Thursday, March 28, 2024

STRONG SUIT: Poor service delivery alarming

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For the past two weeks I have been moving my residence and business offices. While I had hoped to minimize business disruptions, almost every “worst case scenario” happened. As a precaution, I provided LIME with more than a month’s notice, regularly checked on the progress and intentionally avoided the end of the month bulge. When the transfer of service date arrived, I was left with a complete loss of land line and broadband services.
I had not planned for LIME’s outsourcing their technical services to Sony-Ericsson and the dynamics between those who were paid out and those selected for employment by Sony-Ericsson. Long story- short; I finally have a new telephone number and a dial tone but the crucial internet services are still missing. Every aspect of my business has an internet component and a number of client projects have been adversely affected.
It seems that everyone has their own LIME disaster story, so I will end my rant here. However, when I looked at the number and types of services I routinely purchase, it is apparent that poor service delivery is alarmingly common.
I use the word alarming because more than 85 per cent of our economy is tied to the delivery of services. I am not simply talking about interpersonal communications skills, whether or not you smile or serve from the correct side of the table. Much of this transactional service training leaves a residue of “servitude” that plays heavily upon echoes of slavery and fuels the adversarial industrial relations climate of the Caribbean. It has often been characterized as “poor worker attitude”.
In this case, I am talking about individuals and organizations whose approach to obtaining customers and delivering service seems to ignore the fundamentals of a credible service-based business. Research and experience clearly show that reliability, responsiveness and assurance must be consistently present in a viable, service-based business.
1. Reliability means that what you are offering must be clearly apparent and that when used, it delivers what is promised. There are several examples of persons, selling food from the back of vans at specific locations, who have built up an established clientele because of reliability. Conversely, I had a recent experience with an established moving company that gave the impression of professionalism but was deficient in key areas. I won’t use them again nor will I recommend them. Reliability cannot be achieved in a “one-night stand”. Trust is based on consistent performance over time.
2. Responsiveness means that the person or the business is consciously interested in your unique needs at time of the service request. Experienced professionals can interpret the nuances, clarify and confirm what is expected as a satisfying outcome. Too often, I encounter persons and companies that have a default mode of responding that does not accommodate special needs.
3. Assurance really falls under the heading of risk mitigation. Many organizations and individuals refer to the “fine print” when confronted with service outcomes that fall short of what is expected. If you have already paid the money or if the service is essential, you can only rely upon the integrity of the service provider to “do the right thing”.
Barbados is a hub where a wide range of services are purchased and consumed. There is a robust, global demand for service providers who address these areas. God bless.

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