way. I never seen the sullen attitude toward work and the unprofessional and argumentative contempt that I have seen in spades here in the northeast by people who are so loathe to simply focus on the business at hand and to just do their job without injecting whatever baggage or problem they have with Americans into the mix.
It was a truly miserable experience with the locals.
WHEW- sorry for that long post, but that felt good to vent a little. I think that one of the signs that the service system is ‘broken’ here is that the person who has been offended/insulted feels that they have no recourse. It was clear to me that my discussion with the ‘manager’ was going no where and that the management staff cared little about the unprofessional level of professionalism that their letting agency was projecting.
Hello expat in the northeast. That does sound like a very bad experience but I’m not surprised. I’ve been mocked too by people I’m buying a service from (normally over the phone because all they hear is my accent) and it makes me apoplectic which usually doesn’t help my reaction! That is totally out of line and they should be shamed by their treatment of you and their unprofessional manner. Some people don’t realize just much their bad service and rudeness can harm their business. You should make a complaint to watchdog or your local counselor or something. Just to make sure they get feedback from someone that is not you (because clearly they don’t care what you say) and obviously don’t use them as a letting agency anymore. It makes me so angry when I hear stories like yours. You have to really wonder why people are not helpful when it is their job. But to actually be so rude about it is beyond comprehension.
Something a bit funny – there is a lady who works in our local corner shop (one of the chain ‘express’ grocery stores) and she seems like a nice lady but the scowl on her face day in and day out makes me think she hates her job. She’s quite rude to customers and I always feel I’m being a nuisance when I go in to buy something. Although I have seen her chat and laugh with some customers on occasion. It does make me not want to go into that shop to buy things and I avoid it whenever I can. I just don’t get the whole ‘rude to customers’ attitude.
Anyway, I hope you don’t have any more bad experiences like this. It’s such a shame and for no good reason. This is why I think companies here need mandatory customer service training.
I would agree with Michael’s comment. Living in and out of the UK got the last 30 years I can say it has definitely improved. It was much much worse. I do disagree about the North East. I lived in the North East and West, London and South East and experienced no difference at all. I would also say that while the larger stores/ restaurant chains are awful smaller ones are great. Family businesses take the time to get to know you. We still travel from Kazakhstan to our old opticians in the UK. They know the whole family, post out replacement glasses for us and always have a friendly welcome from them. They are not that unusual you just have to take the time to find the right place.
I hear you, Meg, and I’ve seen this, too, but I have a different “take” on it.
When I lived in Cambridge, England, several years ago, I had some great experiences in the shops. I remember returning a pair of black trousers to Marks and Spencers, and then realizing that my white cat had left a lot of her fur on the trousers! I knew that my chance of being able to return this item was zero. No American return department would accept this return! But the sales clerk happily accepted it, and actually stood there for a good five minutes while she and I chatted and picked off the white fur together! I also remember getting very detailed instructions from a check-out woman in a Waitrose in Cambridge on how to cook our Thanksgiving turkey (I’m a vegetarian, and am clueless about cooking meat).
But every once in a while, and this gets to Meg’s experience, I think that a store clerk was rude to me because of my American accent. There’s a love/hate thing with Britons towards Americans–they love a lot of what America represents, they love Disney and New York and Los Angeles, but they despise part of our culture–the loudness, the arrogance, the guns, the ostentatious wealth of some Americans, the never saying “please may I have a Coke,” but instead saying “Give me a Coke.” And I do think that sometimes these things come into play as soon as they hear our accent.
If you want to read more, here’s my post on several sterling examples of rudeness from Brits which, I do believe, came from Ameri-phobia more than anything else!
https://theyearoflivingenglishly.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/us-vs-uk-how-the-british-do-rude/
Hello Virginia, thanks for your comment. Sounds like you had some great experiences! I have noticed that some large companies are now making more of an effort. I think they are starting to see the value in training their staff in good customer service – it does make a huge difference and I have also noticed that more and more British people have raised their expectations when it comes to customer service. Especially those who’ve been to the USA.
Thanks for posting your link. Yes, it’s all in that cold look…. they could be saying the most polite things, but their facial expression and body language are saying the complete opposite!
I’m British and have never been to the USA – So can’t comment on customer service there.
I agree with the criticisms that have been made about standards of service here in the UK. I’m often struck by the rudeness of owners of small business. A recent example is when I bought bread and cakes from a market stall, she just said ‘£2.20’ so I gave her £3.00 and she just chucked the 80p into my hand. I didn’t thank her and she didn’t thank me. I take the view that shop assistants should thank first so I thought ‘f..k you’.
