Service_Soliloquy_-_30/06/12

 

Service Soliloquy – 30/06/12

Aderogba Adewusi

There is gain in serving and doing it well. That is exactly what I thought should be the attitude of front line staff attending to customers in all organizations. Companies parade themselves to be customer centric but failing to keep with the peculiarities known with such stance. Hmmm, it is very disheartening to know that customers of diverse organizations had continued to suffer in silence all along. The level of decadence in the service industry cannot be imagined. The question is “when will customers get what they deserve?” Maybe this would be necessary to answer a more rampant murmur of undiscerning service providers who continue to mutter “customers are always complaining”. For the benefit of doubt and useful information of any serious organization that wants to continue enjoying patronage, customers won’t stop complaining. The reason is not farfetched. Customers can only smile and eulogize your organization when your people are ready to satisfy their needs without pushing them around. Some organizations even push their customers to the wall with unnecessary policies and service bottlenecks.

 

Go to any service outlet and before long, you will come across a customer who is aggrieved. Several customers testify to how bad they had been treated at their most patronized shops. These shops are not limited to the mundane business offices found in low class environments. One would be surprised at how employees of the so called giants of the service world fail to delight their customers as well. It happened to me before and I could not imagine that this is happening to most customers. I had seen where customers were abused by the employees of companies they patronize regularly. Oh, that is not even an uncommon issue any longer; it is now so rampant in various service locations. I once watched a security man slap a customer because he did not join the queue. Should a customer get manhandled because he wants to contribute to the profitability that would reduce your companies overhead? No, Not at all; the act of advancing hostilities to a customer is barbaric and uncalled for. I thought to myself as I stood there, “I would sack this staff immediately if I had the chance”. Fortunately for him, the customer was not ready to press charges. He would have known what it means to commit assault on a customer.

 

In another of my covert shopping experience, I overheard a sales girl complained about the customers. Her annoyance was that they kept coming at a time she was to close shop. That was rather sad. Nobody forced her to take the job in the first place. There are many others looking for jobs that would take more time than hers but have not been able to secure one. In my opinion, employees are more humble when they don’t have a job. Immediately they get one, they begin to give excuses for failing in what they had been employed to do. Maybe I am wrong, but the obvious dictates support for my assumptions. My views had witnessed various situations concurring that customers continue to suffer in silence. I had asked over and over again; “Is it that hard to serve customers excellently?”

 

Surprisingly, I keep getting answers supporting the fact that customers can actually be well served to the extent of being delighted. So, what is delaying this kind of service? It should not just be lip service. More than 95% of our customers should testify to excellent service. This is because just one complaint from the customers to the wrong set of people can ruin the whole business. Or have we forgotten how hard to get these customers. I am really upset that organizations continue to milk the customers without much thought about how they feel. It is believed that the management has a lot to do with how their employees treat customers. As such, the employees alone should not be left to determine how customers get served. The management team should always allow for proper training of employees and their involvement in policy formulation. This is one of the ways by which customer complaints can reduce. There should never be a time when organizations focus on the Pareto few should now jeopardize the larger percentage of customers. Who can tell anyone of them that are neglected today that would become highly significant amongst the vital few tomorrow?

 

 

© SuccessDrive Customer Care Management Series 2012.

 

VIRTUAL BUSINESS REVIEW

The ease of joining some job marketplaces where members are easily accepted can be very encouraging to new virtual business professionals. This however does not mean a promise of unprecedented fortune as so much work must be done before a contractor can dream of getting a single job. For job communities like Odesk, Elance, Guru, Freelance and the rest of them, it is expected and severally taken for granted that both employers and employees alike would be sincere and not try to be funny by posting fake jobs and profiles. This is not the case on all these online communities where independent contractors bid for jobs. Many have actually joined the online job communities to perpetuate their fraudulent intentions knowing very well that it is not easy to be detected since many applicants are desperate to get employed.

The ease at which one becomes a member of such community like Elance, Guru, Freelance.com, Odesk and many others alike is initially very interesting interesting but the happiness gradually fizzles out as longer wait for successful job application ensues. Some of our clients complained that the wait may not worth the while for professionals that do not have any clients prior to joining any of the job communities. The truth of the matter is that investigations after series of customer feedback and frustrations gathered that many impostors and personalities with fraudulent intentions patronize the online communities. Any unsuspecting contractor can easily get scammed and ripped off. A recent case that was investigated revealed employers on Elance and Odesk who had posted several jobs to which various independent contractors have applied but none had ever been selected to do the job. Some employers just use the online communities to determine what they want to pay for the job in a brick and mortar organization by first looking for a good bid on the internet.

