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Retail survey exposes customer service flaws
by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Friday, 27 February 2009Posted on Monday, 6 April 2009
Why is it so?
Posted by Michelle at 19:10 UAE time
During my stay in Dubai for the last 8 years or so, I have had deplorable customer service, interspersed with the odd gem of good manners and attitude that had mostly to do with the individual, as in honesty, integrity, friendliness etc, and little to do with training.
What begs the question though is, why is this the case? My thoughts are:
1. Over the past few years, companies did not need to spend the money on training staff as there were always many customers, and there was no need to attract others. Just like the property market, sales were going to happen regardless, so no real need to work too hard. These days however, the story is completely different, and those that want to survive , need to adapt. Usually this means training the senior staff or owners FIRST.
2. Again, regarding the staff in retail, I dont think it is the level of pay received that affects how people serve others. The staff need to be trained, to feel confident in their actions, and for there to be a system of recognition. They need to feel valued. But if management always only look at the bottom line, what do they care?
3. Thirdly, one of the things that really gets me about the UAE, and those that post, and the letters printed in 7 Days and other newspapers, is that the negative reports are never printed in full. The name of the watch brand, or the jeweller, or the bank, is never printed so where is the transparency, so people can start making informed decisions about where to shop and what to purchase, where to bank etc. Very often I suppose this is the fear factor of the posters that their letter may not be published, or its the fear factor of the publication that does not want to be liable. Until there is more transparency so these abysmal customer service deliverers are exposed to the residents, there's not going to be improvement. These companies will just slowly all die.
4. Lastly, and this may result in my comment not being published (again) as it is a criticism of Dubai, but the emirate, and the country, has not realised yet, that they need to encourage people to stay here, and live here, allow people to make their home here, in order for the country to work and to grow as per their expectations. Customer service will continue to be poor, with those few exceptions, as long as people feel that they are dispensable here, that there is no long term future within the organisations, that the country is just making use of them and that this can change at any time.
However, it works the other way too. Those public departments that employ emiratis whose jobs are secure no matter what, feel absolutely no necessity to go out of their way to offer the service that would otherwise be expected of them.
Until there is a system of work hard, have initiative, recognition, promotion, pensions and long term planning within the companies and organisations, customer service is going to be the last thing to improve.
PS sorry this ended up a bit long, but it is a passion of mine.
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customer service in Dubai
Posted by Sid at 05:29 UAE time
I have lived in Dubai for 3 years and worst customer service I have experienced is the retail stores like Carrefour where careless staff especially males are not helpful and when they are asked regarding a product their usual response is "check with the guy there" Its pathetic
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Posted on Friday, 6 March 2009
Wow Mike.
Posted by Luis at 07:12 UAE time
I am not sure where you have been. I have been based in the US, Brazil, India, Spain, France, UK and Switzerland.
My experience with Dubai customer service levels is simply abysmal. I am glad you had better. In three years I can mention maybe 2-3 cases (an Ethiopian poor guy at the airport who spent hours out of his kind heart searching for my missing luggage and did not want to accept a 100dhms tip because he thought it was too much) and Dnata, that is consistently good.
The rest from taxis to Emaar, to real estate agents to Government services (egate)... no comments.
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Posted on Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Service Indeed
Posted by Ashley at 08:20 UAE time
I would not know where to start; the good part or the bad, the other day I walked into the music shop on level one @ the crowne plaza shopping mall, i think its called the "Music Room" looking for a guitar, the staff (both asian) were in the least interested, and with absolutely no knowledge of the product. when I kept asking the questions on the specs, the guy snaps back " don't waste my time" - how much more better can it get...
I would have to mention the ENOC petrol station, where I left my credit card by mistake, the guy called me (from my tel no on the salik receipt) and informed me to pick it up... keep it up guys.
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Posted on Tuesday, 3 March 2009
An Expert
Posted by Dan at 22:20 UAE time
I guess Mike is an expert in the matter since he’s been around the world a couple of times. But I think Mike got confused. We are not talking about the level of customer service you receive at street kitchens or when you buy your watch from the guy on the bike with both arms covered in watches. Here we are talking a few levels above that. But I agree that from that point of view, you surely get better CS in Dubai.
