Customer Service Advocates

Correspondent | Tuesday January 25, 2022 06:00

It is no secret that customer service in our country leaves a lot to be desired! Many of the people who have had to ask for service from somewhere have at least one story to tell if not many, and the situation is not getting better.If anything things are going from bad to worse. It is not uncommon in our country for a paying customer to beg for service! Through this space we are going to tackle issues of customer service. Good customer service speaks to the provision of service to a customer before (at the enquiry stage), during, and after a purchase.

Do we see that happening in our country? Not all the time, and from the looks of things, it looks like most establishments, which hire people who deal with customers, don’t even bother to train their employees. For example, just the other day yours truly decided to make use of some grocery vouchers she had received as a gift. The vouchers did not have names imprinted, and there was nothing that specified that you needed your national identification card (Omang) to redeem the vouchers.

Excitedly after writing down the list of items to get, the next stop was the grocery store and fill the shopping basket with all the necessities! BOOM, after ringing all the items the cashier not so politely asks for ‘did you bring your Omang’? With a puzzled look, I calmly ask; do I have to present Omang to redeem my vouchers? The answer, was a very careless yes. I searched frantically for my Omang and remembered I left it at home, and once again enquired, can I use my license instead? That is when I came across the worst case of unprofessionalism that I had ever come across. The cashier shouts from her seat to some other lady, who I ended up assuming was a supervisor, and the supervisor’s cold answer: “ijoo, I don’t know ask so and so, and she proceeds to shout and ask so and so, who rudely mumbled something I couldn’t hear. At that point I offered to go back home and get my Omang.

Fast forward, I now have my Omang, the cashier instructs me to write my name, Omang number and phone number behind the vouchers and I oblige, from there she takes the vouchers and proceed to complete my purchase.

She did not once look at my Omang, or try and confirm the information I was instructed to write at the back. As I was leaving that shop I was astonished at why I was asked to go and get my Omang in the first place. Guess what yours truly then did, crawled back into my place and swept the incident under the rug! Have all accepted bad treatment as customers to a point that we have to beg and be ridiculed to receive service that we are paying for? Good customer service centres around what is referred to as the three ‘ps’ being: professionalism, patience and a “people first attitude”.

The coming weeks will be fun as we will have a platform to discuss customer service and customer experiences, and also talk about what rights you have as a consumer. The space, however, was not created to bash service providers, it is a platform that both service providers and customers can utilise to try and create a mutually beneficial relationship between service providers and their customers. Knowledge is food for the soul, and a knowledgeable society thrives. Consumers have a right to demand good service! Lets take this journey together!