There are certain things to watch out for when applying for any job on these mentioned communities. We have tried as much as possible not to be bias in our judgment because the owners of the job marketplaces are actually doing a good job by trying to link both sellers and buyers of online services. They must have spent a good fortune to establish such platforms and it is also expected that some funds would be required to maintain them. However, our advice for current and prospective members is that both the employees and employers should be meticulous when using these facilities. The following are some of the things to watch out for so as to avoid being scammed or ripped off on these job communities:

1.       Avoid too good to be true job offers where employers are ready to take you without being competent for the job. Some of these are fraudulent offers which posters employ for getting useful information from applicants. When your information gets into wrong hands, it may be used for unauthorized and illegal purposes.

2.       Consider the history of the employer by confirming if it has a good reputation of employing people for posted jobs. So many employers just post the jobs without employing anybody. These sites give an opportunity for members to view how much the employer had spent on the platform and how many people had been employed. As such, employees can have a guess on who will reliably perform in case of an eventual contract.

3.       Watch out for feedbacks and ratings on past jobs as these are good indicators of historical peculiarities of both the employer and employee.

4.       Do not take your job outside the platform by ensuring that the marketplace helps you as an intermediary on the job. For example, Odesk and Elance have customized ways of securing payments from employers thereby removing the risks of default in payment. Our clients have reported cases where employers try to con you out of the platforms. Please note that the risk of defaulting payments is very high in such cases except where you know the employer very well and know how to settle a possible dispute after the job.

5.       Avoid any job that advices you to do illegal transactions. There are so many on job marketplaces. Employers sometimes post some unimaginable and illegal jobs. Be careful not to get your involved in a job that would later get you listed as a dubious online character

6.       Do not reveal valid information that can harm you to strangers on the platform. It is better to deal only with the companies of repute. Let the companies have the information and not that you will be giving every tom dick and harry your financial information because you think you can get employed.

There are so many other things to watch out there. We will keep updating this post as we get more details. In case you have more information than the ones already posted here, please feel free to leave a comment to help others that might need it.

This review is as a result of feedback from independent contractors and employers that employed our services to investigate certain business contracts for them. It represents the sole opinion of the author and does not take responsibility for any misconception of findings from investigations. The conclusion is that intention is very important before getting enrolled with any of the job communities. Know what you are getting into and prepare very well for it before getting really involved. Otherwise, failure to be cautious might result in dangerous and unexpected outcomes.

CUSTOMER SPOKE

The times are over for your customer complaints and difficult service issues. Success Drive is here to investigate your complaints and critical issues resulting from negative service rendered by providers. We want to help you get back your dignity and value for your money. We are determined to get your service providers back to your beck and call. If you think that you have being a marginalized customer, why not speak out now and get the burden of your mind. A problem shared is as good as solved. Oh yes, that's why we are here. To make you, the customer smile. You are smiling already, and so are we. You really should not get upset. Let's tell the company to right their wrongs, and in case they want to remain adamant; let's blow the whistle on them. Let us in on your complaints, we will help you to escalate it to the higher authorities. The companies might not even be aware that you had been offended. Let us help you blow the whistle and make them reverse the service failure. You are the reason why we are here. The time when customers should suffer in silence is over. Let the provider know they messed up, even if you are going to move eventually to better providers. Remember, that is why we are here always to get your complaints to them; your service providers. We want to give them a benefit to serve you and apologize for how they wronged you. It's also not only about their apologies, they need to know so that they can serve you better too.

 

So what are you waiting for? Bring in all the complaints. Report the service failures today and get rewarded by seeing what voicing out can achieve. Don't forget, in case you had been seriously wronged, the company needs to know so that other customers would not suffer the same thing in the future. If you refuse to say it now, it may happen again and you'll have to swallow it silently again. So, talk to us and our business professionals and virtual assistants will be always available to help. They are at your beck and call to represent you on your service issues. All we need is your cooperation, so that you can maximally enjoy our services. Please be assured that, our team of professionals is highly knowledgeable about global best practices and are ever ready to serve you professionally without fail.

 

Be your own help by reporting any bad service from your service provider. Let's escalate it and get you on top of your transactions. We make use of the media to investigate, resolve and escalate tough issues to high level management. The service providers too are ready to hear us and recover every single bad service. Know today, that it is now the customer's turn to dictate the pace of business.

 

Yours in Service

 

Aderogba ADEWUSI, CMQ/OE