Tag: customer service

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Wouldn’t it be nice if you could run your business like the post office

Closed without warning.
Closed without warning.

Without warning the Post Office in Sandton City shopping complex closed down in the first week of March. What happened is hard to decipher because the public messages outside were unclear and contradictory.

When the Post Office branch in the shopping centre closed down customers had to go to the branch in Benmore to collect their parcels or go to Bramley in Johannesburg to collect their post office box mail. Customers grumbled and left handwritten complaints on the signage at the post office branch.

I don’t want to get into any criticising of the Post Office but would rather look at its byzantine business model that is leaving money on the table for sharp private entrepreneurial business people. Continue reading “Wouldn’t it be nice if you could run your business like the post office”

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Do you take on any customer you can find or are you selective?

dazzled maniac Jim Morrison drowns out the hau...

I visited a new fast chicken and sit-down restaurant where the staff gave friendly and swift customer service. This service was so excellent that when the manager and co-owner came around to ask us were we happy with our meal, I asked him could he explain just one thing to me.

My question was: how come your staff are so helpful and friendly compared to the national chain of chicken restaurants that previously had a similar operation on the same premises? Continue reading “Do you take on any customer you can find or are you selective?”

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You’d think this business would be more interested in attention to detail

Ouch ! my car :(
Ouch ! my car 🙁 (Photo credit: Interior_Photos)

I collected my car late in the afternoon from the panel beaters. On the workshop floor I was shown the panel beating work on the boot of my car by one of the assistant managers. I asked him to open the boot with the unlocking lever in the driver’s seat of the car and then tried to close the boot but it wouldn’t close. The assistant manager called one of the employees and got them to change the setting of the latch. He said it was nothing but a minor adjustment that they would quickly do before they handed the car back to me. Continue reading “You’d think this business would be more interested in attention to detail”

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How to connect with customers in a deep and meaningful way

English: This is a photograph I personally too...
Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Have you had an experienced lately where you were treated poorly as a customer? How did you feel? Did it make you resolve with greater determination to serve your customers more effectively?

This is not one of those gripe sessions about experiencing poor customer service. We all have too many examples. Being kept waiting. Ignored even when we are standing in front of the cashier. Glaring errors with restaurant bills. Defective goods that we only find about later when we get home and have to fight to get a replacement or refund.

Continue reading “How to connect with customers in a deep and meaningful way”

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How do you keep a business running for 110 years?

Cecil Rabinowitz of Awerbuchs Wholesaler Clothing, one of Bloemfontein’s oldest shops, established during the Anglo-Boer War in 1900.
Cecil Rabinowitz of Awerbuchs Wholesaler Clothing, one of Bloemfontein’s oldest shops, established during the Anglo-Boer War in 1900.

I was curious to find out how a business has been running for 110 years in a small South African city. So on a recent weekend I went to visit Awerbuchs, a clothing retailer, in Fichardt Street located in downtown Bloemfontein. The store is not situated in its original location but has been operating from its present premises for many decades. Fashions have come and gone and the downtown city area has even become gentrified but the store still has a large following.

Customers include the business person who wants a tailored suit to farmers who want durable workwear and parents who want clothing for their school going children. The store is located on big premises with long aisles of trousers, casual shirts, formal shirts, accessories as well as linen. Upstairs, at the back of the store is a large footwear section. Down below is a large tailoring room. Continue reading “How do you keep a business running for 110 years?”

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A rare gesture that will make your customers happy

Welcome! Source: WikimediaPeople are always complaining about the unfriendly service at supermarkets and retail stores but it’s surprising how very few store owners greet their customers when they enter their stores.

I do a fair amount of shopping in Johannesburg and sometimes in Cape Town when I’m on holiday there yet I know of only one store manager who takes the time to welcome customers into his store.

It would be unfair to single out any one chain store but my experience in all the large supermarket chains has been the same. The sad thing about two of these large chains is that I never see the managers or the assistant managers. Continue reading “A rare gesture that will make your customers happy”

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Why you need an effective idea-to-launch system

Feedback (song)
Feedback (song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Coming up with ideas is often said to be the easy part.

Do you really believe this?

How many ideas that you come up with in the normal course of your everyday experience have legs?

The new business idea process focuses on idea generation. Why is this? It’s because you need a large number of ideas to ultimately find a winner. Continue reading “Why you need an effective idea-to-launch system”

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Tales of horror from the zombie business survival guide

Source: Wikimedia commons
Source: Wikimedia commons

The other day I asked a supermarket employee the question, “Where can I get kebabs?” She didn’t say a word. She looked at me with glazed eyes without even acknowledging I was there. I repeated my question and this time she mumbled something – I didn’t recognise the language. It sounded like an ancient language from Transylvania. She walked away without a smile.

It suddenly hit me. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Shivering in my shoes, I realised who I had encountered. A zombie service staff member had infiltrated this business and was operating under the guise of a customer service representative. Continue reading “Tales of horror from the zombie business survival guide”

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Don’t treat small businesses this way

Small businesses help employ locals rather than putting people out on the streets
Small businesses help employ locals
rather than putting people out on the streets

We see all these campaigns to promote small businesses, like International Small Business Week, “Small Business Friday” and other conferences and initiatives that put the spotlight on small business. These campaigns are well-meaning but what impact do they make? What good do they do for the small business person down there in the trenches of a small village trying to eke out a living?

Really?

Small business is about every day slogging it out in the trenches, providing friendly customer service and thinking of what better services or products to provide customers. These grandstand platforms make everyone feel good on the day but what good do they do for small business and the other 364 days of the year?

Continue reading “Don’t treat small businesses this way”

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Are your customers satisfied with your service?

Weevil
Imagine  opening your pack of pasta only to find it covered thick with weevils (Photo credit: John Tann)

The food came late. The meal tasted awful. The unsmiling waiter kept us waiting for the bill. The restaurant manager wasn’t there to listen to our complaints.

This isn’t about customer gripes. We all have our own tales of service woe:

• Deliveries that come a week late.
• Waiting on the call centre line for up to half an hour to speak to accounts for your utility bill and getting cut off and having to call again… and again. Continue reading “Are your customers satisfied with your service?”