The Sunday Mail
Anticipating and preparing for peak situations is always key.
Customer service is not only about a smile, a friendly voice, it is also about serving your customers timeously.
One would be mistaken to think that this is obvious but I had one couple complaining about the time factor at one of the popular food outlets at Sam Levy, owned by a big food and beverage company.
The couple had to endure a gruesome two-hour wait to be served. The reason for the long delay was because the restaurant was short staffed and cutlery was in short supply. Oh my God, what an excuse! To top it off, this was on Valentine’s Day when demand is supposed to be on its peak.
This is one of the many struggles customers encounter in many organisations . . . the time factor struggle. Organisations cannot keep promises when it comes to delivering on time.
I seriously wonder if Zimbabwean organisations consider their customers’ time. When there is a slack in delivering on time, whose fault is it, is it the management fault? Or the staff at that particular branch’s fault or the system’s fault?
Maybe the waiter was just giving the patrons an honest answer. All the same, a blooper by an organisation’s staff member or one branch will always be an embarrassing error to the whole organisation.
Customers that feel the service has taken long usually look irritably and do not have a good word once they leave that organisation’s premises. Thus, constant checks and balances on the operations of each and every staff member and branch are vital as they will help to correct any time inefficiencies and protect the organisation’s reputation.
In most companies, there are a lot of people who are behind the scenes who never greet the customers that give their organisations business yet customers are the ones that call the shots!
They disconnect the staff that interact with the customers by making decisions that are usually not-so-customer considerate. For instance, under-staffing when demand is high may put pressure on the remaining few staff members to meet deadlines.
In the event that they fail to deliver on time according to a customer’s expectations, the staff that have direct interactions with the customers always shoulder the blame.
Your everyday customers do not find pleasure in making empty complaints, so when they do raise a red flag management must not play the blame game but take responsibility and act. Time-keeping reflects highly on an organisation’s way of doing business.
Generally, no-one wants to wait for long to get served. Products and services may have the right price and right quality but no sane customer will enjoy dealing with organisations that do not see value in time-keeping.
That is why some organisations or branches are popular with customers while others are shunned. Those that quickly serve their customers will always retain their old customers, while attracting new customers.
Some years ago, there was a certain company that ran with a theme “Your pizza in 10 minutes or you get it for free”. That was a brilliant theme as it encouraged their staff to deliver the pizza on time.
But like most ideas Zimbabwean, over time the challenge fizzled out. The time taken now is way too long especially on the days when they have promotions.
A quick survey will show that since the inception of promotions, queues for their pizza are pathetically long. Management at these pizza house seem to be doing nothing to cut the waiting time. In all honesty, local pizza houses will not stand a chance with international pizza houses.
Imagine if a serious competitor who values customers’ time opens the same business in Zimbabwe, who would want to go and wait for 45 minutes when they can get the same or better product at the same price at a lesser time?
Today’s customer wants instant gratification, quick result and constant access. Organisations that have a large customer base should come up with innovative ways to serve their customers quickly and conveniently.
In order to serve on time goals, some organisations increase their staff compliment during their peak times and some have automated their operations.
They say time is money but if it is for sure then why do some organisation steal its customers’ money by not serving them on time?
In one supermarket chain, it is hard to do a transaction using a smart phone at tills that accept mobile money transactions. These tills always have the longest queues in the whole shop and it takes at least between seven and 10 minutes to serve just one customer and the excuse is always the same everyday . . . network challenges.
One would be forgiven to wonder if telecom boosters should be installed right inside the shop. The management is aware of these challenges but also sing the network challenge chorus without offering a solution.
Organisations should know that customers want their questions answered quickly and problems resolved as quickly as possible. Therefore, the staff that interact with the staff should not be disconnected from the rest of the organisation but rather work as a team and provide customers with viable solutions and not excuses.
Few people have ever succeeded by depending on just one stream of income, hence Zimbabwean customers are supplementing their normal 8-to-5 jobs with side businesses. Their desire is to achieve financial freedom, and this has made their time a precious resource that cannot be wasted.
They are now needy, when it comes to time management, they want to achieve so much in a day and cannot afford to spend too much time dealing with one organisation. Their first preference is organisations that can serve them timeously. . . so be the chosen organisation that consider this customer’s time and you will always smile to the bank!
Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba is a marketing enthusiast with a strong passion for customer service. For comments and suggestions, she can be reached on [email protected] or on 0712 979 461
