adminsize fit all” type of approach. Fishermen with fixed mindsets and permanent loyalty to certain baits find the going very tough in this sport.
The decisions to use a particular type of bait is affected by the colour of water, the weather conditions, the cloud cover and the weed structure in a particular dam.
Two dams on one farm can have different weed structure. For instance, at Carolina Wilderness fishermen use different baits for fishing bass at the Irrigation and Zebra dams although both dams are just 3km apart.
One of my friends, Richard, has fixed habits when it comes to buying fishing baits. Even if he is presented with over 100 types of rubber baits to choose from, he only buys two baits – the watermelon and gunebug.
He is a prisoner of his own loyalty to the extent that every time he thinks of buying rubber baits, he only buys watermelon and gunebug even if he thinks of buying something different.
His buying decisions are affected by his emotional attachment to the two baits instead of considering the feeding habits of the bass when making a decision to buy new bait.
He does not bother to ask his fishing partners which baits will be doing well during a particular season. As far as he is concerned bass bait is either gunebug or watermelon, period.
Any other environmental factor, which has a bearing on the effectiveness of these baits, is meaningless to him.
Once in a while, I overhear him motivating himself saying: “There is so much choice, you can afford to be choosy Richard.”
As a result of his rigidity, Richard only catches handsomely, three or four days throughout the whole year. Most of the days he catches nothing or just a few. To a great extent he is not a very successful fisherman.
Richard would confirm that fishing is at times difficult. He barely catches bass, because he does not make a concerted effort to predict the needs of the bass at any particular period and offered the bass what is good for them. He just offered bass what he thought was best for them, period.
This is also the same reality with some businesspeople who tend to become paranoid of their own internal products and services to the extent of being blinded from reality. They impose their choices on the customer on a take it or leave it basis.
It is true that companies at times make profits even if their customer service is atrocious. Their profit is not by design but by accident.
The common challenge to is to overcome the tendency by many producers to prescribe what they think the customers want.
let me give you my recent customer care experience in the automobile industry in Zimbabwe.
During the hyperinflationary period in Zimbabwe, customer care was thrown out through the window and every business was behaving like Richard. Most customers were at the mercy of the suppliers and even today some customers still are.
Allow me then to share my customer care experience with two different motoring companies in Harare recently.
The first company is a renowned dealer of the second biggest car manufacturer in the world and the other one is the “market leader” in car valet cleaning.
Three weeks ago, I sent my car to my dealer for service and car valet cleaning on a Monday. The dealer advised me that both services would be completed that day.
At the end of the day, I went to collect my car and was politely told that service was done but the car-cleaning machine had broken down therefore the car would be ready the following day.
However, the next day I was told that the machine was still not fixed and I was told to come back the next day and it was the same story.
I then decided to see the service manager who then told me that their dealership had no capacity to do car valet cleaning.
I eventually collected my car on Friday without the valet cleaning. The impression I got of the dealership was that it was internally focused and not customer focused. It behaves like Richard.
It was very good in the vehicle servicing department but found wanting in other value adding activities. On the other hand, the company has no policy of refusing to take in jobs for services which it has no competencies such as car valet cleaning.
As much as employees are preoccupied with attracting business to their companies, they must be professional enough not to take on jobs for services that they do not offer.
This company could have had a contented customer had they restricted their services to vehicle maintenance only.
Most enterprising companies have had their fingers burnt while trying to diversify into related industries. Related diversification can result in spreading the resources too thin across too many activities, which can result in customer dissatisfaction.
Car valet cleaning gives me the feeling of driving a new car even if it is old. Therefore, the following Monday I sent my car for car valet cleaning at another service provider.
My high expectations of excellent services were, however, dashed when I went to collect the car after hours and the administrator advised me that they were not aware of the where-abouts of the car.
He added that they had no record of me having left my car at their premises in the first place despite the fact that their security guard had accepted and registered my car.
There was total communication breakdown between security guard who registers the car, the drivers who park the cars, the administrators and management of the firm.
No one knew what was happening in the other department. It took us three hours to locate my car within their premises never mind the stress that I went through thinking that my car had been stolen.
After finding the car I was told to pay for the valet services right away and I obliged. However, after paying, the guard could not find the keys.
He claimed that the assistant administrator had locked the keys in the company’s safe, which he had no access to. The company’s representative politely requested me to collect my car the following day towards lunch hour to enable them to thoroughly check the cleanliness of my car.
The following day I sent a friend to collect my car, only for him to be told that it had not been cleaned yet. My friend was persuaded to leave the car and collect it the following day during lunch hour.
The following day he was told that the car would be ready the following day. The same night the manager phoned me complaining why I had not collected my car.
I advised them that my friend would pick it up the following day as it was too late for me to make alternative arrangements to pick it up.
When the time to collect the car came my friend discovered that only the car’s roof had been cleaned while everything else was still dirty.
He spent two hours supervising the company’s workers while they cleaned the rest of the car. It took two minutes to pay for the cleaning of my car but four days for it to be cleaned under the supervision of my friend.
Customer service goes beyond nice promises, gorgeous smiles and sweet nothings. It entails listening to what the customer wants and coming up with solutions that meet or exceed customer’s expectations.
A dedicated integrated team, supported by a robust continuous systems development and effective communication lines is needed to ensure effective delivery of the promises that a company makes.
These two cases demonstrate how low we have sunk in terms of customer service in the motor industry. I do hope this is not a reflection of the total loss of customer care in Zimbabwe as a whole.
The writer is a managing consultant at CLC Training International. E-mail [email protected].
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