Is Bad Customer Service the New Normal?

I usually see myself as a calm and patient person, but there are a few things that can frustrate me a lot, one of the things is bad customer service.

Unfortunately, you meet it everywhere, and it seems like it is becoming the norm in many industries.

As an example, in the last couple of weeks, I have had the task of finding and booking a hotel for Avallone’s next off-site.

It seems to be an easy task, but when you are a group, you can’t book using the normal channels like the hotel's web page or booking sites, you need to get in contact with the right department at the hotel.

The problem is that most hotel chains do not provide emails on their web page and do not provide direct phone numbers to the relevant department.  When I called the support phone number, I experienced several times getting an email that did not exist when emailing them. I tried to fill out multiple web forms and email them with no response at all or with a very long reply time.

As a result, I, as a customer, got very frustrated and did business with the only vendor who replied and handled my request.

I am wondering when hotel chains decided they did not want customers to contact them by email. And when did they decide that response time within 24 hours (even if promised) is not important?

For me, it seems to be extremely unfriendly to customers; you do not feel you are important to them.

We had the exact same experience with airlines.  

The above is just an example, but I often meet businesses where customer services are not prioritized, or maybe it is just a bad culture.

I have worked with customers for a large part of my career, first in the banks and then with Avallone.

I have always focused on giving customers great service, not just because it is the right thing to do but also because it is good business. As I see it, good service does not necessarily cost more; it is a mindset and culture that means you always think about how what you do impacts the customer.

At we have a value statement saying, “The customer is the real boss; everyone else is here to make them happy.” As responsible for Customer Success, it is the strongest mandate you can get.

I will work hard to ensure that bad customer service never becomes the norm at Avallone.