Customer Service, Anyone?

This morning on my way into work I decided to drive thru McDonalds and get myself a foutian soda, Dr. Pepper being my choice this morning..  Of course you may be familiar with the fact that McDonalds now have all soda for $1 (added to the fact they have a drive thru- which is a must if you have a baby).  With tax my tab came to $1.06.  I could only find a dollar and a quarter and when I handed it to the McDonald's employee I said "Please donate my change to the Ronald McDonald house. Surely you're familiar with the little drop box they outside the drive thru window.

As I pulled up to the second window I watched in my side mirror for the man to stick his hand out the window and donate my change. And I watched. And I watched. It never happened- he totally pocketed my donation. What a jerk. (I considered going inside to tell the manager but then I felt like stingy for only donating $0.19). I picked up soda and drove off. And as I took a drink of the Coke that they served me, I thought to myself "What ever happen to good customer service?"

As I continued my drive to work, I thought "Did I used to have better customer service to my clients?" I'm quite certain I did. Let me tell you what happened.

I graduated from law school eager to change the world. I got my first job (which was more fortunate then many of my classmates who did not) and shortly thereafter got my student loan bill in the mail. Somehow over the course of the three years of law school I had failed to amortized my student loan debt to realize what my monthly payment would be. Then I worked at my job for a few months and realized that my legal assistant was getting paid more than me. And she was working less. Oh, and she didn't have a student loan payment. And then I represented my first client and found out that people don't tell the truth leave out important pieces of information. And I found out I cared about my client's case more than my client did. And then I found out that not all Judges interpret the law the same. And on the days where I seemingly moved mountains for my clients, I got emails from them telling me they didn't want to pay me. And each client is a new name- same problems.

So that's what happened to my customer service skills. What's your story?