by Pat Lunsford

Created on: February 21, 2008   Last Updated: June 13, 2008

Why are employees in the customer service industry so incompetent today? There are several reasons I'm sure, but I think the motto "the customer is always right" is no longer encouraged or taught to employees by management. Furthermore, I think employees today have to deal with a large volume of complaints and requests and the customer service industry has reached a point where they just don't care anymore.

There was a time not so long ago when a person could walk into a place of business with a complaint about a product or service, and the management would bend over backwards to make it up to them. There was never any attitude, or incompetence. And there was always at least one ADULT manager in the place who would set things right.

What has happened today? I actually get very anxious when I'm faced with having to go to a place of business for a refund, exchange, complaint, or special request. I just know that I'm going to get some kind of attitude or incompetence.

A while back, I was standing in the check out line of a leading department store. In front of me was an elderly couple buying a vacuum cleaner. The couple asked the cashier, a young girl with three rings on each finger, pierced nose, eyebrows and tongue, wearing far too much make up, if the vacuum cleaner came with the option of getting insurance for a few dollars more.

Now, did you understand what was just said? Well, this cashier did not. She looked at the couple as if they were idiots and asked, "What are you talking about?" Eventually the cashier huffed and called over a young man who couldn't have been more than 19 years old, with spiked hair and was chewing gum.

On the top left front of his shirt was a tag that read, "Customer service specialist." When he realized what the elderly couple was talking about, he punched in a few keys, gave the couple a mean look and said, "That'll be twenty six dollars." The young man turned and walked away.

I thought this scene was just plain disgusting.

So why do employees act this way today? It's simply a different world now. Many Christians believe we are living in the times Jesus talked about in Matthew 24. He called it the "beginning of sorrows when tribulation such as never before would be on our doorsteps.

Timothy characterized the people of those times when he said, "Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. (2 Timothy 3:1)

These days, the customer is almost never right. The customer

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