We've all got stories to tell about terrible customer service we have experienced. In many cases, a little training would have gone a long way.

Since the Sydney Olympics, formal training for staff has been happening and organisations are committing to quality programs, which are to be applauded, however, the question is – "is this enough?"

And more to the point, if we need to always do well in tourism for debt and export income reasons, we have to take all steps possible to cement our reputation as the best destination in the world for the tourist dollar.

This was crucial over the period of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games when there were three weeks of worldwide advertising to billions of people for one our most valuable resources: our tourist attractions.

Governments and corporations tackled the service issue at the most obvious place, namely at the front, by getting staff used to world's best practice when it comes to looking after tourists.

During international events like the Olympic Games, countries are swamped with tourists and every kind of business experiences massive profit increases. The delighted visitors plan to return and motivate many friends to visit too!

Many Australian businesses won in 2000 and then for years after that.
But in some businesses, the more customers they serve, the worse the service gets.

Here are some examples of poor or below average service:

• There is a rather yuppy store in Sydney's Woollahra. A certain man wanted to buy a chair, but it had to be assembled. The sales woman took a shot at him when he said if the assembling was as difficult as Ikea, he'd rather not buy the chair.

The assistant took him on and basically said any dummy could do Ikea – and as this man was no dummy, but could not easily assemble all Ikea products, he took offence at her comment. A better idea would have been for her to offer an assembly service for this potentially lucrative customer.

If she found it so easy, she could have offered to do the assembly and have the product delivered. It may have won the customer over for life!

• A woman always asks for a very hot cafe latte, as hot as possible. The waiter replies that the milk will burn and on his return the coffee is only lukewarm. A fight results.

Wouldn't it have been better for the waiter to say that the barista will make it as hot as he can without burning the milk to satisfy this customer? Why fight with a customer because the barista doesn't think that a coffee should be made on very hot milk?

• A woman takes a skirt into the dry cleaners and asks for it to be specially cleaned according to the instructions. An extra charge applies and the woman is happy to pay it. She points out that the skirt is a favourite one that she purchased overseas.

She returns to pick up the skirt to find that it has been stretched and ruined. The dry cleaner tells her that he followed the instructions and it's not his fault and yells at the woman.

Why not have a system written down to handle scenarios just like this? Why not say to the woman that as it was brought overseas, it is not always possible to guarantee that the washing instructions are correct and that while you'd love to get the business, you'd like to point out that something could go wrong in the cleaning process and have a card signed that she acknowledges this.

Alternatively, give her the name of a specialty dry cleaner that handles delicate garments. You could even say that you'd do her next garment at 10 per cent discount to make sure that she comes back to your store. Giving service doesn't always mean that you have to get the business this time. You shouldn't put yourself or your staff in a position where a fight breaks out with a customer.

• A man comes into a newsagent to say that his newspaper wasn't delivered. The newsagent says that he did the deliveries himself that morning and the customer was wrong. Why fight with a customer over a small amount of money like a newspaper?

Wouldn't it be better to give him a replacement newspaper and even a magazine that you had out the back of the shop that has little value to you, but could mean a lot to the customer to apologise for the inconvenience.

Of course, if the customer was always complaining and was a complete pest, then you could try another solution that could rid you of the trouble, for example, suggest he gets his news online.

By Peter Switzer

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