Servicing customers can and has been a very rewarding experience. However,
in the past probably 3 to 5 years it seems that customers are becoming more
and more demanding and less and less informed.
How many times has a customer called for professional, manufacturer
qualified service, and then will not even comply with a scheduling date.
Numerous times our corporate dispatching group has set up service
appointments with customers, these are normally arranged 24 to 36 horus in
advance (of having the technician make the trip). About 30% of the time,
when contacted by the technician on the day of service, the customer
demands to change the allocated time frame, informs the technician they
have gotten the item serviced otherwise, or are just plainly rude and
obnoxious.
Specific case in point, Mister Blockhead is contacts 24 hours in advance
and given a two hour window in which the technician will arrive, diagnose,
service/order part, for the unit in question. Technician calls customer
the morning of the route and gets blasted with foul language about the
stupid routing and time scheduling and then is again blasted when the
technician suggests having the call run another day when the time frame is
more acceptable. End effect, Mister Blockhead will probably have to carry
set into a shop for service.
Secondairly, customer calls regarding a specific isue or feature of their
$XXXXXXX device, when querried the respond 'No I do not know where the
operations manual is, nor have I read the ****thing. Get out here and fix
it!!' Ignorant of the product they have spent hard earnt funds for, not
willing to learn about said product, and aragorant enough to complain
about and totally exhibit thier stupidity.

BTW been servicing Consumer Electronic Products, in home and bench level
since mid 60's. Yup remember the 5U4, OZ3, etc!!

Meat Plow wrote:
On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:10:23 -0500, Art wrote:

Servicing customers can and has been a very rewarding experience.
However, in the past probably 3 to 5 years it seems that customers
are becoming more and more demanding and less and less informed.

Back in 2000 when I left the consumer electronics repair industry for
a job in IT I found out that the bean counters and CEO's of of the
world were much more demanding and even less informed than the
average Joe Consumer. Back in 2000 most of the clients I serviced
still didn't have a budget for IT. When I walked through the doors I
tried to avoid the CEO or CFO as much as possible. I could just see
the dollar signs in their eyes when they looked at me as around here
the going hourly rate for a level 1 tech like me was $100/hr.
However, the job was very rewarding and most everyone else was very
appreciative.

I must admit to a dirty laugh on first reading the first line above:
Customer service and servicing electronics equipment are quite normal
expressions in (British) English,
but, to me at least, "servicing customers" conjures up an image of
"Confessions of a Field Service Engineer" along the lines of the series of
soft-porn films "Confessions of a Window-Cleaner" etc. (with Robin Asquith
and our previous Prime Minister's father-in-law)!
Martin.

Martin Crossley wrote in message
...
Meat Plow wrote:
On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:10:23 -0500, Art wrote:

Servicing customers can and has been a very rewarding experience.
However, in the past probably 3 to 5 years it seems that customers
are becoming more and more demanding and less and less informed.

Back in 2000 when I left the consumer electronics repair industry for
a job in IT I found out that the bean counters and CEO's of of the
world were much more demanding and even less informed than the
average Joe Consumer. Back in 2000 most of the clients I serviced
still didn't have a budget for IT. When I walked through the doors I
tried to avoid the CEO or CFO as much as possible. I could just see
the dollar signs in their eyes when they looked at me as around here
the going hourly rate for a level 1 tech like me was $100/hr.
However, the job was very rewarding and most everyone else was very
appreciative.

I must admit to a dirty laugh on first reading the first line above:
Customer service and servicing electronics equipment are quite normal
expressions in (British) English,
but, to me at least, "servicing customers" conjures up an image of
"Confessions of a Field Service Engineer" along the lines of the series of
soft-porn films "Confessions of a Window-Cleaner" etc. (with Robin Asquith
and our previous Prime Minister's father-in-law)!
Martin.






near me is a garage that has the intriguing trading name
Dyke Services

That and other local trivia on my file
http://www.divdev.fsnet.co.uk/graff.htm

"N Cook" wrote in message
...
Martin Crossley wrote in message
...
Meat Plow wrote:
On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:10:23 -0500, Art wrote:

Servicing customers can and has been a very rewarding experience.
However, in the past probably 3 to 5 years it seems that customers
are becoming more and more demanding and less and less informed.

Back in 2000 when I left the consumer electronics repair industry for
a job in IT I found out that the bean counters and CEO's of of the
world were much more demanding and even less informed than the
average Joe Consumer. Back in 2000 most of the clients I serviced
still didn't have a budget for IT. When I walked through the doors I
tried to avoid the CEO or CFO as much as possible. I could just see
the dollar signs in their eyes when they looked at me as around here
the going hourly rate for a level 1 tech like me was $100/hr.
However, the job was very rewarding and most everyone else was very
appreciative.

