[bootlegga]

$1:

Canada is second only to New Zealand when it comes to good customer service according to a survey by service support company Zendesk.

Canadians were joined by their equally northern brethren in Norway for second place with 92 per cent customer satisfaction, just a smidgen below the Kiwis’ 93 per cent ranking.

While the tired Canadian stereotype of politeness likely plays a role, there’s more to customer service, retail consultant Ed Strapagiel tells Yahoo Canada Finance.

“It’s much more involved than just being a friendly face or being polite, it’s about things like price checks, short lineups at the checkout, having a size available or having a clean store and staff who have the knowledge (of products),” he says. “There’s a whole system in behind the service that makes that service shine through.”

He points out that although polls like Zendesk’s are nice nods to Canadian’s politeness, the retail sector isn’t just full of saints.

“In Canada we have lots of retailers whose sales associates work for high or even 100 per cent commission, so they put a lot of pressure on customers to buy something or take an extended warranty,” says Strapagiel. “For the most part consumers don’t care for that.”

Unless, of course, that upselling is done in a less-than cringe-worthy way.

Although the U.S. ranked 14 on the list, American retailers like Nordstrom have become renowned for their customer service despite their commission-based employees. Last year, the company had 100 salespeople sell over $1 million in merchandise, making a salary of $100,000 a year.

When it comes to all star salespeople, personal attention and pleasant attitudes go a long way according to Zendesk with 62 per cent of B2B and 42 per cent of B2C customers saying they purchased more after a good customer service experience.

But if there’s one customer service habit Canadians should kick, it’s apologizing.
As part of the study, Zendesk looked into the use of “sorry” by customer service representatives and found with increasing apologies, satisfaction surrounding solving issues drops at a faster pace.

Sorry Canadians, but it might be time to stop focusing on, er… apologies and devote that effort to fixing the problem.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/insi ... 08733.html

[BartSimpson]

I'd agree with this. In 21 years of visiting and living in Canada I cannot recall not even one single instance of bad customer service. Not even one.

[Delwin]

I guess no one has ever had to talk to Rogers Wireless. The worst

[bootlegga]

Delwin Delwin:

I guess no one has ever had to talk to Rogers Wireless. The worst

I think Telus is much worse - I like to say that the Future is friendly, but the customer service isn't!

[DrCaleb]

bootlegga bootlegga:

Delwin Delwin:

I guess no one has ever had to talk to Rogers Wireless. The worst

I think Telus is much worse - I like to say that the Future is friendly, but the customer service isn't!

Bell. Although, it's not really 'customer service' if you just route the customers around pressing buttons on their phone to get to menu options they didn't select till they hang up themselves. aka: "Kevorkian Hold"

Ever try to discontinue Insurance from TD Bank? There's another one.

[raydan]

We're number 2, we're number 2!!!

[Hyack]

Delwin Delwin:

I guess no one has ever had to talk to Rogers Wireless. The worst

And here I find Rogers has given me some of the best service imaginable, their people going far out of their way to help me while on the other hand, Shaw has to be one of the poorest examples when it comes to trying to provide any extra service to their customers, who have no one else providing the same type service available in the area.

[saturn_656]

Shaw's always been good to me. Bell is abyssmal, they'd have to give me their service for free for me to ever deal with them again.

[Delwin]

Maybe things have changed. I have worked for them on 2 different occasions in my younger years. Once when they were rogers at&t wireless and later doing inbound cellular sales in a 3rd party call center. The policy at the call centre was literally to keep people on hold. I'm not sure if they were paid by call time or what the reasoning was but in retrospect, it would have been a great consumer report story. When you outsource your customer service you roll the dice on the quality.

I stopped dealing with them some time ago. I know for a fact they still employ predatory pricing practices. Hint:always ask for retention. Everything is negotiable.

[jj2424]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

I'd agree with this. In 21 years of visiting and living in Canada I cannot recall not even one single instance of bad customer service. Not even one.

I think this study is BS. Canada would rank far below the US in my experience. Yeah I know it varies from city to city but even in NYC I found service to be better than Calgary and Edmonton. Philadelphia sucked the big one but that's the exception.

When I think of Phoenix, San Fran, San Diego, LA etc.....Canada sucks the big one.

[Gunnair]

jj2424 jj2424:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

I'd agree with this. In 21 years of visiting and living in Canada I cannot recall not even one single instance of bad customer service. Not even one.

I think this study is BS. Canada would rank far below the US in my experience. Yeah I know it varies from city to city but even in NYC I found service to be better than Calgary and Edmonton. Philadelphia sucked the big one but that's the exception.

When I think of Phoenix, San Fran, San Diego, LA etc.....Canada sucks the big one.

It might be more due to you just being a whiny xxxx.