I've worked within customer services for over ten years. In some of my jobs there have been training, but for some reason there has never been any customer service training as such. It's always been a case of working it out as you go along and thinking of how we, as customers want to be treated. In Florida many staff in customer service roles have to attend a customer service course before even starting their job, add tipping and generally the standard of customer service in Florida is pretty high.

The standards of customer service across the UK are slipping from shops, restaurants, bars right through to telephone based customer services like mobile phone companies and internet and service providers. The number of British call centres moving abroad has risen and if you ring the majority of call centres after 5pm you are very likely ringing India or Mumbai. There used to be a time in the UK where the standard of customer service was high. Where has it gone and what are the possible reasons for the lapse in receiving good customer service:-

1. Many call centres for banks, internet provides and mobile phone companies are abroad. The staff their speak very basic English and are trained as robots to repeat call sheets only.

2. Many of these jobs are minimum wage or just over. What's the point of giving good customer service when you are paid so little?

3. Lack of actual customer service training within employment. No training in how to deal with angry customers or with difficult customers.

4. Customer services jobs are seen as a necessary evil within larger companies. Many bosses and managers in larger companies don't even know what people do in customer services or what they contribute to the running of an organization.

5. Companies are more bothered about profit than customer service.

Above are just some of the possible reasons why customer service is a dying entity here in the UK and across Europe.

Shopping, of any nature has become more stressful over time. It used to be fun to go out clothes or food shopping. Staff would be more than happy to offer assistance and they would more often than not be friendly and polite. How many times can you think of an instance where you have been greeted with an abrupt and unhelpful customer service assistant, who snatches your money from you, slams the change back in your and just stares at you in silence. I can think of so many examples of this behaviour both in the UK and in Europe. When you

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