Who remembers the phrase “the customer is always right,” and “service with a smile”? While older generations took this approach as gospel, today not so much. With the Generation Z “stare,” the disappearance of the smile, attitudes of appearing annoyed for “being disturbed,” and of course the infamous eye-roll or lack of eye contact, customer service today too often provokes frustration and reinforces desires to retreat inward. And when you opt for automation you get phone-trees – the endless loops and dropped calls, and clunky chat bots with pre-programmed responses – enough to drive you mad. It’s so bad today that some customer service people, who too often demonstrate little human empathy, simply walk away (or hang up) on customers because they didn’t feel respected in a way to which they felt entitled. Many young workers today view forced cheerfulness as inauthentic and prefer direct, transparent or neutral interactions, setting up scenarios for culture clash, especially not notably in customer service. This has led to social grumpiness all around. And for our service-focused tourism and hospitality economy, getting customer service “right” is essential.

This perspective isn’t anecdotal. National tracking data indicates retail and restaurant customer service in the U.S. remains strained and below pre-pandemic highs. The timing of today's poor customer service trends comes just as artificial intelligence is taking over basic jobs in this space at an accelerating pace. It’s ironic that so many people in these jobs today perform as emotionally detached chat bots, unintentionally mirroring AI-delivered service. Thus making them more replaceable than ever.

The subject of customer service has special importance for the local Kingston and Ulster County community. Almost our entire local economy is small business. We have very few corporations, big box stores and chains, and we tout our small businesses as a distinctive feature of our local way of life. And to many, small business is synonymous with human delivered customer service – something visitors (and locals) expect. This human-to-human connection establishes a compelling competitive advantage for our small businesses since larger, more bottom line-oriented businesses often resort to automated systems.

From my experience and survey on the topic, many local restaurants, farmers markets, festivals, stores and other retail establishments have a warm smiling face in their customer service. But this is changing. It’s a generational thing, and as such, it’s hard for local businesses to ignore. Generation Z is not necessarily worse at customer service but, according to studies, they reject traditional "performative cheerfulness" that older generations expect. As such, small talk is often missing (such as talking about the weather), and casual repartee – those innocuous social exchanges that are often key to making early connections. Perhaps our younger generation was socially traumatized during the early 2020s and became emotionally distant as a form of self-protection. But now, local businesses struggle to find employee candidates who are willing and able to provide the essential, intangible human touch that’s so important to a small business’ success.

Exceptional, personal care helps small businesses to stand out and remain competitive with bigger enterprises. Personal care with customers helps to drive repeat business, providing steady, reliable revenue over time. Positive customer service experiences help fuel word-of-mouth reputation, helping to lower marketing and advertising costs. And perhaps most importantly in today’s lonely world, the human-to-human experience builds connections. By greeting people by name or offering tailored advice or service, basic transactions can turn into lasting relationships, even if just business-oriented. Small businesses today must spend more time on training the basics in human connectivity and interaction.

Unsurprisingly, there is one area where high-touch customer service is not struggling, and that’s premium and luxury products and services. Like so much else today, service with a smile increasingly costs extra, as does reaching a receptionist or specialist on the phone. Are you a premium customer with a gold card or part of our rewards program? You can skip to the head of the line and even get a real human being to handle your call. If you go to a posh resort or hotel, you get tons of attention from staff. Indeed, human customer service today is increasingly reframed as concierge service, available mostly as a premium service or perk in more tony establishments. Everyone else gets fast, automated self-service – without the smile.

No doubt some readers know of local experiences of good customer service. And there is no specific data to show the standing of Kingston or Ulster in customer service in relation to other towns or regions. But let’s just assume there is always room for improvement, and especially so when our local livelihoods depend upon a high “friendliness factor” in customer service.

At the local level, there are virtually no formal resources or programs to train in the fine art of customer service. There is an Ulster BOCES culinary arts hospitality and tourism program that helps students to achieve a ServSafe certification. Besides this, you need to travel or go online for training. This seems like an opportunity for Ulster BOCES, SUNY Ulster, non-profits or even for-profit schools to teach the art of customer service – the skills needed for employees to both interface with customers and fluently use technology to implement customer requests. A local certificate program or even certification should suffice. In other parts of the nation, these programs exist to advance the art-science skills involved in customer service and hospitality.

Additional ideas to enhance our community’s overall customer care include city and/or county government leading by example. They could establish customer support guidelines for all departments, and encourage that standard to be adopted in the private sector as well. This was effectively done under the Clinton administration in the 1990s, the last time customer satisfaction was plummeting. We also need to empower employees more by providing them with training in active listening, empathy, clear communication, and specific problem-solving steps. Each day, staff might have a quick review of service goals, recent successes or tips for the day, and elevate community recognition and celebration of customer service. We could establish awards and public recognition in government, non-profit and private sectors. Let employees nominate coworkers who go above and beyond to help a community member.

Ever since the pandemic hit, I’ve witnessed an overall deterioration in customer service – locally, regionally and nationally. Too many have just shrugged and assumed this is the new normal. But the cost of such complacency results in greater social friction, anxiety and lost business opportunity (i.e., jobs, income, taxes, etc.). It may seem jingoistic, but perhaps the first step to improvement is a renewed emphasis on kindness. If you are in the front lines of customer care (and the same can be said for customers), start with a clear smile, make human-to-human contact and the rest should follow.