I was reading through a few posts this morning and a friend of mine had a rant posted about the lack of customer service.  She said that she now works “everywhere”… part time gas attendant, a cashier at the local grocery store and she is now waiting for a restaurant to open where you have to prepare your own food and serve yourself.

This is something I often think of.  I feel like if I talk about the “way it was back in the day” I will age another ten years.  But it wasn’t 60 years ago, not even a decade has passed since there was always someone to ring through your purchase at a store and about 30 years ago there were still people employed to pump your gas when you hauled into the gas station.  Now that prices have more than doubled from what they were back then, you have to fill up your own car, and if you need air in a tire, that’s another TWO DOLLARS!  Will our children ever see the day when customers are truly valued again?
Where will the self serve trend end?  Will all cashiers disappear like the service station attendants?  I had that conversation with the lady that wanted me to go through self serve when the stations first opened at the grocery store.  She assured me no positions would be taken by the self serve, but now there are two checkouts open at night instead of the three or four that used to be.  What will fewer people needed mean for youth looking for summer jobs?
Now as I type that I remember that there are very few places not looking for workers, so summer jobs should not only be easy to find, but you can easily pick what you want to do.
As there seems to be a downward trend in customer service, where do you stand when it comes to tipping?  Canadians were very generous during the pandemic.

COVID-19 increased tipping generosity of Canadians, data finds

 

Now as the pandemic starts to settle, the rise in tips seems to leveling out now too.
Apparently it is not due to less customer service, but inflation is being blamed for the downward tipping trend.

The pandemic-era bump in tipping is officially over — inflation might be to blame

 

I have a feeling as good customer service becomes harder to find, people that offer attentive service with a smile will be rewarded for that.  At least I hope that is the case.