September 2012

Time to say, “Not in my backyard!”

When it comes to terrorism and hatred, we often focus our attention overseas. Yet, everyday, in our own neighborhoods, Americans are displaying acts of hate toward non-Americans and Americans alike. What’s the reason for this hate? It’s because as humans, we are all different. We have different views in the areas of race, religion and sexual preference and what seems ok to us, doesn’t sit well with others. And instead of just being tolerant and accepting of other’s belief systems like many, some individuals and groups feel this way of life is wrong and must be stopped by any means possible.

According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, in 2010, 1,949 law enforcement agencies reported 6,628 hate crime incidents involving 7,699 offenses. There were 6,624 single-bias incidents that involved 7,690 offenses, 8,199 victims, and 6,001 offenders.

2011 stats are still being broken down, but nevertheless, the stats are astronomical:

Racial bias

In 2010, law enforcement agencies reported that 3,725 single-bias hate crime offenses were racially motivated. Of these offenses:

• 69.8 percent were motivated by anti-black bias.
• 18.2 percent stemmed from anti-white bias.
• 5.7 percent were a result of bias against groups of individuals consisting of more than one race (anti-multiple races, group).
• 5.1 percent resulted from anti-Asian/Pacific Islander bias.
• 1.2 percent were motivated by anti-American Indian/Alaskan Native bias.

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement.  A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

• 65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
• 13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
• 9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
• 4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
• 3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
• 3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
• 0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.  (Based on Table 1.)

Sexual-orientation bias

In 2010, law enforcement agencies reported 1,470 hate crime offenses based on sexual-orientation bias.  Of these offenses:

• 57.9 percent were classified as anti-male homosexual bias.
• 27.4 percent were reported as anti-homosexual bias.
• 11.4 percent were prompted by an anti-female homosexual bias.
• 1.4 percent were the result of an anti-heterosexual bias.
• 1.9 percent were classified as anti-bisexual bias.

Hate crimes is one thing, but also in the mix are organizations that develop out of pure hatred for a group of people. The Southern Poverty Law Center, an American nonprofit civil rights organization, noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; its legal representation for victims of hate groups; its monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and its educational programs that promote tolerance counted 1,018 active hate groups in the United States in 2011. Of those, 84 of them are in California alone. That’s the largest amount in one state.

Now the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list includes anything from Neo-Nazis, to groups who want to keep illegal immigrants out of the country, to religious groups that feel homosexuality is a sin. Everyone’s opinion of what defines “hate” varies. Going through the list yourself, you can form your own opinion on who the true haters are.

That being said, for the record, I believe in freedom of speech. But, I also believe hate can lead to violent acts against our citizens (as seen in the stats above) and I believe that people need to be aware that these organizations exist in their neighborhoods. So here is a rundown of a few:

1. The National Socialist American Labor Party, (Neo-Nazi) resides at928 N. San Fernando Blvd, Suite J143, Burbank, California  91504(americasvoice@nsalp.org). They don’t advocate any illegal or unethical activities, but you can listen to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” on the website and see many other racist remarks and deplorable cartoons. Wow!
2. The American Third Position, (White Supremist) are based in Vegas (american3rdposition.com), but have groups in California including in San Diego and Westminster. Their Mission Statement spouts: Parts of our beautiful country now resembles Third World communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia. White people are already the minority in many cities and counties…enough is enough! Unreal, and they have a Presidential Candidate who you will never hear of.
3. The Institute for Historical Review,P.O.Box 2739 Newport Beach 92659 ihr@ihr.org describes itself as a “public-interest educational, research and publishing center dedicated to promoting greater public awareness of history.” According to their “history,” big chunks of what really happened during the Holocaust are missing. Their so-called “scholarly body” has links to Neo-Nazi affiliates.
4.  Concerned Citizen’s for the First Amendment, Hemet,(anti Islamic)why does this sound familiar? Oh, maybe because this is the organization run by Steve Klein, the consultant on the film whose trailer portrayed the prophet Mohammed as a philanderer who advocated child abuse. The 13 trailer sparked deadly protests in the Middle East which led to the death of U.S. diplomats in Libya.
5. Voice of Reason, Pasadena, Radio broadcast of white supremacy. Look at the line up: Jamie Kelso is formerly from the Church of Scientology, now a white supremist. Here’s a connection, he is a director at the American Third Position (mentioned above). Also, the Marc Weber Report. Marc Weber is the director of the Institute for Historical Review (also, mentioned above).

Oh, how it all comes together to one big happy family of hate. For the whole list, visit: www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map#s=CA.

Hatred is something that shouldn’t have to be tolerated, and though these groups are protected by the First Amendment, there are ways to take action:

1. By supporting those who are victims of hate crimes
2. By reporting instances of hate crimes in your community
3. Get involved: http://www.splcenter.org/get-involved/your-community

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.—Mahatma Gandhi

Customer Service? What’s That?

These inspiring words from Gandhi give us a pretty precise idea of what the philosophy of customer service was in a time really not long ago, but seemingly so far away. Other old-school notions such as “the customer is always right” has faded away like Gandhi himself, which leads us to the ultimate question: What happened to customer service?

