List of companies that offer good customer service

Great customer service in the UK:
John Lewis
Waitrose
Marks and Spencer (the cashiers are a pleasure to talk to and honest about their products)
Sainsburys (again, cashiers are very nice to talk to)
Lakeland (I used to work there, but I'm not biased because they are #1 on the high street. But they know their stuff, regardless of their gender and/or age!)
Boots (they know their stuff/good recommendations)
Many local Indian restaurants (always nice to talk to when I go in)
Clarks (although I never brought anything there)
Most local, family owned restaurants
Greasy Spoons/Small Cafes

Not so great
Morrisons
Tesco
WH Smith

Depends on location
Costa (it's night and day in Birmingham -- one is very very good, the other very very bad)
Most fast food restaurants
Starbucks
House of Fraser

To me good customer service is:
1. Honesty about products (some of the stuff stores sell sucks... and if the cashier/CS person is honest, it's better)
2. Approaching them and having a question answered (as opposed to "I don't know" or "I'm busy")
3. Workers not all crowding behind the till/cash registers talking to each other

It has zero to do with "have a nice day!" or so called phony smiles.

Also I don't do any clothes shopping in the UK, so I haven't listed any clothing stores...

It's interesting what Mrs. R says about customer service training between the UK and the US being different, because that's how it seems to be. I don't think that service workers in the UK are particularly incompetent or bad with people; I think they are doing things the way they have been taught.

For example, when I started working as a cashier in a supermarket, a considerable amount of my training consisted of knowing how to bag groceries.  Knowing what goes on the bottom, what goes on top, and what should be separated, such as milk from bleach. Knowing that if you are ringing up groceries for a fragile old lady, you make  lots of light  bags, but if you are packing for a young, muscular guy  you fit everything into one bag and double bag it so the bag doesn't break.  Knowing  how to fit the bags in the customer's trolley so you don't waste a square inch of space.

Here in the UK, I prefer that cashiers don't pack  my bags for me because they do it wrong so that I can't carry my items home.

But  it's not that they are lazy or stupid, it's that they haven't been trained.

Regarding another industry, once DH went to the bank to deposit a large sum of money in an ISA.  The cashier at the bank put it in our joint current account instead. When DH went back, and spoke to the same cashier, the first thing the cashier said to him - before checking anything - was "You told me to put it in your current account."

In the US, a customer service person would never speak to a customer that way, accusing them of lying or being ignorant  before investigating the facts.

Something like that would have been ingrained in you when you started your first customer service  job.

The person I know who complains the most about UK vs US customer service is a native born Englishman (not my husband), mid-50s, has lived here all his life but traveled to the US a bit.  He is always asking me how could I possibly leave the US & its grand customer service for the abysmal service over here.  (He is nothing at all like the aforementioned 'Poppa's little princess' - whoever that may be.  Lol!  So much for 'types'.)  And I've had other native Brits (of various ages) make similar comparisons to me.

I met someone similar this weekend.  A nice lady who mentioned several times that she has worked for 23 years in customer service and despairs of her co-workers whose only concern is their paycheck, not the service they're supposed to give.

Wherever you go you'll find good and bad service.  Adequate training would certainly help, as would plain old basic courtesy and manners.   

DH says that customer service is better in the US because the US is a money-oriented, consumer-driven society, almost entirely focused on making money from customers.

DH says that customer service is better in the US because the US is a money-oriented, consumer-driven society, almost entirely focused on making money from customers.

Ya well it helps to pay the bills (including the health insurance for the employees)

I think this whole thread would be improved if we had a definition of "good" customer service. I think some people are interpreting it as an either/or - either it's good service or it's bad with no inbetween - and some people are using it to mean there's a perfectly acceptable average customer service which most people/places will fall into with a smaller percentage being head and shoulders above the rest and thus good, and a similarly small percentage doing their best to ruin everyone's day.

I tend to be a "head down, don't talk to anyone" shopper so I appreciate the more introverted/reserved British approach to customer service, and most of my shopping experiences provide little opportunity for a person or business to impress or disapoint me.  That said, when I have asked for assistance, my experiences have varied wildly from having someone shelving soda cans tell me that they're not going to help me find a jar of marmite because it's "not their department" to having someone play personal shopper and help me find everything on my list because I obviously had no clue.

