13
March 2014 Addis
Ababa ,Ethiopia
Disclaimer:
This
piece of writing is merely a personal observation on the ground. It is neither
a result of any proper research nor it considers the grand ones where my
standards don’t permit. I appreciate any further endeavor meant to contribute
to the industry.
The
writer:
Service provision:
Compared
to our own previous standard it is possible to declare that we have leapfrogged
in the service provision in terms of quality, quantity, response time and
customer handling, like others in the economy. But, though the extent is varied
from one organization to another, it is possible to witness that we have a lot
to go to achieve a competitive service provision to the international average
standard.
It
has been a norm in our society to hear people talking about the phrase
‘Dembegna Nigus New’ /‘customer is a king’/ but it seems that we sometimes barely
understand the real meaning of it. How a king was treated really? Was that the
way we are serving our customers now? Personally I doubted.
Take
notice of our list of facilities, menus and code of conducts which are stacked
with seemingly copy pasted services we either rarely provide or we know we do
not provide at all which probably will create a space for customers to expect
much and let them go complaining though we provide with at most service. Though
necessitates proper study and research, it may sometimes be advantageous to
excel and specialize on few services than pushing of all together and end up with customers
dissatisfaction.
The
surprising irony is that most of the local hospitality industries spend much of
the time on western adopted services instead of developing the local ones and
offer a competitive attraction to others. As a tourism destination of historic
scenes, I believe, no matter how hard we try working on western cuisine/as Pizza,
club sandwiches, burger and whatsoever / we don’t make it better than they do
who spend much of their life developing and evolving them although a
comparative attention to it is necessary for some reasons. Neither I doubt
whether they have an appetite for such particularly those who come to pay a
visit the local way of life.
The
case is even worse in the contracting industry where it is so easy to see
promises broken, deadlines not met, timely delivery of services failed, and so
on. I personally recently witnessed where a contractual period is expired long
ago, guarantees are not extended on time, delivery of the product is not made in
line with the contract and astonishingly no excuses are paid to the customer
which left the customer with no choice for trading with the local company
paying their money in advance.
I
also remember once serving an angry customer who warned me to remove what was
posted at the door of my office which states we could finish a list of jobs
within a day while it took us more than a month to settle the case for him.
Sometimes I don’t understand why we go for unrealistic promises so long as we
know it won’t change the outcome. Unrealistic promises will definitely result
in customer dissatisfaction.
An
old friend of mine shared to me how his boss processed, a license and opened an
office in one of Middle Eastern states within few days, including lectures and
orientations of procedures, rules and regulations of the country, all in a
single window among others while we are struggling for the same in our home
country.
I
heard a joke once where one woman who found a child of her neighbor whose
mother was playing with her husband in her own bed mistakenly took away their
child in trying to escape from her when she was back from fetching water. Soon
after she discovered the enemy’s child, she angrily picked him up and
threatened to throw him to the fire burning. Her shameless husband watching her
close by warned her to take care as there was fire in the other house too,
knowing their child was taken instead.
I
mean life is not one side. One way or another, sooner or later it will end us
to be treated us customers or service providers. I wonder how our people expect
much from others while they are too reluctant to give to others.
I
was surprised to hear how some of our neighbors’ pay taxi fares from their
mobile balances just in case while we are still arguing for ten and fifteen
cents change all along, forget the blessings of credit cards and visas.
An
expat colleague of mine ,who for sure I
know is not a fancy one, always complains about the services he gets from
hotels, restaurants, bars, government offices, and almost anywhere he tried getting. This country is a blessing and
may be the only and last place he could find on earth as cheap in terms of
price particularly for basic services. But surely, his satisfaction is swept
away with poor services. In his home country even when having a drink, the
waiter/waitress don’t wait to bring
another one until he drinks less than half of the previous one, as he always
told me. They always keep an eye on the customers and act proactively. He
genuinely appreciates how trusted and friendly we are towards others but hardly
satisfied with the service even with incentives and tips. Project then how we
can cope with the luxury predators.
May
be, we survived because the people don’t have a choice and no place to go but
why we limit our potential to such an insignificant margin while we have the
possibility of extended growth. Moreover, when the trend is changed, as it is
happening now, and the competition is getting tougher, it may be difficult to
catch up, let alone to make a profit.
How
many of us, small to big, attend training and facilitate training for our
employees on the subject to acquire the necessary knowledge and skill more than
the basic science. To satisfy the ever changing demand of humans, as customers,
it will be crucial to attend specialized training on a regular basis.
How
many of us are making assessment of our customers to identify whether we are
serving new ones every time or they are coming now and again for our services
which might be a better way of gauging our customer satisfaction levels.
Customer
satisfaction indexes conducted nationwide may also help alert businesses for a
better and scientific approach. It will be worthwhile for our businesses to
listen and understand, emphasize, offer a solution, execute the solution and
then follow up of every customer complaint.
Equal
to other business operations, make sure we acquired the evolving customer feed-backs and complaint handling principles, ruled by them and give at most
attention to customer satisfaction so that we internationalize our services and
help change the overall country image.
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