The lost art of customer service

When is the last time you experienced really good customer service? Most of the time,  you probably feel like companies don't give a shit about you, and you may be right. When I travel to the States, I am bombarded with friendly customer service from employees of stores and restaurants. Actually, its borderline creepy. Perhaps that's because in Canada, we aren't used to someone wanting to genuinely help us out. Customer service usually varies between "I am desperate and want to stalk you" or "Texting my friends on my bberry is more important than you right now".  Companies used to bend over backwards for valued customers. You would think the recession would only motivate organizations to want to retain customers even more. I must say, American Express has outstanding customer service. They made this the focus of their new training program a couple years ago, and its really working. Employees aren't trained using scripts and talking points like other customer service representatives. Instead, they are taught empathy based training, and its working. I am completely loyal to Amex for this reason. Sure I pay a $120 annual fee for a host of perks and benefits, but when I call Amex for any reason, I am reminded why I don't mind paying. Their employees really "care" about your situation and work with you to solve it in a speedy manner. Even if they're faking their empathy, I don't care..its brilliant!! However, customers shouldn't have to pay extra in order to receive customer service, or in my case, avoid other companies that suck at it. One can blame lack of training, the gap technology has created between people or just plain apathy of most people towards others. Companies can use whatever excuse they want but customers aren't likely to forget bad experiences overnight.