Oh! Colombo
Be it at a shopping mall, boutique, restaurant, hotel, hospital services, and the list is endless, customer service plays a huge role in these establishments. Do we actually get good customer service in any places that we visit? Usually the answer is no. It seems that most employees are not interested in carrying out the role they were employed for or are simply not bothered. The latter probably is more correct since however much a person is trained to meet their job description they have to be drilled on their duties daily before they begin work or even throughout their working day.
In shops most sales persons cannot be bothered with you. In reality they do not even bother to greet you or inquire after what you are looking for. If you find something you like and ask them to invoice it for you the feeling you get is that you are actually harassing them and requesting a great favour. The same goes at most restaurants and dining places. The service staff are more interested in continuing with their conversations than attending to the guest. The guest is ignored at the best of times. Here again it is if they are doing you a great favour by seeing to you needs. To draw their attention you almost have to toss some of the crockery to the floor or throw a piece of cutlery at them. It is a situation I understand as I have been and am currently involved in many establishments and experience the same issues and have to behave like a dictator with the staff.
At times it seems some times that they have been employed in local establishments to hang out with their colleagues and while away their shift and go home without bothering about their jobs.
We find that at places like hospitals when one has channelled a doctor and made a prior appointment the doctor never seems to be available. Here we are talking of patients with ailments who have to suffer for hours hanging around till the doctor arrives and gets to your designated number; in some instances it has taken over a couple of hours of waiting to be attended to by the doctor or medical person. A simple call to inform you about the delay or a general explanation would suffice.
The amazing thing is that when most of these people go overseas to work they actually do work well, keep to time and most sought after by establishments. What actually happens to them when working in their own country with absolutely no loyalty to the establishment is quite unbelievable.
In the service industry that keeps expanding, promising wonderful attention to their customers as well as competitive prices is very common in Colombo. Some are even reaching for Michelin stars with these promises. One wonders how they actually keep to their word as we neither experience nor witness any such dazzling five star service.
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