Why Are Quality And Service Suffering?

People are the quality and service variable that needs help.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve noticed continual deterioration in services and quality. Some of it has to do with staff shortages. This leads to others having to work longer hours, often resulting in burnout and less focus on work.

Some people’s attitudes also changed during the pandemic, coming out of it angry after a few years of minimal people connection and a feeling of loss of control. Others re-evaluated what they want out of a job — better work-life balance, remote work, flexible workdays. Many changed jobs. Many retired early. A large number stayed at work doing the minimum until something better comes along (silent quitting).

This, of course, goes beyond R&M. It’s evident just about everywhere, big and little things, in everyday life.

I just had a two-year-old AC home unit go out. I did some of my own checks and felt it was the blower motor. The company experts did diagnostics and decided it was the control board. After a one-week wait (out of stock), the board was replaced, and all went well for three days. After another company diagnosis, it was the blower motor (where did I hear that before). At least I had a 10-yr. warranty.

How happy are you with your internet provider or most automated-response systems when trying to get information or talk to a live person?

I stopped at a fast-food restaurant to get a hamburger and coffee, used the kiosk, paid, and looked at my receipt. It was blank on both sides. An employee said we don’t know anything about the kiosks, but what’s your order number? Again, the receipt was blank, but mine was the last order.

“74% of Americans say they’ve had a product or service problem in the past year, according to the 10th edition of the National Customer Rage Survey. The incidence of problems has more than doubled since 1976. Consumers are also described as increasingly vocal about it. The survey found 43% of customers yelled at or raised their voice to express displeasure about their most serious problem, up from 35% in 2015 (“Why customer service ratings are getting worse,”  NPR).”

Automated help lines make it difficult to get to a live person. People still prefer to talk to other people. Or when you get to a person and they only read answers off a script, indicating they cannot answer your questions.

Constant customer pressure to reduce costs results in cheaper materials and production shortcuts that contribute to reduced quality and greater customer dissatisfaction.

The annual “J.D. Power Initial Quality Study” shows that a decline in new vehicle quality persists. For the third year in a row, owners are reporting more and more issues with their new car (“New Study from J.D. Power Says Car Quality Is Getting Worse (jalopnik.com)).”

At this early stage of implementing digital everything, it’s the people side of the business (attitude, engagement, organizational health) that is causing so many failures. EP

Based in Knoxville, Dr. Klaus M. Blache is director of the Reliability & Maintainability Center at the Univ. of Tennessee, and a research professor in the College of Engineering. Contact him at kblache@utk.edu.