I must admit to a dirty laugh on first reading the first line above:
Customer service and servicing electronics equipment are quite normal
expressions in (British) English,
but, to me at least, "servicing customers" conjures up an image of
"Confessions of a Field Service Engineer" along the lines of the series
of
soft-porn films "Confessions of a Window-Cleaner" etc. (with Robin
Asquith
and our previous Prime Minister's father-in-law)!
Martin.






near me is a garage that has the intriguing trading name
Dyke Services

That and other local trivia on my file
http://www.divdev.fsnet.co.uk/graff.htm




and here in Manchester there is Dykes Travel
http://dykes-travel.com/default.aspx

Near Atlanta, Ga there is a eating joing called "Poke and Stoke", never been
there but the name stays in the left side of my memore!! LOL
"Donnie" wrote in message
news

"N Cook" wrote in message
...
Martin Crossley wrote in message
...
Meat Plow wrote:
On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:10:23 -0500, Art wrote:

Servicing customers can and has been a very rewarding experience.
However, in the past probably 3 to 5 years it seems that customers
are becoming more and more demanding and less and less informed.

Back in 2000 when I left the consumer electronics repair industry for
a job in IT I found out that the bean counters and CEO's of of the
world were much more demanding and even less informed than the
average Joe Consumer. Back in 2000 most of the clients I serviced
still didn't have a budget for IT. When I walked through the doors I
tried to avoid the CEO or CFO as much as possible. I could just see
the dollar signs in their eyes when they looked at me as around here
the going hourly rate for a level 1 tech like me was $100/hr.
However, the job was very rewarding and most everyone else was very
appreciative.

I must admit to a dirty laugh on first reading the first line above:
Customer service and servicing electronics equipment are quite normal
expressions in (British) English,
but, to me at least, "servicing customers" conjures up an image of
"Confessions of a Field Service Engineer" along the lines of the series
of
soft-porn films "Confessions of a Window-Cleaner" etc. (with Robin
Asquith
and our previous Prime Minister's father-in-law)!
Martin.






near me is a garage that has the intriguing trading name
Dyke Services

That and other local trivia on my file
http://www.divdev.fsnet.co.uk/graff.htm




and here in Manchester there is Dykes Travel
http://dykes-travel.com/default.aspx

'Touchie' Cheers
"Martin Crossley" wrote in message
...
Meat Plow wrote:
On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:10:23 -0500, Art wrote:

Servicing customers can and has been a very rewarding experience.
However, in the past probably 3 to 5 years it seems that customers
are becoming more and more demanding and less and less informed.

Back in 2000 when I left the consumer electronics repair industry for
a job in IT I found out that the bean counters and CEO's of of the
world were much more demanding and even less informed than the
average Joe Consumer. Back in 2000 most of the clients I serviced
still didn't have a budget for IT. When I walked through the doors I
tried to avoid the CEO or CFO as much as possible. I could just see
the dollar signs in their eyes when they looked at me as around here
the going hourly rate for a level 1 tech like me was $100/hr.
However, the job was very rewarding and most everyone else was very
appreciative.

I must admit to a dirty laugh on first reading the first line above:
Customer service and servicing electronics equipment are quite normal
expressions in (British) English,
but, to me at least, "servicing customers" conjures up an image of
"Confessions of a Field Service Engineer" along the lines of the series of
soft-porn films "Confessions of a Window-Cleaner" etc. (with Robin Asquith
and our previous Prime Minister's father-in-law)!
Martin.

Good Ones! I want to read about Confessions of a Field Service
Engineer.Sort of kind of like the old Art Margolis articles that were in
Popular Science.
cuhulin

wrote:
Good Ones! I want to read about Confessions of a Field Service
Engineer.Sort of kind of like the old Art Margolis articles that were
in Popular Science.
cuhulin

Sorry for lowering the tone a bit before, however, you might like some of
the late Les Lawry-Johns' stories from Television magazine he
http://www.vintage-radio.info/llj/
Martin

"Meat Plow" wrote in message
...

I must admit to a dirty laugh on first reading the first line above:
Customer service and servicing electronics equipment are quite
normal expressions in (British) English, but, to me at least,
"servicing customers" conjures up an image of "Confessions of
a Field Service Engineer" along the lines of the series of soft-porn
films "Confessions of a Window-Cleaner" etc. (with Robin Asquith
and our previous Prime Minister's father-in-law)!

Get your mind out of the gutter

And back into the sewer!