Improving Service Standards
July 7, 2009 - Posted in Marketing
I have always thought, or at least hoped, that the current economic situation ( I hate the Word Crisis ) would see service standards improve in all sectors.
We always tend to take commodities that are in plentiful supply for granted and it is only when the supply is significantly reduced that we start to appreciate what we are missing. I can always remember my grandparents talking about the shortages in the war and how the idea of a banana or a fresh orange was something to dream of.
Fortunately, despite the economic downturn, customers are not quite as scarce as bananas during the war. Despite this I think that, at last, businesses are starting to place a higher value on their customers and are looking after them better. I have started to notice the subtle change in shops and restaurants where owners and staff are much appreciative and attentive to customers, which after all, is the way it should be.
I was shopping in the new Mercadona supermarket in Los Naranjos (Nueva Andalucia) on Saturday and the first thing I noticed was the staff cleaning the car park. In the store when I was searching for black pepper, I asked one of the shelf stackers whereI might find it. Instead of the usual mumble, and pointing in a vague way to the other side of the store, he actually took me over to the Isle where I could find it. I tried, once again, asking another staff member for Croissants and was politely asked me to wait whilst she disappeared out of the store and immediately replenished the supply.
This sort of service would have been unthinkable in a Costa del supermarket only a year ago. Maybe it is because this is a new store with an exceptional manager or more optimistically – maybe the concept of service and the value of customers is beginning to filter through the organization. Whichever the reason it is a welcome change and maybe the silver lining in the cloud of the economic crisis!
Until next time
Michael Moon