The problem with customer service

Almost everyone has to deal with customer service at some point. In fact, 88 percent of the people surveyed recently by the Consumer Reports National Research Center had done so in the past year—to question a bill, request a repair, return ill-fitting merchandise, and more.

And many of them didn't like the experience and had a problem with customer service. Half of the people we surveyed reported leaving a store without making their intended purchase because of poor service. Fifty-seven percent were so steamed that they hung up the phone without a resolution. Women were more annoyed than men, as were people over age 45.

(Looking for customer-service advice? Find out what works for career customer-service experts—including Consumer Reports "acquisition" pros—on the job or at home.)

We live in a world of instant connection, where owners of Amazon Kindle Fire tablets can instantly summon a tech adviser live onscreen by tapping a "Mayday" button, for example, and Neiman Marcus customers snap photos of shoes in magazines to automatically search for them in the store's inventory. So why are we still so frustrated?

"Many companies today are simply awful at resolving customer problems, despite investments in whiz-bang technologies and considerable advertising about their customer focus," said Scott Broetzmann, president of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting. "Customers spend valuable time and invest considerable effort—and get little in return."

Satisfaction with service is actually no higher than it was in the 1970s, according to research from Arizona State University. The latest version of the school's "customer rage" study found that companies are doing all the right things but in all the wrong ways. Think 800-numbers with overly complex automated response menus, agents with limited decision-making authority, and understaffed call centers.

Do we take those survey results as a sign that service is improving or that we've grown desensitized to brusque treatment?

All of that chaos can cause nasty behavior. There has been a significant increase in incidents of consumers yelling, even cursing, at reps, the ASU study revealed.

But it may also breed futility. The same study found that the number of Americans who think that complaining is worthwhile has fallen to 50 percent, from 61 percent, since 2011. Perhaps that's why, when we compared some common service-related irritants (see below) with the results of a similar survey we conducted in 2011, we found that people were actually less piqued overall.

Jack Abelson, a retail-industry consultant, speculates that younger consumers, especially millennials, have never experienced top-flight care, so they don't know what they're missing. Other experts suggest that we're less irked now that we're becoming accustomed to serving ourselves, whether it's at a grocery store checkout line or banking online.

"Companies are making it easier for customers to use simple solutions, like FAQs," said Shep Hyken, a customer-care consultant. There are also online how-to videos that enable customers to get info quickly.

The Better Business Bureau logged fewer complaints last year than in 2013, and nine of the 10 most trouble-prone industries saw declines (cable and satellite TV services were the exception). The reason for the drop, the bureau says, is increased proactivity by consumers, who are now more likely to check out a business first rather than complain later, and their new ability to lodge a complaint or post a review directly on the BBB site.

Prevention may be better than a cure, so try to be picky about where you do business.

The Consumer Reports National Research Center surveyed 1,016 adults about the pain points listed at right using a scale of 0 to 10, from "not annoying at all" to "tremendously irritating."

A Silver lining? Whether they interacted in person, by phone, or by e-mail, fewer Americans were agitated over lousy service than they were in 2011, when we conducted a similar study. The percentage of those whofumed over various practices declined in almost every category, most notably the rudeness of salespeople and the inability to get a live person on the line.