Customer Service

What's your experience of customer service? Is it getting better? Worse? We'd like to hear from customers, workers and managers alike. Send essays of 200 to 300 words by Sept. 18 to Voices/Service, The Inquirer, Box 41705, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101. Send faxes to 215-854-4483 or e-mail to inquirer.letters@phillynews.com Questions? Call Kevin Ferris, readers' editor, at 215-854-4543.

I RECENTLY went to the Wal-Mart in South Philadelphia to shop for garden plants. I took four SEPTA buses to get there. When I arrived, I went through this non-automatic door and immediately was set upon by an employee, who told me "Wrong door. " The store was crowded and there were numerous people right outside the store collecting for charity and it was hard to tell exactly which doors to use. When I have been in that Wal-Mart on a few other occasions, some of the employees did not know how to properly treat the customers.

What you don't know about your customers can hurt your business. So, on Wednesday, the North Penn Chamber of Commerce will co-sponsor a customer service workshop designed to show businesses how to identify service problems and eliminate them. The discussion will include tips on improving service quality and enhancing word-of-mouth reputation. Admission is free, but seating is limited. The program is scheduled from 8 to 9:30 a.m. in the Centre Court Conference Center at the Best Western Hotel, Route 309 and Stump Road, Montgomeryville.

Customer service. These are seemingly helpful, friendly words, but in reality they get my blood pressure soaring, my temple throbbing, and my hands shaking. The mere thought of customer service conjures images of waiting on hold indefinitely, or pressing the wrong button only to end up listening to a help menu in a foreign language. In these times of a weakened economy but renewed national pride, some companies have greatly improved their dealings with their paying customers. Others, unfortunately, have not. Like many families, we own cellular phones.

Conrail yesterday named the veteran manager of its rail-car fleet to the new job of vice president of customer service, a move the railroad said emphasized its need to be more competitive with the door-to-door service of trucking companies. The new post was filled by Ralph von dem Hagen, who has been assistant vice president for car management since 1984. In that job, he managed the rail-car fleet, matching customer orders with available equipment. Chairman James A. Hagen said that although Conrail provided good service, it could be better.

Recently, I had a great idea while waiting on hold for Customer Service. That's pretty much all I do these days: Wait for Customer Service. My call is important to them. They have told me this many times in a sincere recorded message. They can't wait to serve me! They will answer my call just as soon as they finish serving the entire population of mainland China. It's my own darned fault that I need to speak to Customer Service. We made a really stupid homeowner mistake: We moved to another house.

For a retailer trying to provide good customer service, it's not enough just to tack up a suggestion box or add more smiling clerks to the selling floor. "Service excellence is a never-ending journey," intones Leonard L. Berry, a marketing professor at Texas A&M University. The anecdotal evidence of lousy service overwhelms. Most consumers, fresh from their latest confrontation at the supermarket or the department store, will tell you that service is bad and getting worse.

Give the much-maligned Philadelphia Gas Works a call these days, and, unlike a year ago, you can actually get through to someone. So say city officials and the gas works' managers, who were forced by public outrage and by the state to overhaul the utility's call center after complaints that it took 20 minutes or more for customers to get their calls answered. "PGW used to be the laughingstock of the customer service world because it was taking us an hour to answer phone calls," Joyce Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mayor Street, said.

Brookside Manor Apartments and Townhomes, Lansdale, Montgomery County Three symbols of welcome are prominent in front of the Brookside Manor Apartments and Townhomes. First, a large sign with broad gilded lettering that seems to blurt out the name Brookside. Second, a stretch of bright red flowers lacing the entrance and suggesting a red carpet. Finally, a smaller and less conspicuous sign that indicates Brookside has won awards for "Best in Apartment Living" for the last five years from the Apartment Association of Greater Philadelphia.

There are many things in life that are truly difficult — losing a job, raising a child, dealing with Comcast customer service — but disliking the upstart professional baseball team from the nation's capital is not among them. Even so, if the Nats are to become a true rival to the Phillies, we figured it would be helpful to provide a head start on some good clean hate, a handy reference guide of reasons to despise the unbearable lameness of the Nats — and their ardently indifferent fan base.

