No Problem Is A Problem…

So you call someone to sort out some sort of mess, and after you’ve explained what’s gone wrong and what needs to be done to sort it out, the star pupil of “Customer Service 2014” says “No problem” in that superlatively irritating voice which suggests that he/she hasn’t taken on board any of the conversation you’ve just had.

I mean, who wastes their time calling to sort out something that is NOT a problem? The fact that you’ve called means that there has been some sort of problem, and what you want to hear is “I’m very sorry that you had to call to sort this out, but rest assured that it will now be put right.” – or words to that effect. And then there is at least some expectation that your issue will get fixed. It might be too much to believe that this will actually be the case!

Now “no problem” has a close cousin – “no worries”. This over-used phrase also irritates for much the same reasons. In fact it’s arguably even worse, because this doesn’t even suggest the existence of a problem that needs to be fixed.

What is it about the training of customer facing personnel that leads them to believe that it’s OK for them to dismiss us with these insincere platitudes? Why does no-one (else) complain? Are we destined to accept this irreverend facade as the norm from now on?

TheStickler suggests that these people should be retrained forthwith. And encouraged to actually think why the person on the end of the phone has felt sufficiently aggrieved to actually pick up the phone, wait listening to the (nauseating) hold musak, and finally get through to the representative with a strong accent who nevertheless insists that his name is “Kevin”. Yeah right.

Views: 20