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'Cuss-tomer' relations
For almost three years I lived on a little island in the eastern Caribbean where even though their entire economy is based on a service industry, tourism, there was a major lack of ... well, customer service.
I think I have mentioned before how I called one of the telephone companies there to inquire about why it was taking more than a month to install a phone line, only to be told by an acid-tongued woman that she did not know why and that she did not install phones before slamming the phone down in my ear.
She just happened to be the person at the other end of a line of a number in the phone book listed under Telem Customer Service.
For another two years plus I endured one poor customer service agent after another, knowing that one day soon I would return home to where people really understood what good customer service means.
So here I am, back home in this land of mine, and the customer service sucks! Well, not everywhere, but still it sucks in enough places to really start to bother me.
A few weeks ago, I ordered a pizza from a popular pizza store. It was a Friday night and no one felt like cooking. My sister was getting home early so I figured why not order a large pizza and everybody could just relax and enjoy a pizza, some juice and family.
So, I dialled the pizza store shortly after 5 p.m. and they said it would be delivered in an hour. About 90 minutes later, you would think that we would have been savouring the taste of the pizza but we were not. I called the store three or four times getting more irate each time.
When the delivery man finally showed up about two hours later, he used as an excuse the fact that he had many deliveries to make. I was like "And how is that my problem? Your people said the pizza would have been delivered in an hour."
A few weeks later it happened again. They apologised and apologised but what use is an apology when they keep doing the same thing they're apologising for over and over again. To me those are empty apologies.
This time, however, I did not wait around for the delivery. I went out and had something to eat. Don't know whether the delivery guy showed; don't care. What I do know is that that was the last time I ordered anything from that store.
I need to eat more healthily anyway.
My thing is if you can't deliver in the promised time don't make the promise. Then, there won't be anything to apologise for.
But bad customer service in this country is not limited to embarrassingly tardy pizza delivery.
Have you ever called a business and they put you on hold so long, you actually forget whom you were calling or why?
And have you noticed how unfriendly bank cashiers have become? Nobody smiles anymore. It's almost like you're imposing on time they had earmarked for more important things. To me they seem to be thinking, "Hurry b....., come get your cheque changed and get out of my face."
I know things are hard and maybe there are problems at home or in the personal lives of people employed to provide customer service, but many of them need to realise that when they get to work they leave their problems at the door.
They should also remember that if there were no customers they would have no jobs.
Somebody should remind the drive-thru clerk I encountered at the Island Grill on Red Hills Road and the people who answer the phones at Juici Patties of that little piece of reality. The latter is especially bad. They're terrible.
Juici Patties has done a lot in terms of providing jobs for many low-skilled people all over this country, but I would implore them to invest a little more in some training for the people who have to interact directly with members of the public because they're atrocious.
Come to think of it, maybe training is what is needed. The companies I named have all done well employing local talent but clearly more needs to be done. You would not take a person off the street and tell them to fly a planeload of passengers to the United States.
And while customer service is not anyway like flying a passenger plane, both jobs are as important because failure to do either well, can eventually lead to disaster.
Send comments to shearer39@gmail.com
For almost three years I lived on a little island in the eastern Caribbean where even though their entire economy is based on a service industry, tourism, there was a major lack of ... well, customer service.
I think I have mentioned before how I called one of the telephone companies there to inquire about why it was taking more than a month to install a phone line, only to be told by an acid-tongued woman that she did not know why and that she did not install phones before slamming the phone down in my ear.
She just happened to be the person at the other end of a line of a number in the phone book listed under Telem Customer Service.
For another two years plus I endured one poor customer service agent after another, knowing that one day soon I would return home to where people really understood what good customer service means.
So here I am, back home in this land of mine, and the customer service sucks! Well, not everywhere, but still it sucks in enough places to really start to bother me.
A few weeks ago, I ordered a pizza from a popular pizza store. It was a Friday night and no one felt like cooking. My sister was getting home early so I figured why not order a large pizza and everybody could just relax and enjoy a pizza, some juice and family.
So, I dialled the pizza store shortly after 5 p.m. and they said it would be delivered in an hour. About 90 minutes later, you would think that we would have been savouring the taste of the pizza but we were not. I called the store three or four times getting more irate each time.
Many deliveries to make
When the delivery man finally showed up about two hours later, he used as an excuse the fact that he had many deliveries to make. I was like "And how is that my problem? Your people said the pizza would have been delivered in an hour."
Empty apologies
A few weeks later it happened again. They apologised and apologised but what use is an apology when they keep doing the same thing they're apologising for over and over again. To me those are empty apologies.
This time, however, I did not wait around for the delivery. I went out and had something to eat. Don't know whether the delivery guy showed; don't care. What I do know is that that was the last time I ordered anything from that store.
I need to eat more healthily anyway.
My thing is if you can't deliver in the promised time don't make the promise. Then, there won't be anything to apologise for.
But bad customer service in this country is not limited to embarrassingly tardy pizza delivery.
Have you ever called a business and they put you on hold so long, you actually forget whom you were calling or why?
And have you noticed how unfriendly bank cashiers have become? Nobody smiles anymore. It's almost like you're imposing on time they had earmarked for more important things. To me they seem to be thinking, "Hurry b....., come get your cheque changed and get out of my face."
Leave problems at the door
I know things are hard and maybe there are problems at home or in the personal lives of people employed to provide customer service, but many of them need to realise that when they get to work they leave their problems at the door.
They should also remember that if there were no customers they would have no jobs.
Somebody should remind the drive-thru clerk I encountered at the Island Grill on Red Hills Road and the people who answer the phones at Juici Patties of that little piece of reality. The latter is especially bad. They're terrible.
Not Juici at all
Juici Patties has done a lot in terms of providing jobs for many low-skilled people all over this country, but I would implore them to invest a little more in some training for the people who have to interact directly with members of the public because they're atrocious.
Come to think of it, maybe training is what is needed. The companies I named have all done well employing local talent but clearly more needs to be done. You would not take a person off the street and tell them to fly a planeload of passengers to the United States.
And while customer service is not anyway like flying a passenger plane, both jobs are as important because failure to do either well, can eventually lead to disaster.
Send comments to shearer39@gmail.com
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