Improving employees' skills will also improve the bottom line, workforce training experts say. But how, actually, can that be measured? In a report Tuesday, the nonprofit Job Opportunity Investment Networt tried to do exactly that, going beyond back-of-the-envelope calculations to prove that the approach it advocates is effective. JOIN director Jennie Sparandara said the point of the study was to show that multi-company industry-sector partnerships are a cost-effective investment of tax or foundation dollars benefiting businesses, employees, and society as a whole through increased tax revenue and decreased demand for public services, such as welfare.

Alaska Airlines, popular in the Pacific Northwest and known for customer service, will begin daily nonstop flights between Seattle and Philadelphia, starting June 11. The Seattle-based carrier is the second airline in the last month to announce it is coming to Philadelphia International Airport. Virgin America Inc. said in January it would begin nonstop daily flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco from Philadelphia beginning in April. "We are very excited to bring Philadelphia an airline that has distinguished itself among travelers and industry experts," said Philadelphia airport chief executive officer Mark Gale.

Consumers are demanding better service in unprecedented ways. In the last several months, public outrage has helped beat back efforts by Bank of America Corp., Netflix Inc., and Verizon Communications Inc. to raise fees or significantly alter services. The victories come at a time when money is tight all around and consumers are tapping into social media to air their frustrations with like-minded individuals. "In the past, people would be angry, but they'd be all over the country talking to their neighbors," said Kit Yarrow, a professor of consumer psychology at Golden Gate University.

Before there was Wegmans, there was Genuardi's Family Markets. And that's where the tragedy of what was once one of the region's most revered supermarket chains begins and ends. Few in the supermarket industry were surprised when Giant Food Stores L.L.C. announced Thursday that it was buying and converting 16 of the region's 27 Genuardi's locations - or that California-based Safeway Inc. was looking to unload eight others to prospective buyers, shut down three more, and leave Philadelphia entirely.

Whoever coined the phrase "and many happy returns" never tried online shopping. Is there such a thing as a happy return? If I were happy with the item, I'd keep it. Nobody has intimacy issues with a great gift. But this is a story about giving gifts, not giving them back. I love choosing gifts for people, but this year I was under deadline and on a budget, so online shopping seemed like the way to go. My mom asked for dog sweaters. You could've guessed that, right?

IS 3-1-1 living up to expectations? City Controller Alan Butkovitz yesterday released an audit of the city's 3-1-1 non-emergency line questioning whether residents are getting their money's worth. Among criticisms in the report: that 3-1-1 does not provide round-the-clock service, that it has not reduced the call load to the city's emergency 9-1-1 line and that it is difficult to track most 3-1-1 calls to see if service is being provided. "It's a fledgling call center at best," Butkovitz said during a news conference to unveil the audit, conducted by consulting firm WithumSmith+Brown, PC. The Nutter administration, which has touted 3-1-1 as a key accomplishment of the mayor's first term, said the report fails to acknowlege the full scope of the service, which they say gets high marks from users.

Is 3-1-1 living up to expectations? City Controller Alan Butkovitz on Tuesday released an audit of the city's 3-1-1 nonemergency line questioning whether Philadelphia residents are getting their money's worth. Among criticisms in the report: that 3-1-1 does not provide round-the-clock service, that it has not reduced the call load to the city's emergency 9-1-1 line and that it is difficult to track most 3-1-1 calls to see if service is being provided. "It's a fledgling call center at best," Butkovitz said during a news conference to unveil the audit, conducted by consulting firm WithumSmith+Brown, PC. The Nutter administration, which has touted 3-1-1 as a key accomplishment of the mayor's first term, said the report fails to acknowlege the full scope of the service, which they say gets high marks from users.

It's part of getting passengers, and their bags, on and off planes more efficiently. About 900 US Airways Group flights come and go at Philadelphia International Airport each day, and those planes are serviced by ground equipment, like baggage tugs and catering trucks. To improve getting bags to and from planes, and with less down time for equipment maintenance, US Airways on Friday opened a $22 million ground-service equipment shop at the west end of the airport in Tinicum Township.