I worked in a department store in Philadelphia called Strawbridge & Clothier. Strawbridge’s, as it was locally called, was a multi-level beautiful structure in a style similar to the old Macys stores. The merchandise sold was considered classier and the ambience a bit classier too. You felt welcomed when you walked into this family-owned establishment and were often greeted by the Strawbridge family themselves, who chose to be among the shoppers over hanging out in a luxury penthouse suite.

Today, you are lucky to get a greeting in most stores. Instead are followed by leech-like employees looking to make a commission, or watching your every move to make sure you don’t shoplift a pair of $20 underwear. Cash register personnel are often low paid, miserable individuals who spend their hours day dreaming of that “someday” that they will get out of “this place.” The days of “thank you” and “please come again” have gone away thankless.

Not the best example (but one I’ll use anyway) is my recent experience at 7-11. The attendant seemed perturbed that I was actually asking him a question about a product. I guess I threw off the conversation he was having with the voice at the other end of the Bluetooth attached to his ear as he looked at me grimly and said, “I don’t know.” The woman behind me stepped up and said what I should have, “Just because you are a miserable person doesn’t mean you need to take it out on customers.” How true?

Ah, the cell phone, Bluetooth and self-service—yes, technology has played a part in the demise of customer service. Supermarkets have added self-serve areas. Now we have to scan and bag out own items. Gas stations are mostly all self-service and attendants have developed a reputation for ripping people off. (Did you really need a new filter?)

It is hard to speak to a real person these days, and often when you do, you are speaking to someone in another country and language barrier hold us hostage in longer, drawn out calls of re-explaining your situation.

Despite the banking bailout 3 years ago, Bank of America (America no less) has been on the firing and hiring binge—firing Americans and hiring overseas, mainly in the Philippines—where they can get cheap labor. Oh, and they get what they pay for. Wells Fargo followed suit outsourcing jobs to India and the Philippines. Then there are the robots, or automated customer service systems, where a real person is eliminated and replaced with a option of push-buttons and a voice command system. In many cases, the voice command system fails to do one important thing…understand your voice. 

In a study released in April 2012 by the research firm, Vocalabs, 11.14% of Hewlett Packard customers complained about language barriers, followed by 7.28% of Dell customers. Citi Group was cited as having the worse automated customer service system, with Verizon in at a close second. Among the highest complaints from frustrated customers using automated customer service systems:

1. The system didn’t have the option they were looking for.
2. They had to call back and start over.
3. It was hard to reach a real person.

I had this experience recently with a company called Bill Me Later. When I called, the option I needed was not an option at all, and there was no prompt to speak to a real person. After hitting “#” and “0” several times, I finally tricked the system and someone answered. The other thing I noticed about my experience with Bill Me Later, is when I said the words, “I’ll never use this service again.” There was no effort made by the call rep to maintain me as a customer. It’s equivalent to saying, “So what? Leave.”

Back to the Gandhi quote: We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.

 A concept that has totally gone out the window, especially in the food service and clothing industries. Have you ever been at a counter ordering food and felt rushed to give your order and step aside? Or had some snooty clothing store person treat you like you should be privileged they let you walk in their store? Attitudes like this are all to common in today’s world.

But is it too late to change the gruesome fate of customer service? No, bottom line, the numbers should reflect how much good customer service means to people. A company called BIGinsight compiled a list of companies for its Customer Choice Awards.

The Top 10:

1. Amazon.com

2. L.L. Bean

3. Zappos.com

4. Overstock.com

5. QVC

6. Kohl’s

7. Lands’ End

8. JC Penney

9. Newegg.com

10. Nordstrom

Now according to Forbes, Customer service in the conventional sense has generally implied face-to-face communication: greeting a customer; providing him/her with product information, demonstrations, additional options, or size assistance; suggesting add-ons or complementary products; and finally, completing the sale. Historically, the best opportunity to cultivate great customer relationships is within an environment where personal interaction between the retailer (i.e. sales associates) and customers is at its peak: a physical store.

That being said, how could an online service top the charts? Well, simple put, it adjusted to the times and gives people what they want now, which is quick, reliable service, a good automated system, and the option to have a customer service rep call you. Good thinking! And it’s working.

Topping the list of poor customer service are banks, insurance companies and telecommunications companies. The MSN Money Hall of Shame lineup includes: Bank of America, (remember them, they were mentioned earlier), listed as the worst in customer service. Also in the top 10: AOL, Citi Bank, Comcast, Chase, Farmer’s and Progressive Insurance, among others.

But why banks? Bankers were always portrayed in old-time movies as great customer service providers to the people. Right?  In a recent Time magazine article, banking analyst Dick Bove explains his theory, “For the last 40 years I believed the quality of the product was the key determinant to the success of the company,” he says. “There’s no evidence in the U.S. banking system that offering a labor-intensive personalized service is successful in terms of letting the banking intuitions survive. It’s very costly with virtually no benefit,” Bove says.

So maybe for your banking experience, there may be no hope for quality customer service. But the banks too may crumble. And, someday, somehow, maybe some of the immortal words of yesteryear will reign once again. Like Walt Disney once said, “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” That’s what true customer service does!

This may need a part II