Customer Service/Self-Service

Society and business appear to have lost track of what customer service means in today’s environment. I think it started with self-service at the gas station and has progressed to any and all avenues. Now you sack your own groceries, withdraw or transfer money at the bank, order your food, clean up your own table, represent yourself in court, and even wash your pet at self-service pet washes. There seems to be a self-service kiosk for everything today. The thought process being that this creates customer satisfaction and is more efficient. Maybe so in some situations, since real customer service is in such a state of disrepair. Are businesses too lazy, don’t feel it is necessary, or are they unable to properly train the employees to understand the customer is the reason for their job? I would like to see a return to customer friendly employees so you don’t leave a business with a feeling of anger and a promise to never return to that business. Maybe this is why a lot of people seem to be in a bad mood. A large number of businesses say they are working at increasing their customer satisfaction, but I’m not sure they are following through with their surveys in order to verify the results. Maybe there is hope, but does anyone see improvement in this area?