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Well!!
Posted by SR at 16:08 UAE time
Well, I agree things are not as extreme as some others have put in, but there is much room for improvement.
Be realistic Mike, to say that service exceeds anything anywhere experienced by you in the world is quite an exaggeration.
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Dubai Customer Service
Posted by Mike at 14:44 UAE time
This topic has attracted the usual batch of moaners and malcontents. As a long time resident in Dubai, I have to say the level of service in shops, restaurants, garages exceeds anything I have experienced anywhere. (and I've been around the world a few times). If you don't have anything interesting or constructive to say (and most of you don't), please save your rants for the letters page in 7days.
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Posted on Monday, 2 March 2009
CSI-Dubai (aka: Customer Service Impossible - Dubai)
Posted by Louie Tedesco at 14:36 UAE time
The famous television show about nothing, "Seinfeld", is analogous to Dubai's customer service. As a fall-back if my career here ever falls apart, I may become a script writer.
Some upcoming episodes of the many on file:
Taking my new 4x4 for its first service at a well known Dubai establishment, the expensive almost-new factory-OEM 100,000 km platinum sparkplugs were removed and replaced with cheap copper-core plugs, with the unneeded plugs billed to me. Both differentials were to be drained and refilled with five litres of fresh oil but I was billed only for a two-litre "top up of missing" (?) oil. This means the diffs weren't serviced properly, else my bill would have been for five litres of oil. The irony is that if they had charged me for five litres, I'd have thought the maintenance work was done as prescribed! Too dumb to cheat properly, it seems?
While rotating my tyres at an Emarat petrol station professional tyre shop, the mechanic destroyed an acorn-shaped polished wheel lug nut by getting it canted in the wrong-size nut on his impact wrench. After extensive hammering, it fell out of the impact wrench shaped like a cashew instead of an acorn. After driving for 35+ years, this is the first time I have witnessed a man destroy an invincible wheel nut, which is generally the only piece of any car that survives for an eternity.
After paying a deposit for a custom made laptop which required a two-month delivery period, upon inquiring as to the delivery date after two months, I was told by the vendor that my order seems to have gone missing and that I should come by collect my deposit - an interest free two-month loan. Or, for the same price, I could instead have an off the shelf different brand laptop - of lower quality than I ordered. Upon pressing for completion of my sales contract, the staff told me that they made 14 million in sales annually - "what is one dissatisfied customer to me". It took hours of my spare time on the phone to reach senior management of this firm, who under my threat of going public agreed to provide the ordered hardware at the agreed upon price. It took almost four months to finally deliver what had been ordered. Upon collecting the costly equipment, the boxes were thrust at me and the invoice shoved under my nose to sign - not one word of "thank you for your purchase, please come again".
Giving a brand name, Geneva-made, watch for a battery change I was told it will take one week (!) as it had to go to their main shop in Dubai and that they would call me when finished. One week later the call came from the drop-off store that "something inside broken, repair cost 400 AED". As this watch had always kept perfect time before, I asked if the battery had meanwhile been replaced. Turned out that they had sent the allegedly broken watch back from the main shop to the drop off point and it now had to be again sent back to change the battery; the affair took three weeks and the watch never even left town. And it was indeed returned to me broken - by the expert Swiss-trained watch repair technician who had bent the watch movement inside the curved case while trying to change the battery. "Sir, watch not running when you bring to shop for battery change so already was broken".
And then the wife's Parisian-jeweller made watch was brought -while still running- for a battery change, to the respective boutique dealer. That too will take one week. But then the call came that the watch needs to be overhauled as "water leaked inside". And that will take three more weeks and "cost only 1600 dirhams".
Jerry Seinfeld, we hear you calling…!
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Posted on Sunday, 1 March 2009
Respect Must Be Earned
Posted by Meena Bidwai at 18:38 UAE time
I am an Indian and I have also noticed that customer service is not offered to Indians, however, the real reason is because we exhibit a haughty superiority complex as though we own the shop or mall or this city. Respect can never be imposed, it must be deserved.
