Survival of the fittest

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In the next 12 months, customers are going to show how their feet walk. The value issue is coming more to the fore.

Staff training is nonexistent at many stores in the Middle East, an expert claims, despite the need for industry players to go the extra mile.

Compared to other markets, customer service standards here are way below the other markets we engage with," reveals Robert M. Kaey, managing director of Ethos Consultancy.

As the driving force behind the UAE's leading service quality consultancy and measurement firm, conducting benchmarking work in countries including the UK, Canada, the US and Singapore, Kaey has discovered that "many retailers in this region don't know the number of customers that walk through their door".

Within its service model, known as the 5Ps and representing Policy, Products, Premises, People and Processes, the firm has identified the last two as the biggest causes for customer dissatisfaction at retail stores.

"We basically find that in many stances, retailers have gone to great lengths to secure the franchise for that brand, paid a great sum of money to get space at the mall, outfitting the store, bringing the stock in and then bringing someone in from another country and paying them AED1000 a month to stand on their feet for 12 hours a day," he blasts.

In many cases, the company has encountered staff at stores have not received training. "For many of them, they didn't know what job they were going to do when they got here. If they came with a group company, they didn't know if they would work in fashion, ladies' cosmetics or a restaurant," he comments.

Training is non-existent for many of the brands the company comes across on mystery shopping visits, he reveals, as "their idea of training is ‘here is your outfit, here is where you stand, say good morning and here is how you operate the cash register.'"

Vital for maintaining enthusiasm in frontline staff, training and motivational activities have been overlooked by a high number of stores in the Middle East. However, Kaey says there are examples of excellent customer service and strong investment in employees in the region, giving the examples of Paul Café and Zara in Dubai.

"They invest a huge amount, giving them ongoing training, promoting them, measuring their performance and helping them to improve. You find the service there just fantastic," he says.

Understanding everything about a product and believing in the brand is the key to winning customer trust, yet often employees do not have access to all of the necessary information that would make them more confident in serving others.

Many employees in the region lack product skills and "quite often we send in ladies to buy clothes and if they ask for a different size, they are immediately told ‘no.' The stock is there but it's easier to say no," he says.

According to Kaey, many companies are oblivious to the fact that there are technology-led solutions available to assess their customer service.

The company has joined forces with UK-based experts to install cameras at stores, generating online reports.

The company has also maintained its edge against rivals, recently clinching the Small Business Award for Innovation at the TSB Lloyds Small Business Awards in Dubai.

"In this region, research agencies typically speak to a lot of customers, compile reports after three months and deliver an executive summary to the client. This is totally dated. If we talk to your customers today, you'll get reports tomorrow and become leading edge."

The firm developed radically innovative methods for measuring customer experience, including its unique online mystery shopping reporting capability, customer satisfaction solutions and training services to private and government departments.

Once its mystery shoppers have interacted with businesses as normal customers, the results are input online into the firm's solution and the customers can view the results and a comprehensive reports within 24 to 48 hours of the visit.

Established in the UK in 1995 before being introduced in Dubai in 2003 and releasing the first Bank Benchmarking Study two years later, Ethos Consultancy now has offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and more than 40 employees.

Kaey is the founder of the Pinpoint, the Service Quality Tracking model which allows organisations to measure many aspects of organisation customer experience and identify the root causes of customer dissatisfaction, a methodology involving asking customers for instant feedback after they exit the store.

As the co-founder and chairman of The International Customer Service Institute and the driving force behind the development and launch of The International Customer Service Standard, now implemented globally, Kaey is one of the leading exponents of developing and implementing efficient measurable customer service and process management systems globally.

The firm recently developed a Service Excellence programme for the UAE federal government, aiming to improve customer service delivery across the Ministries and Authorities, the latest in a string of impressive achievements.

"Three years ago we redeveloped and redesigned the Dubai Service Excellence Scheme, for which we introduced the mystery shopping service. We had moved to saying to clients that ‘when we give you this information, you need to do something with it or it's of no value'".

If shops were below a certain score, our consultants go in the next day with the report and explain what happened. It transformed everybody's attention," he recalls.

During a store visit, the mystery shopper look at the way employees greet them, and "if someone has a bright, smiley face, says good morning and shadows you, they don't qualify whatsoever. We then find that when you do explain what you're looking for, they don't have it.

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