Customer service? Does it even exist?!

One topic that is guaranteed to get a reaction from most people in the UAE, is customer service - or lack there of! There really is only one word to describe it and that's 'appalling'.

So many times I've called a company and been greeted with a simple 'Hello!', so you end up asking if you've actually called a company or an individual. Why can't people answer with 'Hello, (company name) how can I help you?' is it really that hard? Or you can't actually get through to anyone on the phone and end up communicating via email forms, which can very easily be ignored or people take literally weeks to answer a simple query.

Either that or you get transferred around five or so different people, none of whom can assist you, so you give up in the end. When you're finally forced to head over to the office or so-called Customer Service Centre, you take your number, wait patiently to be called and then the person at the counter is either too busy yapping away on their mobile or to another person and reacts to you like you're a big waste of their time and interrupting something that they'd rather be doing! Anything but work!

Going shopping can be a miserable experience, the service staff either just don't care or follow you around like your own personal shadow. If there's something that's guaranteed to make me walk straight out of a store it's having someone follow me around like they expect me to steal something - if I want help, I'll ask for it. Then of course you go up to pay for your selected item and the cashier isn't interested in you at all. Very often I've found them chatting to other staff, refusing to look at their customers, slapping change on the counter - put it in my hand please, give me a smile and wish me a nice day!

So many times you can go into a shop and there are numerous staff just milling about doing nothing. You can't win!

As someone who has worked in many customer service sectors, yup I've worked as a receptionist, secretary, cashier, waitress, bar staff, it was always in my interest to help people and be happy as I go about it. So it leaves me cold that companies here just don't seem to care and they seriously need to invest in training their staff.

Simple things like a smile, making eye contact, a cheery disposition make all the difference and a pleasant experience for a customer and encourages them to come back.