Over the past couple of years, Covid has screwed a lot of things up. It’s widely known that the ports of California are screwed up. Supply chains are screwed up.
But, service sectors that don’t need physical products are totally screwed up.
How many times have you called to get some service from someone and the first thing you hear is “Covid has caused delays”, or some other Covid related excuse for the crappy service you are about to receive?
In my case, we have a lot of things we are doing. We moved from Chicago to Las Vegas during Covid. We planned and are executing the rehab of the home we bought, during Covid.
I ordered appliances in February of 2021. They won’t all get here until March of 2022. The factory can’t run a full line. Covid.
We were talking to realtors and appliance salespeople. Rehabs have been super hot in Las Vegas. There are at least twenty dumpsters in our development alone. They said because of inflation, rehabs are slowing down.
They also said because the building department at Clark County is so slow, no one can get a building plan through. Why? Covid. You’d think that by now, government would have figured out how to deal with Covid. But, they haven’t. It’s not just Clark County. It’s every governmental agency.
I had to call the IRS regarding a technical matter. No way to get any service. If you don’t call by 7am ET, no service for the rest of the day.
My experiment with socialism is done thank you very much.
Governments don’t have to serve you. They have enough bureaucratic power and the force of government behind them to threaten you. No one will lose their job if they don’t follow through. The county isn’t going away. But, businesses are different. They have to service customers or risk going out of business.
However, I have been noticing businesses simply abdicating that.
Recently, I had a thing and found out no one even gets to the office until 9am. Of course, finance is a hyperactive 24/7 industry. It doesn’t sleep on Saturday or Sunday anymore. But, this business feels like they can be 9 to 5.
I wonder how many businesses will survive terrible customer service?
Seth Godin says “Customer Service is free.” It’s really sort of expensive, but because you already have the customer, it’s one of the best investments you can make. Ted Wright of Fizz fame will tell you that it is priceless.