Millennials are making customers miserable

It is finally a reality: Millennials account for the majority of employees in customer-contact jobs such as retail, service industry and customer service call centers.

When you need to ask a question about your product or service via phone or in-person at UPS, Target, Best Buy, Verizon, restaurants, banks, hotels, universities, and so on, one constant complaint is the rise of horrifying customer experiences people are having when dealing with millennial employees.

Some common complaints are:

1. No eye contact

2. Lack of knowledge of the product or service.

3. Need to repeat the request, sometimes more than once, in order for the rep to understand a customer request or complaint.

4. Lying to customers about not having a product available in order to avoid the extra work of searching or consulting a manager.

5. Lack of sympathy or desire to show interest.

6. Lack of compassion to go the extra mile to assist older customers or customers with disabilities.

7. Narcissistic behavior personality, talk down or responses to customers in a rude manner.

8. Lack of general common sense on how to handle unique situations that require quick decision-making.

9. A tendency to attack customers by choosing a confrontational posture.

10. A negative approach to solving customers problems such as hide alternatives customers have just so the millennial rep doesn’t have to spend to much effort and time with one customer.

The list goes on and on un horror stories customers have told about their experiences dealing with millennials in charge of jobs.

It gets even worse if a millennial lands a job in a trade or in a position that can alter life or career paths, such as a University clerk who has the final say in your acceptance to grad school. Another example would be a government staff member whose job is to issue licenses or permits. For example, an apostille is required for an advanced college degree when a grad student wishes to study abroad, or simply a job where document processing can make or break customers’ lives.

One example of this was George. He found himself in an endless loop with a millennial rep. we’ll call Martha. Martha was put in a position of power at a revalidation office and was in charge of processing school’s transcripts for grad students. She was new and inexperienced, but that didn’t humble her behavior when dealing with George. George was a Gen-X college professor who needed a master’s degree to get promoted as a full-time tenured professor at the local University. She told George he needed to give her not only his Bachelor’s degree Transcripts and diploma, but demanded he show his high school diploma to validate his bachelor’s degree. To make this crazy story short, George dropped out of high school to join a Fortune 500 company in 2001 as a software engineer. The opportunity and pay was great, and he took the job. Years later, he decided to get his GED and earn a college degree in physics at a well-known and highly accredited University. As it turned out, George graduated with high honors (magna cum laude).

Somewhere in the interaction with Martha, George found himself having to prove his educational worth. He was put under horrific pressure by another millennial at his school, who also imposed an invented rule to shorten the due date for George to complete his revalidation– because she wanted to go on vacation. George ordered his GED transcript at the Education Department, but he was told it will take four weeks. The deadline: one week.

George spent the next four weeks making phone calls to other places, and to other millenniums in charge who didn’t return his calls or told him they didn’t know or to Google it. George developed insomnia and lost appetite from the high-levels of pressure put on him by Martha. He ended up in the emergency room with an anxiety attack and lost 8 pounds that month.

At the end, Martha emailed him informing George that she didn’t need his GED after all– two days before he received it. She never admitted she was wrong 0n how she treated him or even bothered to admit her mistake and apologize. George ended up losing the job opportunity and his house and had to move out of state.

That is only one horror story and an example of not only how this new wave of younger millennials are making customers lives miserable, how they are destroying customer’s lives and health.

This heartless and authoritarian behavior doesn’t end with younger millennials. It has been passed on to the new generation. Gen-z individuals are even more savage and inept.

Rose walked into a Home Depot, asking a Gen-Z rep at the store if they have a water dispenser– being that the store sells large containers of water. The Rep responded with disgust and mocked Angela for asking such a stupid question, “No we don’t sell that here.” Luckily for Angela, another, older Millennial responded to the rep, “Yes, we do sell dispensers, they are at the back. “ The rep acted as if he was attacked and walked away instead of correcting his mistake. Where did he go? To chat with another rep of similar age?

It has become a practical joke to see millennials telling customers they do not have a product or provide a service just to move on and not having to deal with learning, asking, or helping customers.

We’ve seen the rise in mass shootings, perpetuated by young millennials or Gen-z-ers. And many have become worried to see every-day interactions in stores, at contact-points with millennial employees who can ruin your day or even end your life.

More and more people are questioning what has happened to these younger generations and why are they so de-attached from common human emotion: Empathy, kindness, humility, or the ability to distinguish right from wrong, combined with a total lack of awareness of the huge impact their actions have on customers’ lives.

Some experts blame computer games and social media or ADHD, others blame the profit-driven corporate culture, corporate consolidation and greed. Others blame Neoliberalism and its self-centered ideology and teachings, while still others blame their parents and schools for doing a poor job. And of course, there are those who prefer to victimize Millennials and Gen-z-ers, claiming they were dealt a bad hand in an economy and society that disenfranchised them. The claim is they didn’t receive the same opportunities Generation X and Baby Boomers had. But, in the end, they are indeed miserable and their lack of humanity is making us all miserable too.