Customer Service: Hotlines and Their Myths

 

Customer service in Ghana is as real as the Faun in Pan’s Labyrinth. No seriously, think about it. How many times have you not felt like a service provider was acting like they were giving you freebies when you are actually paying for the service? Sometimes you enter a shop to buy something with YOUR money and the attendants make you feel like you are some homeless beggar asking for handouts. Usually, these people get away with this.

Today, however, my rant is not about customer service as a whole, it is a little targeted at hotlines and the seriousness and attention companies pay to them. It is like most Ghanaians take the name of hotlines seriously… it is actually so hot that no one dares to answer these lines lest they get burnt or scalded. I live in the technology era where I believe everything should be a click, email, text or phone call away, but no! Companies are good at frustrating their clients.

Can you imagine needing a service urgently, you go to Google to find where or whom to contact for such a service, you get a few companies listed with “hotlines” you call and no one answers? You check the time and it is well within their working hours.

A few weeks ago, I wanted a bus rental service so I googled and found some companies with numbers listed. Some of the numbers did not go through obviously, some were not in use and the rest that actually went through, I got no response. I tried for about 20 times and finally got one of them to pick up and oh my pain! It was this very unprofessional man who picked the call in a very noisy place. He was in another conversation with someone and spoke Twi throughout. He hung up on me a couple of times and I kept calling back. Finally, I had a decent conversation with him in ENGLISH and also found out that they charged in dollars. So the question I asked myself was, how come a company that charges in dollars acts so unprofessionally, knowing well the kind of people that would be calling in for their services.

I sent a complaint to their info@ email address, which was also listed on their website, thinking at least someone would get back to me. Talk of wishful thinking; no one has even bothered to reach me.

It is the same with the telecommunication companies, who, by virtue of what they do, should know better but in their case, not only are their hotline operators rude, half of them have next to no idea about how to solve customer complaints.  Also, they have long waiting periods before you are connected to a customer service personnel and equally long problem solving windows.

My question is why put a number there when you are not going to answer calls? Why tell people to “contact us” when it is basically you trying to make yourself look professional? Shouldn’t you actually strive to BE professional? Why do companies take the Ghanaian customer for granted all the time?

There are very simple solutions for this once companies realize the value of these hotlines and to a larger extent, the value of customer feedback.

Companies need to make room in their budget for the operation of these hotlines and other means through which potential and existing customers can get in touch with them. Provision should also be made for the training of the personnel who man these platforms.

There are situations where these companies would not like to be burdened with such matters in order to concentrate on their core business. In such a situation, they can outsource to other companies who can professionally deal with such issues on their behalf.

Also, most of these companies belong to umbrella bodies or associations and these associations should make it a point to ensure that all their members behave professionally in their day to day operations.

Companies should look at it this way, if they take their customer service seriously, it is a win-win situation. Doesn’t the business exist because of the customer?


By David Aduama