The customer service gap

The combination of my customer service experiences over the last few weeks has made me realise just how big the gap is between expectations and delivery. South Africans are used to living in both a first and third world country (or developed and developing to be more PC). Unfortunately, this is the same gap that exits in service industry – consumers with first world expectations receiving third world service.

This problem is universal across all companies and all industries in South Africa. Even McDonalds which is a global company specialising in high service levels can't seem to be able to rise above merely mediocre service levels in SA. Why is this?

The rut. The American dream is something everyone understands. So what about the South African dream? The South African dream is something that exists for only a very few people – the rest seem to be stuck in the mindset of born-work-die. This is the rut and it's a massive part of the average South Africans daily reality. How will working harder make my life better? How will improving the service I give make me better off? Let's face it, it probably won't, but that's where the dream kicks in. If the South African dream existed – that anyone can make it big – then more people would focus on being the best each day, striving for that dream. Without the dream we are left with a population of people stuck in the rut, working in some service related job with no ambition what so ever to improve themselves or the service they deliver.

Much of the blame lies with the ever present income and education gap. Access to the internet with real time service delivery, global understanding and experience, the understanding of what is possible in the service world - all of this clashes heavily with the lack of education, no worldy experience, no internet access, and no dreams in the hearts and minds of the people tasked with giving good service. Hardly seems fair does it.

How do we solve this problem? I'm not entirely sure, but my best bet would be to begin the process of giving the service providers good service and start treating them like first class citizens. The more they understand and value receiving good service, the more empowered they are to give good service. It may be a small start, but it is a start.