Customer Loyalty, Brands, Gouging, Shoddy Service and KKK-Karens

You hear a LOT about customer service (and I’ve even had my bouts of hitting this issue).

Companies spend a fortune developing their brands. They even hire psychologists and sociologists to help them attract their base. And keep them loyal.

Then some, who actually want to develop that further, spend more time and energy training their staff on customer and colleague relations so things are actually quite nice when you deal with them.

What they began doing as PR is internalized. And it’s more than the show, but also the goods &/or services are pretty good. And when they aren’t, they are quickly repaired.

That’s the kind of place that you want to deal with. It shows and word spreads.

Now and again though, along comes that customer…. you know who I mean. No matter what you do, you cannot satisfy them. It’s not about you though. You could put it down to them being an angry person…. But they have a big mouth. And access to social media. (Where there’s fire, there’s smoke, right?)

Then no matter what their previous rep was, now they have a stain on it.

Some companies are coming up against that these days.

In Canada, Loblaws (Shoppers Drug Mart), Bell Media, Rogers are really getting a kicking these days on social media. And trust me, there are good points made and some not so true or at least not fair.

Is that due to their failure? Or are customers expressing anti-capitalist POVs? Or maybe they’re just caught up in all the pandemic stress and it isn’t really about the company?

Perhaps people are getting tighter with their dollars and actually want more than they had before from these people in charge?

Are they known for treating their staff right? Are their prices fair? I happen to think they’ve gotten too big for their britches. And they do tend to take over the lion’s share of the market, so now they don’t really care about what a customer says. Till there’s an uproar. And boy have the ones I listed here heard the uproars this past year!

But in case you feel sad for them? Worried about their future? Don’t. They have friends in high places. Here in Ontario, our premier is great at schmoozing! It’s kind of gross to watch, actually!