M&S - very nice if you need help finding something. If it's "not my department" they've always found the person who does know. I really hate being waved to another aisle or part of the store as I've usually already walked past it five times before asking and am just not seeing what I'm looking for. I am easily overwhelmed in things like grocery stores 

Lush - very knowledgeable about their products, will spend half an hour helping you find the right conditioner or leave you to wander around and smell everything in the shop at your preference.

Schuh - brilliant return policy. You have 365 days to make a return as long as the shoes haven't been worn. 

A lot of the other places that have impressed me have been small businesses - my hair dresser, my dentist, the health food shop where I get my spices, stuff like that.

"Shuh" huh.  Hello, new shoes.
I'm with you on the I-prefer-to-be-left-alone-shopping, and I base most of my customer service opinion on what happens when I need to ask a question or make a request.

I'm a big fan of flexible return policies Amazon.co.uk is really good in that department as well.

I find people gain or lose Customer Service points really quickly depending on how they handle me responding to questions with, "I'm sorry, what?" I'm really bad with unexpected questions - between the unfamiliar phrasing, varying accents, and my general spaciness I frequently find myself having no clue what they just asked.  Based purely on my own observations, the cheaper the stuff they stock, the less patience they have.

Regarding another industry, once DH went to the bank to deposit a large sum of money in an ISA.  The cashier at the bank put it in our joint current account instead. When DH went back, and spoke to the same cashier, the first thing the cashier said to him - before checking anything - was "You told me to put it in your current account."

In the US, a customer service person would never speak to a customer that way, accusing them of lying or being ignorant  before investigating the facts.

Something like that would have been ingrained in you when you started your first customer service  job.

I'm sure it happens sometimes, somewhere in the US! 

But I wanted to also add, the other side of this regarding when the customer is the one who has made a mistake...  This happens quite a bit on my job now because my clients haven't sent us in some information that we require to do what we do for them, and then they call up grumpy because something hasn't been done for them (because we are still waiting on them to do something, to send something in, first).

A good customer service rep knows how to handle this situation without getting all Judgy McPoopPants on the person, without belittling or condescending, by tactfully/sympathetically explaining what has happened & what is going on (maybe having to listen to a rant in the process), and without making the customer feel small.

I'm sure it happens sometimes, somewhere in the US! 

Oh, you must have met my US cable company. 

Judgy McPoopPants

LOL  We've all met him, too many times.   

A good customer service rep knows how to handle this situation without getting all Judgy McPoopPants on the person, without belittling or condescending, by tactfully/sympathetically explaining what has happened & what is going on (maybe having to listen to a rant in the process), and without making the customer feel small.

That's exactly it.  There's a way to let the customer know they are wrong without treating them like they are ignorant, or worse, insinuating that they are intentionally being dishonest.

Comparisons between UK vs. US aside (it's all relative to individual preference or expectation anyway), why does the ‘customer service’ question seem to be more of an issue in the UK than in the US? Does this mean there’s a problem? I don’t know but Mary Portas seems to think so and has devoted a whole series to it now showing on Channel 4 so maybe there’s something to it.

In general, I find the level of service more friendlier in the US than in the UK, which doesn’t necessarily equate with being better.  But some general observations:

To me service goes beyond interaction with shop assistants or wait staff. For instance, why are the shelves in my local supermarket often bare when I stop in after work? Why is there no staples like bread or litres of milk? It could be just my local store, but to me this is poor customer service.

And why did I almost end up in a mental institution trying to set up accounts for my gas and electric service last year? Every time I hear or read about the money I would save by switching suppliers makes me roll on the floor laughing…who would willingly put themselves through that? There’s something terribly wrong when a company dismisses a customer begging to pay them.

Why do some companies charge its customers to call them, some at premium rates?  Outrageous!

People are not immune to poor service in the US but I find many companies here at least appear to take their customers for granted more often than in the US.

About the phone numbers:

DH has his own business, and I once suggested that he get a free phone number, since pretty much every legitimate business in the US has an 800 number and customers expect to be able to call a company for free.

He told me that in the UK, a free phone number gives a company a reputation of being low quality and unreliable; it looks like they have to use a free phone number to lure customers because their products or services aren't very good.

Strange.

I do wish that shops would open earlier and close later. I live in a city centre, and most shops here open around 9 or later and are closed by 5:30.  I'd like to be able to pick up something before work or on the way home. I work outside the city centre, so I can't go during my lunch.

Some bad experiences with customer service in America, courtesy of my friend Rebecca's blog:

http://www.iwannabeadomesticgoddess.com/2011/01/congratulations-its-thai-food.html