Poor customer service worries CCZ

Nqobizitha Dhlamini
THE Consumer Council of Zimbabwe has expressed worry over poor customer service by various service providers in the country saying this was tainting the image of the country.
CCZ executive director Ms Rosemary Siyachitema said service providers needed to realise the importance of customer care especially at a time when the country was trying to implement various programmes aimed at reviving its economy.

“We are coming from an era where consumers would queue and had not much liberty to choose where to shop as goods were scarce. That prompted retailers and service providers putting little or no importance on exercising proper customer care standards,” she said.

Ms Siyachitema said service providers had to move with the times and realise that options had since widened hence practising old habits was bound to make some businesses lose out. “There are some places whereby you find the very people who are supposed to attend to the customers talking on their phones or even busy on social networks such that customers are given divided attention or none at all. Most workers are oblivious of the fact that the consumer’s money is the very same money that keeps business going and even pay their salaries,” she said.

Ms Siyachitema said CCZ had also noted that there were bureaucratic offices where people were made to wait for long to access services.

“Those offices usually have long queues and very slow rude tellers or customer attendants. That is enough to put customers off and some end up not even paying the bills at all.

The responsible officials should attend to that issue as it is bound to make organisations lose out on a lot of money and inconvenience customers,” she said.

She added that retailers must also desist from the idea of wanting to maximise profits at the expense of quality service.

“Customers will always look for the cheapest shops hence maximising profits on readily available goods is no longer a good business move, instead it can potentially crumble the business,” she said.

Ms Siyachitema also said there was a need for organisations to have proper and efficient complaints handling channels to allow aggrieved consumers to raise complaints.