THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN SERVICES PROVIDERS AND POOR CUSTOMERS

“Services for the poor are poor services” (Richard Titmuss) The twenty-first century has been labeled The Service Age. It seems that the traditional role of family and community in meeting human’s needs, has been supplanted by other social structures, mainly service organizations. The present study aims to describe the encounters of services providers of basic needs (transportation, food, school, health and banking) with customers who live in poverty. It also aspires to raise a number of ethical questions pertaining to the attitude of service organizations toward their poor customers as a reflection on us as a society.