I think it’s cultural in many respects – we simply don’t like to cause a fuss and staff being too friendly can come across as patronising. I would be scared off if three staff asked if I needed help in a shop, as a user above mentioned in their example. Also, customer service vacancies offer the lowest pay and insecure conditions, meaning you can be sacked very easily – So why care?
Sorry I’ve gone on too long!
From Sheffield in South Yorkshire – We’re a bit more welcoming here!!!
Thank you Richard, I think what you’ve said really hits the nail on the head. It’s cultural and it’s also part of the British reserve I think. I recently visited an international school and one of the parents said she was thankful for her time living in England and that one of her take aways when she returns to the States would be to inject some of the British reserve into her life – not too much, mind. Just enough to balance out the ‘gung ho-ness’ of her American lifestyle. I thought that was a great take away from living in England.
Interesting to read the views. I have a slightly different take on it. I actually quite like that the UK has such poor customer service. Let’s face it, if you’re working in shop for minimum wage then you’re not going to be particularly over the moon about it. If you have a huge grin on your face and can’t wait to help people in that job then basically you’re either 1) a liar, or 2) a moron. UK customer service is honest.
That was written only semi-seriously but there is an undercurrent of a point there. I don’t believe people should be deliberately rude, but if they are it’s no skin off my nose. I don’t go into a shop to have a chat, I go in to buy something and by and large I want to be left to my own devices. You have to strike the right balance. I mean I’ve been to America a couple of times and when shopping I was not comfortable, as I found the customer service a little overbearing and disingenuous.
I also have to laugh a little at the people complaining about waiters and hotel staff letting people get on with it. British people want to be left alone. It’s cultural, I found it odd in the US with people offering to carry my bags for 20 feet and asking me every ten minutes during a meal if everything was OK.
As for the people who had a bad time with the letting agency, well letting agents are notoriously bad here. This I do take exception to because with property we are talking about significant sums of money and something people should have confidence in, namely their living arrangements. Letting agents aren’t regulated and consequently are not accountable to anyone which is why they behave so badly. My parents got quite badly burned by a cowboy letting agency which is why it is a bit of a sore spot for me personally.
Hi Paul, thanks for your comments – goes to show just how MUCH of a cultural difference this is! Whenever I go back to visit USA, at first I’m taken aback when approached by staff in stores because I’m so used to the way things are here. Then, I’m like “oh yeah, I’m back in America now, it’s all OK, I don’t need to feel paranoid, this is the way they do things”. I think being left alone is great when there are no problems and when you don’t need help – especially when trying to enjoy a meal in a restaurant. But when you do need help or if there is a problem and there’s no one to help and no one cares about the fact that you are a paying customer, that’s where I feel customer service in Britain lets people down. As for the letting agencies, I agree, that is very bad.
I completely agree. I’m a grad student in Scotland, and have been amazed by the absolutely terrible customer service here. I’ve waited tables many places myself, and in the US we have all kinds of rules and guidelines that servers are supposed to follow. UK servers would never, ever make it there. I’m a very polite customer, but most of them make me feel waiting on me is an inconvenience for them. Once I complained about waiting for 30 minutes for any waitstaff to speak to me, and watching guests who arrived after I did being served their beverages while no one even spoke to me. The staff I complained to acted rude and surly, as if I was the problem! I guess the idea is that if you don’t have all day to spend waiting on your meal, you shouldn’t be there, and God forbid any customer ever complain about anything. The nerve.
I’ve read comments on other sites that people dislike the “fake” American smiley service, or feel rushed because American servers come around too often or too quickly, asking if everything’s okay. These things aren’t done mainly to turn tables more quickly, nor are they really done to get good tips. They’re done for the convenience of the customer! Everybody’s a customer at some time or other. Why have a burr up your butt about having to wait on someone? If you feel so grouchy about it, get a different job. It’s absolutely unreal. Even in places where I’m a regular, I often receive horrible service. It has been so bad as to make me feel like crying at times, because I know that I’m expected to deal with it, and if I complain everyone will look scandalized, like I’m an entitled American. It honestly makes me miss my own country so much. I’ve enjoyed being here, but the customer service is one thing that’s seriously put a damper on my experience.
I feel your pain! Yes, it’s crazy when you’re the paying customer and you are made to feel like you are inconveniencing them by being there and wanting to pay them for something. It stems from lack of training in customer service and overall attitude towards customer service. The concept still doesn’t really exist here. It’s improved slightly over the years and larger companies are realizing they need to train up in customer service but it’s the exception rather than the rule here. Too bad! Glad everything else is enjoyable. I’d love to visit Scotland.