for Jackie ... a post.

It’s been a long weekend and I am in desperate need of a quiet place and a good book. My office is cold … again and the job search goes on as these things usually do.

The interview on Friday went not in the way I’d hoped which just goes to show: recognise your sources for what they are and always remember to place things in context. It’s very important.

 

Most of Thursday was taken up by Tim’s surprise breakfast bash, getting my car washed and preparing for Friday’s interview. Friday was interview in the morning and then I spent the rest of the day watching the most brilliant TV show in recent times. HEROS’s.

 

I’ll refrain from discussing my views and feeling on the final episode other than to say I can’t wait for the next season to be available.

To me this is bloody Buffy all over again.

 

Saturday and Sunday were mostly taken up by volunteer training for the T20 cricket world cup to be held in South Africa in September this year. Training is a boring but necessary evil. Thankfully it was interspersed by a lovely stay over at Reservoir Hills.  It has been a long time since I stayed over. I spent most of Saturday night watching One Tree Hill and do think I may have watched one of the best episodes of the series judging by the episodes before and after. Now I’m in a state. I need to know what happens to Peyton. My theory is that Brook will save the day, they’ll be friends again and all will be well with the Hill until of course the next dramatic disaster.

 

And then there was Sunday. The morning was taken up be the necessary evil. Thankfully we got to leave earlier than planed. Much of the training that was done was on customer service which was ironic seeing as how in Sunday evening I was treated to the most shocking display of customer service I have ever experienced in my life. Sunday evening was a brilliant example of really really bad customer service.

On the eve of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa is in a bit of a tailspin. The FWC is the biggest event in the world; bigger than the Olympics even. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world and we are going to be hosting the biggest event relating to it. We’re wondering if our infrastructure can survive this kind of global event. Is Eskom going to get themselves into gear? Will Telkom allow us to connect to the Internet at the same speeds as in other countries? Will there be a decent public transport system?

All these questions are more are being asked but we are forgetting one other very crucial thing.

Will the customer care in this country be up to scratch?

 

From my experience last night with the manager of Ster-Kinekor Gateway, Sunesh, I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll get our act together in time. It does not matter what a customer says or does you never, ever talk back to a customer, tell them that they are rude, say that you don’t want to speak to them and then turn your back on them and walk away WHILE THEY ARE SPEAKING TO YOU.

You also never approach the customer with your body language screaming that you don’t actually care what they have to say and are annoyed that they expect you to deal with something. It only succeeds in making them angrier.

And yes I got very very angry.

Retail is a difficult place to be but at the end of the day the customer is supposed to be the happy person. A happy customer is a customer that keeps coming back. It’s true that an unhappy customer will come back as well but that’s a lack of options more than anything else. Gateway is the most convenient for me so I go there. Visitors to our beautiful country in 2010 will have the rest of the world to choose from. They don’t have to come back here. Perhaps it’s time to also start focusing on customer relations as well. It is just as important as infrastructure. Do we want to gain a reputation as a country with shoddy customer care?

 

So now it is up to us to ensure that this problem is dealt with. So the next time you experience bad customer service say something. It’s not about getting free movies (which I didn’t btw) or your money back. It’s about ensuring that people who visit our country don’t have to add this to the list of things that desperately need work.

 

Also if you have the time, stop by and say Hi to Sunesh, hopefully he’ll be more helpful to you than he was with me.