Customer service ….will it ever improve!!!!!!!!!

I am a person who, by his profession and life style, has to deal a lot with different types of customer service agents, either in person or on the phone. Because of my traveling, I came to deal with many customer services representatives in few countries.
Dealing with customer service representatives could range from simple inquiries such as asking about flight information or asking for directions to serious matter such as asking information about investment and immigration laws.

As a professional, I would never consult with a customer service representative on serious matters, but what a person could do when the only way to reach for a higher ranking official in a company or in a government agency is through a customer service agent.

While traveling, I needed to get some information about investment laws in a certain country plus I needed to get information about immigration laws of another country. On the first instance, I walked into the office of the investment authority to get first hand information about their new investment laws. Unfortunately the ill-trained agent was talking to 2-3 people at the same time about important investment laws; he talked to me briefly and gave me his number to call back if I needed any help. Honestly, I never called him back although the information that I needed were crucial, but the way this agent was dealing with the clients didn’t not encourage me to seek him for any professional advice. On the second instance, I needed to apply for a certain type of visa for a particular country, before I apply for the visa, I have called the country’s embassy few times asking for information and each time I talk with a customer service representative I get a run around and when I requested to talk to a visa official, the answer is always “that is not possible.”

Why would a company or a government agency hire customer service representatives and not train them well or give them enough authority to make decisions?

Dealing with customer service agents in various industries and being a customer service agent myself at one point in my life, I can tell that customer service agents’ job performance could never improve beyond certain level. Unfortunately, companies are not welling to invest more in training of their customer service agents, nor the job has the appeal and future job security that would encourage the agents to focus on improving their job skills.
When the customer service agent gives the client the wrong information, who will be responsible of the consequences? It happened to me few times!!!!!!!