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Will we ever have good customer service?

Posted by Maia Chung on September 19, 2010 at 7:54pm
Will we ever have good customer service? written in the year of Our Lord– 2000 Will we ever have good customer service? It’s been a whilesince I have had a problem with this thing about leaving your packagesand bags at the area designated for this requirement in many Jamaicanstores. If you are not clear on what I am saying , it’s when you go intoa store and a certain designated (I don’t know if this happens in othercountries) someone says, “you have to leave those (bags) here miss”.Those being bags with stuff you bought in a different store. When youleave your items ; packages, bags in some instance even hand bags, youare given a ticket or some piece of plastic or cardboard to show thatthey have your items. Typically it has a number or letter and there aretwo you get one and the matching one is pinned to your items, presumablyuntil you come back for them. Usually while the well thinking, canempathise with the store owner, it comes across as if the people who runthe businesses we use, have gotten so hardened by the thefts, thatadmittedly can occur using “pre-bought merchandise as cover, that theydon’t give a rat’s ass about your property. When I wrote this , I waslistening to one of our local radio talk shows, where one distraughtwoman was telling the host of her ordeal. It seems her bag was handedover at the check counter to a security guard, and not one of thestore’s official “bag-taker” designated and dedicated employees. Anywaythe lady’s bag was “lost”. Now if you want me to stream out some clawtfrom ‘Pablo’s’ – memba me tell you say… I do not play that!!! Now is ittoo much to ask that if we are obligated to leave our baggage withstrangers, that we “the leavers” – have some protection, in exchange,since we grant the store’s management, peace of mind that we won’t usethe bags to smuggle out their settees and washing machines?! Going backto this lady who was pouring her heart out about her lost bag, she saysshe was told by the manager of the store who she claims, also abusedher verbally no less- that while some of the items in the bag could bereplaced by his store, he would not be held responsible for her propertywhich he could not replace. So what couldn’t he replace? Oh you nolittle things …things I am sure you wouldn’t miss… lipstick, herfoundation, eyeshadow but seriously folks… HER PASSPORT, HER BANK BOOK,BANK CARDS…you know incidentals (dripping sarcasm). Listening to thathorrific tale I could totally get behind her angst. I remember oneparticuler Christmas holiday when I bought several gifts with the littlemuch that I had. Some of my items were breakable, so upon entering oneestablishment where you either left your bags or screwed off, Ipatiently told the “bag-taker” that my items were fragile. Regardlesswhen I came back my bags were buried underneath several others – luckilynothing was broken …but I did query whether he had me say that myitems were fragile? Nary a response did I get. So moving on, same nightI mean after all it was Christmas, I encounter the same scene, at adifferent establishment …I give my bags to “bag-taker”. I will give youthe brief version, I said to him :my things are expensive and easy februk so mek sure you know yuself!” This dude, whom I do not know says,“really!!! I might just break them so I can keep them”. I kid you notface deadpan. Is now I am reviewing the event that I realise what a DumbDora I was, as I actually just shut up and complied and actuallyshopped there. Forgive me people I was very young. However that nightthe luck of the Christmas shopping God’s was with me and so I got backmy items , each time ‘bruk up-free’. Well being the eternal optimist Igo to yet another store, but when the scenario is enacted there I alterthe script – I actually ask if there is damage done to a customer’sitems, if the store has a compensation policy? I get a disinterestedshrug. You know the one that indicates ‘do I give a flying #@$%?! Some say to my self, no star! Certain likkle tings we can overlook, BUTif you ask me to abide by your guidelines and I do, pay me the courtesyof respecting my property and my inherent rights as a patron in yourstore. So after this, called the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) …didI – and lo and behold, that agency indicates that, “if a business placeoffers a system where they insist that your property is to be left intheir care for any given period, and you receive a chit the legitimateword for identification tag for your merchandise, that means they (JohnStoreowners), are responsible for your goods”. I found out that somestores have a sign which indicates that they only accept responsibilityfor a certain amount , in terms