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The level of customer service in Dubai
Posted by Global Expat at 15:52 UAE time
I work in Customer service for the last 15 years so I'm in that for long time. staff in custmoer service and epcially in reatil business are not qulified for this kind of jobs and they vare not trained as well. they are paid very poorly salary and the cant think of any develoment in their career , waiting for any opportunity to move on and find another job. employers has the major responsibility in this issue when they really need slaves , low apid unqulaified and no intention to qulify people, thinking they are doing some saving , actully they have been loosing more money than paying good packages and inspiring their employees. As long as the old comcept of low salaries policy working in Dubai and in the gulf in general we will not have professioinal ervice but just mechanic indffierent attitude of service
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Customer Service.....nice joke
Posted by Arjun at 14:08 UAE time
I agree to all the fellow readers comments on this topic. I am an Indian and speak and interact with various nationalities in the U.A.E. When I walk into malls or restaurants or nightspots i am looked down because of my color which is absurd(nothing to mention about being racist here). It's pure basics which some people dont get. People want to talk to you only if you have the intent to buy in a shop or else nobody would even bother.
It all depends on the kind of training activity the people in CS get. They are just told ot do their job and get on with the business. Most of the guys in CS are also not capable of taking simple decisions. Also on the contrary i have had some good experiences as well dealing with many firms, shops and restaurants which i refer to my friends. Business grows with the strongest marketing tool "WORD OF MOUTH". So if you get your basics right then you're in it or you're out. Nothing to blame on the guys in the CS it's their peers who have to sharpen their skills and pass it on to the people working in the front end.
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On a positive note....
Posted by James at 11:42 UAE time
I absolutley agree that (in general) customer service in UAE is below par. I have had plenty of moments where all I wanted to do was bang my head against the wall. Most posts here mention the bad experiences (rightly so given the nature of the article) but I wanted to talk about a positive CS experience I had.
I bought a Ford Explorer from Al Tayer in October last year and cannot fault them. During the purchase the sales advisor was brilliant - things happened when she said they would happen - I want no more than that. The after sales (always the acid test of a dealership) has been similarly good. Car serviced twice so far, no delays or problems. I had to call the breakdown service the other day and again they were very good. If and when I buy a another car I would go back to them or reccomend them to other people without hesitation. This is why CS is so important, especially in these times. (For all those cynics out there I do not work for Al Tayer and am in no way connected to them, other than as a customer!)
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Customer service
Posted by Tareq El-Imam at 10:15 UAE time
the sad thing is that the upper management sitting in their air-conditioned office do not experience the flaws of their customer service team who are the front end of their business shaking hands with their customers.
The irony is that those managers will not find out how complacent they are till the sales drop or the margins go down that they start scratching their heads how to fix the problem. But the un trained manger (and there are many of them in Dubai) will start looking at cutting cost to improve margins such as reducing the level of service or even laying off people, but never look at the root of the problem right under their nose.
I challenge those managers who speed down sheikh zayed road in their super fast cars to call the 800 number of their own companies anonymously and see the level of service they will get. Having said all that, I sometimes feel sorry for the under performing customer service officer as they have never been trained, or told how to react to certain customer needs. They simply do not know what the company wants out of them then to answer the phone and say "yes sir". They are thrown in the deep end and asked to swim. I think the problem is from the Top down. My message is ... sell that expensive porches that belongs to the slick manager and with its cost train your customer service people. I hope someone is listening.
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Posted on Saturday, 28 February 2009
CS for Indians
Posted by Pras at 15:52 UAE time
Most of the sales persons don't even want to talk to Indians in malls!! This is something which is unique to this region. I have not seen this anywhere else including the USA.
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Totally agree !!!
Posted by Usman at 13:36 UAE time
Poor CS is not just in retail, its everywhere in Dubai. From car service centers to Malls. At times you would just want to leave the things your buying and just walk out.
It is sad from the point of view of the employees as well. Most of them have no promotion prospects so they just do what they have been doing, and think that they will be stuck with this job for life.
How about having part time employees, probably university students who are building their career and probably would want to do better job as they know they wont be stuck in the same seat for life...
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