Why I enjoy poor customer service

It’s one of the bars we use to measure the value of a restaurant, a shop or, indeed, any business – the quality of the customer service. If it’s not on-point, if you every need is not attended to and you walk out feeling any less than perfect, it’s not on – you won’t be going there again. But I think we’re being too quick to judge. Sure, good service is good, but we shouldn’t knock bad service. Indeed, I think it’s absolutely brilliant.

I’ll start just by praising the basic humanity of poor service. When we frequently do everything over the phone and the internet, a bit of human interaction can go a long way, regardless of the quality. It’s easy to forget that people who don’t give a damn are often the people who give the best responses, and my experiences with people at work who are being rude are far more memorable and far more amusing than those where everyone is expected to put on a happy face, and I imagine I’d be coming out with the same sort of lines if it were me (indeed, when I worked at Domino’s many moons ago, I wasn’t one for putting up with customer crap. They make up nonsense about their orders to get free food, and then complain if you say you know they’re lying and call them a crook – mad).

While we’re on that subject, does anyone else find it harrowing, everything we expect from people in customer service? Imagine the drudgery of working in customer service – long hours and tedious work, facing a barrage of customers you can never make happy, and you’re expected to smile and be friendly through all of that? We’re lucky we don’t get Falling Down every day.

There is a lot to appreciate in bad service

When I went to New York, I found the over-friendliness of shop assistants to be incredibly off-putting and, frankly, quite sinister (perhaps because I was the epitome of British stiff upper lip over there). Especially shops – they’re dying because of the internet, and yet all the staff are meant to put on a false front of serene happiness. It even gets me with the platitudes – ‘have a nice day.’ You don’t give a toss what kind of day I have, and you’re just being told to say that. I would prefer the honesty of being told to go away than a meaningless inanity – there’s a sincerity to bad service than simply isn’t there if you’re trying to fake uber-friendliness.

Now, I get there are some people in customer service for whom the idea of being rude would never occur – they always strive to do their best, and offer great service, and they should be commended. But their exceptional value doesn’t change the fact that there is a lot to appreciate in bad service too, if we get off our high horses as customers and look for it.