Customer service is South Africa has taken on a life of its own; it’s become that uncomfortable situation that all people see and are part of, but the one that we’re willing to let rest because we so-called ‘can do nothing about it’.

The common ‘white elephant’ that’s in the store with us has got to go! It’s time more people realise and more importantly, vocalise their levels of bad service. My concern is not from the point of view that 2010 approaches and that we’re not ready for the World Cup Soccer. It is rather from the stand point that South African businesses are the least appreciative of the client base that is actually sustaining them, and the loyalty that goes along with supporting one retail store over another, can quickly dissipate if bad store service is offered.

Two recent incidents made me sit back and think of how to go about handling my heavily disappointed expectations and trying to find a solution to the “South African situation” that has become the customer service relationship between institutions and the ordinary citizen.

The first was an incident at the Dischem Pharmacy at the Benmore Shopping Centre. I had purchased a humidifier from the store and within a few hours of taking my prized possession home, I found out that it was not working. The second trip back to Dischem was the worst session of time wastage that I have yet to experience because instead of being served by the woman behind the “Queries Assistance Counter”, as it was aptly known, I was told to wait for another man to get the device tested to make sure that it really wasn’t working. I waited almost 20 mins for a dishevelled floor assistant who looked like he had just been pulled out of a deep sleep to come help an ‘ignorant’ customer.

He then spent a further 30 mins wasting my time as the new humidifier unit that he finally retrieved and tested also did not function the way it was supposed to. I wasted three trips to the same pharmacy with bad service to find out that first off; it was a crappy product that I had thought to purchase, and secondly that the people that work at Dischem Benmore don’t really enjoy being in the customer service game.

Now the second incident which I’m not going to go into detail about but will go as far as to say that if ever you come across someone that blatantly tells you that you lied to them when ordering food off a menu, please get up and leave the restaurant for fear of bludgeoning said party to death for the mere accusation.

I don’t mean to get so horribly angry that I can’t control my emotions, but when professionalism is lost in the workplace, I do not fair well and do become highly irate.

I have learnt good lessons from these situations and what I want you to walk away from this article is this key phrase, “Please Don’t Waste My Time!” Part of my work is to provide a service to my clients and I am passionate about what I do and along with that comes utter respect for my client’s needs, and a good understanding of how to serve my company, and be professional in all situations.

I command the same respect and diligence from the relationships that I’m involved in whether it be platonic, business or even customer service-based. Most people go into work with goals similar to mine but life experiences seem to change the way they perceive their work.

All I can say to the many who have lost their way is to please not waste others time by not being sure of who you are or what you’re doing. No one actually wants to go over your head and complain about you, they actually want to seek the help that you clearly are not providing to them then and there.

We all can do better at what we do and that is what most of us strive for so why is it so difficult to look at a bad customer service incident as exactly that. Striving to do better as opposed to making things worse for your customers…