CUSTOMER SERVICE AS A SCHOOL SUBJECT.

Have you walked into an organization to receive a service and the personnel attending to you picked up a call on his/her mobile phone and started chatting away without regard for you? Have you walked into a bank and greeted a teller who frowns back with a response or probably ignored your greeting? Have you purchased an item in a service company and when it is time to get your change, you are told “I don’t have change, ma/sir”? Have you called an organization on the telephone and asked to receive a service and you are told to call the mobile phone of the staff who is meant to render the service. I am sure a number of us can relate with these scenarios.

Some time ago, a customer service personnel in a bank refused to look at me while he attended to me. In my part of the country, we say “Ojú lòró wà – Talk is in the face (literal meaning)”. You communicate better when you look at the person you are talking to. The excuse I got from his boss later (who by the way was also clueless) was that he was fasting and did not want to look at a woman.

Really??? My response to his boss was that he should have taken some days off work during his fast, since his mind was so small. Alternatively, he should have asked to be moved to another department for the period of his fast where he does not have to look at a woman. Ridiculous, right?

I think customer service should be a subject taught in secondary schools. Secondary schools because, not everyone has the opportunity to attend a tertiary institution. Secondly, for those without this opportunity who go straight into the labour market, their mindsets would have been ingrained with the ethics of customer service.

It is sad and annoying when a customer service personnel treats you like you are being done a favour. Without the customer, would they still be in employment? It would make a lot of difference if all organizations went an extra mile to provide quality customer service ‘cos as they say “The customer is King”.