“I had my study designed and fitted by Conrad from the Kitchen Studio and was very impressed with the prompt and efficient service. The cupboards were delivered as promised and the fitter came in and fitted everything within two days. The work was done professionally and neatly and I would recommend them to others to use.” - Michele Schneider.

Come and share your experience of good customer service by submitting a compliment on www.getclosure.co.za

Forget about whinging and moaning when you receive sub-standard service; that won’t get you anywhere. To actually make a difference and prevent it happening again, you need to give constructive criticism so that businesses can learn from their mistakes and offer better products and services going forward.

Get stuck in:

• Download and display one of the Don’t Complain Campaign badges on your website, blog or Facebook page.
• Read our handy tips on how to complaining effectively.
• Complain about poor service on www.getclosure.co.za - this independent service is fast, free and effective.
  • getclosure will deliver your complaint directly to the supplier and give them the opportunity to respond and resolve the situation.
• Praise good service.
  • We will publish your positive feedback in our compliments section.
• Support suppliers which are rated highly by other consumers (check out our five star customer centricity ratings as well as our compliments section).
• Spread the word about this campaign.

Click here to find out more.

This should hopefully all take place by the end of November this year, although Eyewitness News reports that the negotiation process with the network providers is quite a complicated one.

If you would like to find out more, visit the getclosure! website for more information.

Local enterprises are the lifeblood of any country which has its sights set on sustainable economic growth and real social development. However, growing and developing into thriving businesses that can contribute to employment creation first and foremost requires that a sustained demand is established for the products and services of local enterprises, including SMMEs.

Local support is critical in creating this demand - a principle which applies equally to developing countries, such as South Africa and to well-established first-world economies such as the UK, Germany, Australia and the USA.

It should come as no surprise that established economies have over many years embraced the Buy Local principle as a means of achieving social and economic benefits for local communities.

And perceived shortcomings in quality are a misnomer. It makes perfect sense that local support drives an increased demand which capacitates local businesses to plough back financial resources in further product development, refinement, continuous improvement and job creation.

It is important for us as South Africans to understand that our purchasing behaviour has far-reaching implications, beyond the gratification of a personal need. Every South African has a potentially powerful tool which can make or break local businesses - purchasing choice!

This may be a rhetoric question - but how can we hope to inspire confidence in the products and services of local enterprises amongst visitors, if we as South Africans are not seen to support our own?

Isn’t it time that we all have a change of heart and match our good intentions with the appropriate shopping and purchasing behaviour? Local is lekker. Buy Local for 2010 and beyond - so that we can all prosper. So that our children, too, will have a chance to flourish as entrepreneurs and build sustainable businesses, like many of our Proudly South African member organisations, such as getclosure.

With advent of virtually instant global communication, the consumer is gaining an advantage: the ability to make an informed decision based not just on the seller’s sales methods but also on previous customers’ experiences. Customers are learning that they have rights and that they can support or reject a supplier with their Rands. While much has been said about the new Consumer Protection Act, it does not necessarily prevent or regulate the typical apathy or neglect that may not be illegal but does cause frustration. However, disgruntled customers now have far greater access to tools that can help them get satisfaction from their disappointing experiences.

In the past, companies that were not delivering on their promises or delivering satisfactory service could be confident that, for the most part, an unhappy customer would be unlikely to cause significant damage to their brand. However, the massive growth of “self-publication” tools - such as blogging and Twitter - means that individuals have increased their leverage by being able to persuade or dissuade potential customers from doing business with a particular company. This means that companies must seriously evaluate their customer service standards, since negative PR from a single dissatisfied customer has a far higher potential to impact their bottom line profits than ever before.

A customer’s experience, from entering your company to long after the sale has been made, must therefore be consistently positive. Major companies have known this for years and have also been pro-active in this regard by creating “customer service” departments, and, by creating a dedicated channel for unhappy customers to voice their grievances, the company can make improvements based on peoples’ experiences. Customer Services department staff are trained how to handle an upset customer; but it’s frequently the case that this specialized department only deals with people unhappy enough to make a formal complaint. In fact, it’s far easier and more likely that customers tell their ‘friends’ using a tool like Facebook about their experience of dealing with your company.

But is there a future for “customer service” departments? It’s doubtful that this department will simply cease to exist in the future. My suggestion is that the customer service departments facilitate training of all staff members of the company. This way it would be possible for the entire staff complement to learn from an in-house department on what is considered good customer service.