of dollar value – for the value of whatyou leave in their care while you shop there. I must say really I havenever seen those signs and I am still looking ten years after I firstpenned this piece. However what is funny, and I mean LMAFO funny even,is that the one that say, “LEAVE YOUR BAGS” are like giant neon LasVegas type signs, j’ever notice that? Law and logic indicate that thestore keepers liability policy be equally as prominently displayed asthe ones asking to take charge of your property for the short term. Yes Ichecked with a lawyer people. But the key to your protectionconsumers, is in asking questions and standing up, not cussing clawt…for your rights. It is reasonable to expect fair treatment where youspend you sweat earned cash. If someone cannot tell you what happens ifthe your property is damaged, exercise some back bone people shopelsewhere. If more of us stood up for the small things the worldwouldn’t be such a giant ass crap shoot. Punish poor customers service,by not just writing an angry letter to the newspapers, withhold yourdollars!!!! Duh? The bag leaving issue is a metaphor for a deeperissue. I classify this as ‘the Jamaican road to ultimate slacknesseverywhere’…wait should that have been in caps? Anyway, it bugs me thatten years go and ten years later Jamaicans are still not seizing thepower of their buying dollar, nearly twenty-five percent of how theyshould. Don’t be rude, be principled. Imagine you are in a place thatdemands that you leave your handbag in which you have your passport,visa, drivers license. You leave it and they lose it. Bwoy memba me tellyou bare tings!!!!! So if store owners reading ask, so why are yourolling so deep, as in having on your person consistently your passportand all, this is the real world folks. In a recent policy upgrade(smile) Western Union is now demanding that you show your TRN card or notransaction and if you don’t have a drivers license it has to be thecard. So it is very likely in this very coming of age “being on thegrid” society i.e. Jamaica, you may have some important document…veryrelevant to your life, on you at any given time. For this piece I spoketo Director of Field Operations with the Consumer Affairs Commission inJamaica, at the time I wrote this, the right of the buyer is, areasonably should be the same: to find out what happens if your propertywhatever it is damaged, misplaced or stolen in the care of a storewhile under their care as to their policy. If there is no clearlyarticulated policy refuse to leave your package and personal items ifthat is a policy. However you must offer the option of a pre-store entrysearch of any bag or item that may be used to smuggle out the store’sgoods. After all you can’t expect respect if you don’t show respect. Ifyou cannot come to a mutually agreeable position, step out a de goddamnstore. We put up with too much foolishness in this damn countryalready! Other times to give your dollar to a worthy seller are: whenyou encounter rude, lack lustre and aggressive personnel of a store youhave chosen to do business with. I think that where there areliability issues governed by law, we should start to follow up, if ourrights are taken – no matter how seemingly simple or the service wereceive and deliver will never be anything but mediocre with a capitalCRAPPY! Consumers educate yourselves about your rights, your actionwhen taken might be the catalyst for change in the positive.Empirically as a student of business at this time, it has been observedby my professors my colleague students and myself, that too manyJamaican businesses fail due to poor or no customer service. Customerservice is lax in many areas but I recommend that we start with the“bag-takers” dem, use it as a prototype for a way forward model andstart to pull ourselves out of this mire of indiscipline and generalapathy to standards that is now our paradigm. We are aware that theftis no joke, when perpetrated under the guise of coming into a store tobuy. However, businesses need to invest in staff training in a moreintensive way to address the issue of shitty customer service,especially now that (2009-2010) during this global recession, noimpactful in Jamaica, means for thousands of Jamaicans a dollar paid out– better receive good customer service by the spender. There are lessdollars to share these days and if you see your business losing clients,prevent before you have to cure, start by assessing your client servicedelivery, empirically alone I can tell you that in general terms, if Iwere to grade customer service delivery for the nation’s various staffinterface businesses I deal with – I would say F. So sue me!!! Andmaximum respect to the people who deal with people in a business settingthe way you would want to be treated.
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