Kristen Gyles | The bad taste of customer disservice

Imagine having to complete an obstacle course almost every time you have government business to transact. Why would a customer need to join the line outside the building, to then be allowed to join another line in the lobby of the building, in order to get a numbered ticket, to sit inside and wait on the number to be called, to then go to the appropriate window to have part of the service executed and then be asked to sit again and wait again, for the same number to be called, again, for the service to be completed? Well, this story is called “A trip to the Tax Office” and is routinely experienced by many.

Customer disservice is killing the country – not only at the individual level, but at the institutional level where the systems in place reflect gross inefficiency and a disregard for people’s time.

First, many entities within the service industry engage in this nasty cost-cutting exercise of having one employee do the work of three or four. This practice seems to be extremely prevalent within customer service spaces. Although there are eight workstations or cash registers, only three are occupied and the three working customer service agents are expected to provide timely service to the influx of customers streaming in during lunch hour.

As a result, customers are forced to spend inordinate amounts of time waiting in line(s) to do their business. Why should an individual have to schedule days off from work in order to get simple services done? Surely this doesn’t help to remedy the low productivity issue we have been hearing about. For every hour during the week an employed person has to spend sitting idly inside the waiting lounge of ABC Bank or XYZ government agency, their place of employment also loses an hour of productive time.

What is worse is that in many cases, it is the government services that seem to be setting the standard for inefficiency and for disregarding the time and patience of citizens. A Jamaican may spend a total of two hours waiting in some government agencies only to spend five minutes at the cashier window.

MERCY OF THESE ENTITIES

Unfortunately, we are all at the mercy of these entities because often the services are non-optional. A law-abiding citizen can’t simply choose not to renew their driver’s licence because the wait-time in the tax office is too long for their liking. Further, we have no choice but to put up with whatever service we get, because, well, where else will we go?

After waiting and waiting, by the time the customer finally gets their turn to speak with a staff member, they probably have a bitter scowl on their face, much like the staff serving them often do. This raises the issue of rudeness and disrespect, which, unfortunately, seems to be more of a deep-rooted societal issue than merely a customer service issue.

Recently, I saw a video recording of a uniformed cashier in a popular fast-food joint fully embroiled in a shouting match with a customer who reeled off expletives. The heated argument lasted for several minutes. Thankfully, there was a glass barrier between them. Someone was heard in the background saying “Mi never hear suh much noise up a di embassy yet.” Ha!

That fellow is on to something. Customers often attract the reactions they get from staff. A Jamaican standing in line at the US embassy is the epitome of humility and meekness, but the same Jamaican waiting in line for fried chicken is suddenly a self-proclaimed ‘hot head’ with a mouth filthy enough to make a sailor blush. Still, customer service training should teach employees how to react to less-than-ideal interactions with customers and should engender a mission of de-escalation where customers begin to get upset. Instead, customer service staff in Jamaica often pride themselves in going tit-for-tat with rowdy guests and customers.

TRAINING

But, a little training goes a far way. Some workers genuinely don’t understand their role as customer service personnel and have never actually received training on how to interact with customers. For example, it is often assumed that workers know they are to greet customers and not simply wait on them to initiate an interaction. On the contrary, some see nothing wrong with snapping after customers when they make mistakes, expressing blatant annoyance at questions that are asked and incessantly hissing their teeth over minor inconveniences. They need to be shown explicitly what good customer service looks like, and this is what training does.

But to be fair, some things require more than just training. Training alone won’t fix an employee’s poor work ethic. Some customer service personnel exhibit a blatant unwillingness to ever assist beyond the bare minimum. Frankly, everything is too hard for an employee that never wanted to show up to work in the first place. Asking too many questions will only annoy such an individual and asking for help may only get you a good tongue-lashing.

Jamaicans must become more conscious of the international reputation we are building for being unnecessarily aggressive and miserable. Everything is a serious annoyance to some people and another person’s slightest shortcoming is enough to trigger a disrespectful cursing out. The general culture of aggression sets the stage for poor customer service standards. But this is where customer service training comes in. If some companies can get it right, the others can.

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Send feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com