Let’s face facts. Customer service in the UAE is extremely poor. In fact, the term ‘customer service’ is an oxymoron; there are customers, but there is no service. Face-to-face, by email, on the telephone – the lack of attention to customers who are spending their hard-earned money is breathtakingly bad.
So who is to blame? Is it the service staff themselves? On many occasions, it is. However, the organisation giving the ‘service’ must accept the bulk of the responsibility.
Employees operate in the environment that is created for them. This starts with management. What direction does the senior management set for customer service? Do they allow staff to talk amongst themselves before finally deciding to approach a customer? Do they allow their staff to answer their phone with a “hello” rather than announcing the name of the company and the person speaking? Do they allow staff to play on their smartphones instead of attending to customer needs? Are they given the freedom to be pro-active in offering customer solutions? Do they foster a culture of training that addresses these customer service issues?
The recruitment staff must also take some responsibility. Are they hiring the right people? Are they employing staff who have a customer-focused mentality, or are they employing to simply fill numbers? As a manager, I hire people based on attitude, not skills. I can teach the skills, but I can’t teach the attitude. If the attitude is not there in the first place, it is unlikely to ever be there. In the UAE, you are employed on the strength of your last position, not your aptitude to smile and be helpful.
I am sure this lack of customer service is, in part, based on the various cultures that make up the UAE. Not all cultures have a sophisticated approach to customer service. However, if I have several hundred dirhams, maybe even several thousand, to spend, I expect the retailer to show me some respect and make me feel welcome as their customer.
I recently terminated a water delivery contract because the driver failed to deliver water – when it was most needed – on two occasions. It wasn’t just that, though. I rang the sales representative who begged me for one chance to fix it, so I relented only to find that the promised solution never materialized. So, khallas! Ringing around other water delivery companies was an exercise in absolute futility – one company said “all operators were busy”….for 25 minutes while I was hanging on like an idiot. This happened not once, but three times as I foolishly tried to contact them again. Another company passed me from staff member to staff member, each one answering the phone “hello” so I had to ask “is this XYZ company?” It was such hard work just to offer my money for a simple service.
Contrast this with the outstanding service received in London recently where large retail chain LK Bennett (now in the UAE), learned they were out-of-stock on an item of clothing that my wife desperately wanted. Instead of letting her walk out the door empty-handed, the service assistant rang around their other stores, found the item and then delivered it personally (in busy London traffic) to the store near our hotel. Very impressive! She cared about my wife as a customer and valued her custom. Can you see this happening in the UAE? Hopefully some day.
I can only hope that new entrepreneurs are so desperate for start-up business that they realize that looking after customers – really caring for their needs and respecting their money–is the pathway to success. Maybe, just maybe, these entrepreneurs might lead a much-needed customer service revolution in the UAE.
By Ian Mason
