Contributing writer Dickson Igwe
Poor customer service is bad for Virgin Islands commerce
Now this eternal thinker was privileged to sit in on a high powered meeting the other day. He was one of only two males in a room filled with typically very beautiful and lovely Virgin Islanders: women at the highest professional level. LA CRÈME DE CRÈME!
One of the beauties stated that while on a cruise sometime back, a list was posted that advised passengers about the quality of customer service in the Caribbean. Guess who came last? Right! Service in Xanadu was described as poor, despite the majestic beauty of the islands. Waitresses were deemed to be miserable and grumpy. That cannot be good.
Now, a British sales executive, and friend of this Simpleton, at a sit down dinner, singled out the local taxi industry as one example of customer service that required drastic improvement. Mr. Englishman alerted this Avid Contributor to the fact that some taxi drivers behaved in such a manner as to turn off guests and visitors. That, despite all of the attractions of a pristine destination, poor customer service when experienced, remained the most vivid memory of the country in the mind of the foreign traveler.
Now, why was this not a huge surprise? This Investigator has many taxi driver friends, and they accept that assertion, that some of their colleagues are letting down the good name and excellent work of the majority of Virgin Islands taxi drivers.
In any case, a small number of taxi drivers may give this country a bad name, but they are certainly not the only purveyors of a poor customer service model. And know this: all the talk and discussion about development of physical infrastructure, and ensuring the destination is clean, spick, and span, add the hard work of marketing the Virgin Islands to the outside world. All of this excellent effort is in vain, worth zero, when one taxi driver, waitress, or retail assistant behaves poorly, or worse, is rude, to a visitor. Worse still: when a resident steals from a tourist, or assaults and harasses a visitor!
Photo courtesy caribbeanscene.co.uk
Yes this GLOBALIST will assert here and now that excellent customer service and a Virgin Islands global model are synonymous. Excellent customer service will give the edge in a highly competitive international industry.
OK, some weeks ago, this Connoisseur of Life, was seated at a table at a well known and exquisitely located establishment, first thing in the morning. He ordered breakfast. He was in the company of a very well known Virgin Islander.
To say that the service from the waitress was poor would be an understatement: it was horrific, atrocious! This woman, whoever she was, made this Perennial Observer and his associate understand she was doing them a favour serving breakfast. The service was so bad, that one of a feeble disposition would have PUKED! Yes it was that bad.
What a thing! One would have thought the two men were having BREAKFAST FOR FREE! The way this woman carried on! Her weary disposition, her rude manner, her ignorant attitude, said it all.
In short, this woman’s behavior was ridiculous to say the least, for one in the hospitality industry. The breakfast may have been delicious, the pancakes exquisite, but the poor service was tantamount to throwing dirt over this Pancake Lovers pancakes.
Now if this type of poor customer service is a one off, that notion certainly wasn’t dispelled, when this Lover of LOBSTER visited another establishment in this Virgin idyll, the same day, for lunch! The service at this other location was actually worse.
The waitress was not as rudely behaved as the woman at breakfast, but her demeanor and attitude said it all: that she was only in this profession for the money; that she could not be bothered to meet a special request to prepare a certain side dish, a favourite, of this Layman’s famous colleague.
Her dress code was also very poor to say the least, for such a pristinely located restaurant, and it took ages before the meal was served. Had it not been for the intervention, friendliness, and bonhomie of the very well known local proprietor, one wonders whether lunch that afternoon would have actually been POISONED. This woman would surely have been SACKED, had she been waitress in a more discerning establishment.
Valentines is an evening of dining among other things. This Valentino visited another exquisitely located establishment by a pristine marina on the evening of February 14, 2013. He ordered a pecan salad, a well done sirloin steak, and for dessert, an ice cream sundae. Champagne was on the house. Very nice! The food was MAGNIFICENT, the service excellent. Just one hiccup: on average, guests had to wait approximately 90 MINUTES to get their dinner. RIDICULOUS! The chef, whoever he or she was, needed to review his or her working methods. Guests sat there most of the evening twiddling their thumbs, and grinning.