In the future, customers will expect even higher levels of service, because they have more choice and influence. It is therefore vital that every person in your company should be consistent and reliable in offering better-than-standard service. This means that every staff member will need to be a part of the “customer service department”, regardless of which department they have been assigned to. As customers exercise their buying “power”, the responsibility to deliver good service will no longer simply rest solely with the customer service department: rather, we can (and should) expect that ALL staff are ready and prepared to offer great service. I expect that we will see a shift from a single dedicated service department, to a department that trains and monitors service levels for all staff members. This is definitely good news for consumers!

Marcel Oudejans is a Corporate Infotainer who is passionate about inspiring his audiences to deliver more “magic moments” to their customers in their customer service, sales & marketing. Marcel is the author of “The Serious Business Owner’s Guide To Creating Customers For Life” & provides more tricks, techniques & strategies on his blog, http://www.performmarketing.co.za

This week we congratulate KFC on their fantastic customer service, as complimented by a true fan, Nqobile:

“I have never ever eaten something like this before. People often say I’ll get tired of KFC and I respond by saying that’s when I get tired of living. My gosh, my dad says when my mom was pregnant with me she used to eat KFC all day everyday and that’s how I got to looove it so much. My school books are labelled with a KFC sticker. When I grow up I wanna open my own KFC. Thanks a lot, especially for the lovely meat.”

Tell us about your experience with good customer service by submitting your compliment via getclosure.

]]> http://www.getclosure.co.za/blog/2009/10/08/compliment-of-the-week-kfc/feed/ http://www.getclosure.co.za/blog/2009/10/06/customer-loyalty-programmes-to-be-changed/ http://www.getclosure.co.za/blog/2009/10/06/customer-loyalty-programmes-to-be-changed/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:34:16 +0000 Dianne Shelton http://www.getclosure.co.za/blog/?p=1184 When the Consumer Protection Act comes into effect in October 2010, companies are going to need to adjust their customer loyalty programmes in order to comply with the new requirements of the Act.An article on Bizcommunity reports that loyalty programmes will need to be revised in order to ensure that consumers’ fundamental rights are protected, including the right to fair, reasonable and responsible dealings with companies and their loyalty programmes.

Ina Meiring, the Director at Werkman’s Attorneys, is encouraging companies to start revising their loyalty programmes sooner rather than later, in order to comply with the Act when it becomes law in October next year. She stresses that “this is not a matter of ‘tweaking’ here and there but, in many cases, of completely rewriting the terms and conditions of loyalty programmes.”

Below is a brief outline of how customers will be protected in terms of the new restrictions on loyalty programmes:

• The terms and conditions of the loyalty programme and its awards must be made clear to customers at all times.
• The goods and services offered to customers (in exchange for loyalty points) need to be available at all times. Companies need to follow a specific procedure which gives customers ample warning if a good or service will not be available at any given time.
• Companies cannot ask customers to pay additional charges for goods or services associated with loyalty points.
• The goods or services involved in loyalty programme-related transactions will be of good quality, and there will be recourse for defective products.

For a detailed version of these requirements, click here to read the full Act.

Congratulations are in order for the winning black-owned and managed company, Mvelaphanda, for Jacko Maree who won the most trusted CEO, and for SAB who were the overall winner of the Ask Afrika Trust Barometer 2009. SAB obtained the best performance on all the reputation drivers measured, except for innovativeness, which has consistently been the main strength of MTN.

Click here to read the full article on www.getclosure.co.za

An article on The Times Online says that the virus can sit unnoticed on the computer until the user logs onto banking, credit card or other financial website. It then copies the user’s login name and password and sends them to a server which is run by the hackers, who then have access to the money in that account.

This type of virus is commonly called a trojan (or trojan horse). According to Webopedia, a trojan, at first glance, appears to be useful software, but will damage your computer once it is installed. It is a dangerous type of virus as it often comes from a legitimate source, and causes a number of problems on your computer.

So how do you prevent your computer from a Clampi virus infection?
• Keep your computer antivirus software constantly up to date.
• Do not click on suspicious links sent to you in emails, instant messages or on social networking sites.
• If you use a wi-fi connection, make sure that your password is strong to prevent others from hacking into your network.
• Be careful when purchasing things online - always use a credit card instead of a debit card so that the virus can’t get hold of your PIN.

If you find that your computer has been hit by the Clampi virus (and you may only find out once it’s too late), Symantec suggests that you change all of your passwords on any websites you use, particularly the financial ones.

A very appreciative Brian had the following to say:

Thank you so much to all Glynnwood staff for the professional and courteous treatment my family and I received in the casualty department at the time of my mother’s death. Everyone involved helped to make a traumatic time that much easier. The warmth and concern shown by everyone was much, much appreciated.

Help us spread the word about great customer service by sharing your experience and submitting a compliment on www.getclosure.co.za.