Bad Worldwide Economy or simply Bad Service?

[AndriesH]

Many of you know that I've been asking, lobbying etc for suppliers to an on-line tackle shop recently.
The responce has been, at best, terrible, with only four local guys coming to the party so far. Five making commitments to never be heard of again and seven just not showing any interest at all.

Outside of the tackle trade however, this pattern seems to repeat itself in a lot of places.
My cell phone went in for repairs in December and we got it back a month ago.

Some of our industrial customers are experiencing breakdowns on critical equipment and the Americans reply to enquiries two to three days later only.

Our network - bussiness - hard drive went down on Tuesday, and is not expected to be replaced until tomorrow ? 45 people twitching fingers for four days, not counting customer implications.

It looks to me more and more that the "Bad Economy" is becoming a good excuse for "Bad Service"

What do you think?

 

[Ryan]

I agree.
Bad service and South Africa has some real pearlers in this regard.
One would think to get better business guys would be going out of their way to do better service to retain and grow business - but it seems they prefer to blame the economic crunch.
I have been trying to get Parts for my motorguide since tuesday - Today is the first time I have come right and I still have to wait 2 weeks for delivery from the states.
In Sa the part I am looking for costs R1800 in the States $35 (R340) even with postage and tax it will work out less than R750 - Daylight robbery?
We are being ripped off in this country on all electronic goods be it from Motors to Electrical whatever - Greedy middlemen

 

[DWB]

People are uncertain about their future and then becomes demotivated and that leads to bad service

 

[Ryan]

Sorry Deon that is no excuse - Currently we are going more than the extra mile to keep our customers happy and to ensure we survive till the upturn

 

[OFC]

i think it started off by being a economical problem! but most people will find an excuse to sit on there butts and do nothing!!! hence the bad sevice!

 

[misguide]

My opinion it is bad service.

There is one key element to any successfull business ..... SERVICE!

Provide this and you will be successfull! Even if you are a small percentage and I mean small - more expensive than your competition.

My 2 Trillion Zim $ worth = R2

 

[AndriesH]

Bad Economy? - reduce / do not replace staff = downturn in service levels.
Downturn in Service levels = down Turnover.
Down Turn-over = Bad Economy.
Bad Economy = we got to get rid of some more people, back to step 1.

Ryan - I'll bet your company, against the current state of affairs, is still keeping head above water. I'll say you might even be showing a good upturn, because of your approach to customer satisfaction.
:first

 

[icstuff]

I blame sealine... with most people talking about fishing and not working.

 

[misguide]

icstuff wrote:

I blame sealine... with most people talking about fishing and not working.

:lol:1:lol:1

I think this could be a major factor as well!

 

[DWB]

Ryan wrote:

Sorry Deon that is no excuse - Currently we are going more than the extra mile to keep our customers happy and to ensure we survive till the upturn

What do you know, i'm busy with my Human Resource subject right now and thats what the wise okes say.....LOL

You're right, it is no excuse, but that is unfortunately how it goes.

If i know i'm not getting full pay at the end of the month i'm not very motivated........

 

[gogo]

@Andriesh

"Bad Economy" ... what bad economy?

Luckily you use the term "Bad Economy" and not recession, depression etc...

In comparison with the rest of the world, methink that we have it much better and easier and tanks to what .... foreign exchange control measures, amongst others.

But "Bad Economy" can not be blamed for poor service.

In my opinion the poor service in most of the instances, that I observed can be attributed to:

• wrong recruitment of key personnel - right person for the right job - yeah right, even 702 have a presenter with obvious speech defect, the poor man can not pronounce "R' if his life depends on it and when there are 2 or 3 "R"'s to deal with, he panics and start stuttering;
  [/*]
• lack of experience;
  [/*]
• absolute lack of structured induction and training;[/*]

and finally, my favorite, the quick buck brigade:

• most of the cell phone care centers - how many of you had phones under guarantee that when taken in for one or another problem developed... the favorite one - water in the cell phone, which if you attempt to argue may change to oil in the cell phone etc;[/*]
• auto mechanics;[/*]
• builders and the so called developers... eish...not nice people;[/*]
• IT consultants and specialists (charge's per hour and the length of the pony tail), will promise you that the product will make you even a cup of tea and then they start with the upgrades (of something that did not work in the first place), module 2 of the system (which is 3 times higher in price than the price of the module 1, which does not work anyway);[/*]