UAE | General
Knowledge is key to good customer service
Readers share experiences on encounters with sales representatives, some helpful, others not so much
- By Heather Madore, Community Solutions Journalist
- Published: 00:00 June 25, 2010
Dubai : We've all gotten it at one time or another. The blank look from a sales representative that says: "Huh?"
While most people in the UAE say their customer service experiences have been fairly good, they admit there is room for improvement.
Gulf News spoke with readers through one on one interviews to find out about their run-ins with the service offered across various sectors and what improvements they would like to see.
Utpal Kumar Kataky, a doctor in Dubai, explained that his experiences have been excellent over the last few years.
He said: "I have been here for a very long time. I came in 1976, and there was no customer service then, but now there is and it is very good."
"Although," he added, "there is always room for improvement."
Personally he would like to see "prompt attention" given to customers or occupy them in case they have to wait.
Kataky said: "In some places they offer a cup of coffee, newspaper or magazine. Some even have a video kit in the waiting room."
For Dubai-based sales coordinator Sudha Kathuria, more knowledgeable staff would make her shopping experiences that much better. She said: "I would say [customer service] is perfectly alright, but there is a limited knowledge of the product." Kathuria mentioned she would like to see companies keeping their staff informed.
Training
"They should train people or provide a workshop where, weekly or monthly [the company] gives them upgrading on the product so that when the customer comes to them they can offer some knowledge."
On the other hand Naina Nair, a Sharjah-based homemaker, explained that she has experienced the opposite.
She said: "It's been good. [In fact], sometimes if [the sales people] don't know how to help, they will go find someone who can."
Nair did add that although she's had no problems so far, service people need to know more languages. "They should speak English, Hindi and Arabic at least."
However, not everyone has seen the good side of customer service.
Thomson George Plavelil, a media and communications student from Abu Dhabi said that on a scale of one to ten he would rate service in the UAE a five. "I find that if I go to a shop, there are people who don't give a lot of attention."
He described his worst customer service experience: "In some of the shops, me and my mum went shopping and the person who stands to explain things, refused to attend [to] us."
Plavelil explained that while prompt attendance and good language skills are important if it were up to him, "I would rather train people to behave properly and to treat everyone equally."
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