Collecting, as a recognized hobby all the world over, has always intrigued me. One definition states that the hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Therefore they are the popular ones like stamp collecting, coin collecting, collecting of crafts, arts, artefacts, antiques and paintings. Other collectibles include phonographs, fountain pens, toys, games, dolls, etc.
Some of these hobbies have metamorphosed into serious money-making ventures generating millions of dollars annually. There are also the more eccentric collectors of items we might not consider too appropriate such as collecting butterflies, skulls, tiles, military uniforms, teapots, perfume bottles, etc. There are also lotologists (collectors of lottery tickets), sucrologists (collectors of sugar sachets), oologists (collectors of eggs) and conchologists (collectors of shells) and many others I am yet to come across.
I happen to be a collector but unfortunately I happen to fall into the latter category; the outlandish collectors. My hobby is collecting incidences of bad customer experiences and I love this hobby. The reason being that it serves me well especially in running my sales training and customer relations seminars. I am always of the opinion that to better explain the sales strategies and principles I need to “come down to earth” and use everyday experiences that millions of Ghanaians face everyday. That is why a hobby of collecting bad customer care incidences serves me so well.
Another advantage of this hobby is that it does require any initial capital investment. All you do is to “open your eyes” as you move around town and you will be astonished at the number of incidences you would come across. These are what I call MODs (i.e. Moments of Disgrace) and they abound in this country.
To further convince you to join in this ‘amazing’ hobby of mine, I have decided to share with readers three of my all-time favourites. These are nominees into my Bad Customer Care Hall of Fame. That means they are very special to me so like all collectors will plead, “Please handle them with care”.
# 1: THE GRUMBLING PHOTOCOPIER OPERATOR
My office urgently needed to get some photocopies done one evening and I had to accompany a colleague to do the copies. We found ourselves in a communication centre cum secretarial services provider businesses. We met three gentlemen who did not look very excited to have us but we did not make much of it. After giving them our bunch of papers we sat down to wait for the copies. The attendant who all the time had a frown on his face got to work though grudgingly.
I had experienced so many of his kind to have been bothered. At that point in time he had not done anything to warrant me conferring an MOD nomination on him. However I did not have to wait long before I gave him the enviable ward of an MOD. After a couple of minutes he started grumbling and so I was forced to ask what the problem was. Believe it or not, dear readers, his problem was with us, his customers and for what reason? He claimed “we were using up all his papers!!” Simply put, a service provider got angry at his customers for bringing him business.
# 2: THE RUDE TAXI DRIVER
I found myself in a taxi one day on journey that was so interesting, it was even unbelievable. A few minutes into the journey, this taxi driver decided we needed to listen to some music and so slotted in a cassette. The music was obviously dear to him to him and since he felt it was loud enough he increased the volume to an unbearable level. A middle-aged woman in the vehicle kindly asked him to turn down the volume which he refused. The lady was however persistent and what the taxi driver told the lady won him this MOD nomination. He rudely shouted the lady down and flatly told her he would do no such thing. When other passengers started to side with the woman, he threatened to force everyone down.
His reason: he was in his office (i.e. inside the taxi) and no one had any right to tell him what to do in his office. To him since he could not come to our offices to tell us what to do, reversely we also did not have the right to tell him what to do. Plainly speaking, a service provider got angry at his customers for demanding better service and threatened not to provide the service.
# 3: THE UNCULTURED BANK OFFICIAL
A bank’s customer had been wrongly debited and he came to the banking hall to lodge a complaint and to seek redress. In the process of sorting out the issue with the front desk official he inevitably created some traffic at the reception. This created some frustration for the official but he tried as much as possible to handle the situation. As this was going on another bank staff, apparently one with a higher authority, who was sitting a few tables away, came into the fray. Calling from her desk, she asked what the matter was.
After being briefed by the officer at the front desk, she asked what the wrongly debited amount was. On being told she unprofessionally and uncouthly remarked in a local language, “Ah, but is it for only this small money that we’re being pestered like this?” This was in full hearing of the customer and all others within hearing range. There you have it! A customer who was rightfully complaining about bad service provided was insulted for just asking for a wrong to be corrected.
These are just of my vast collection, but I sincerely believe readers would have more instances to narrate, some even more grievous than the three above. What I have always found hard to reconcile is this: How can a people whose hospitality is almost legendary become so poor at treating customers well? Why is customer care so lacking in many of our business set ups? If the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality is a truism, why are our customer relations so bad? Is it a case of being nice to strangers and being uncaring towards our own brothers and sisters?
I have always believed that customer care should come naturally to all of us, for the simple reason that we are all customers at one point time. Therefore it is simply a matter of applying the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
I hope by this write up I have been able to generate an awareness of the need for us to be conscious of the way we treat the true owners of our businesses: OUR CUSTOMERS. If however you find yourself at the receiving end of some horrible customer service, I advice you remain calm, educate the service provider and just add the experience to your own collection of MODs. You might never know; for in the very near future we could come together, form an association
of MOD Collectors and institute an annual awards scheme for “Providers of The Most Horrible
Customer Service.
Author: J. N Halm
