As Customer Service Week gets off to a start in Dominica, President of the Dominica Institute of Customer Service (DIOCS), Natasha Yeeloy-Labad is highlighting the negative effect of bad customer service which she believes nullifies great marketing.
“And even the best promotional campaigns will not save us from the truth that the customer is boss,” she asserts.
Yeeloy-Labad made the statement during her address at the start of Customer Service Week which is being observed from Monday, October 4 to Friday, October 8 2021.
“So no company, club or campaign, association, political party or for that matter, relationship, survives in an environment that lacks courtesy,” Yeeloy-Labad stated.
She said the call for social distancing requires us to be so much more attentive, proactive and courteous in our service attitudes than we have traditionally been.
“If we do not change our service attitudes, we would have to watch our beautiful island and all the possibilities that it offers fade away under the competition from more aggressive market contenders,” she cautioned.
According to Yeeloy-Labad, Dominica will “quite frankly” get left behind and every investment made from now until that change takes place in “our mindset” is going to be an expensive one that threatens the economy.
Citing the growing demand and expectation from markets and customers for change in attitudes and mindsets, the customer service consultant appealed to partners in the public and private sectors to consider the power of service, “particularly investing in making customer service a core principle in business.”
Recognizing that this past year has been an extraordinarily difficult one for all service professionals, Yeeloy-Labad said this week of activities focuses on offering partners several service interventions for their organizations and these are particularly for those organizations who are really serious about accepting the challenge to transform Dominica into a service nation.
She encouraged media partners to help in “this ambitious mission of transforming Dominica into a service nation, by highlighting the work of these various activities across your various media platforms.”
Meantime, the DIOCS executive challenged service organizations to raise the bar on what they have been accustomed to as the norm rather than the exception, and especially now, as the region grapples with what, according to the International Development Bank (IDB) “may be the biggest shock that our region has experienced.”
“Many of the service sectors are struggling to pressure under the pandemic waves and it is for this reason we have decided to really set this time aside for our membership to recognize and celebrate our service professionals, especially those who are committed to exceptional customer service innovations and for their commitment to our very ambitious mission of transforming Dominica into a service haven,” she stated.
“This means during the week we will be saying thank you to all the many dedicated medical practitioners, doctors, nurses, frontliners, the police officers, fire and ambulance staff, civil servants, the entire public service, the private sector, administrators, secretaries, security officers, bankers insurance brokers, all government ministers, groups, associations…,” Yeeloy-Labad noted. “You are aware of your sacrifices in your pursuit of excellence and your individual contributions.”
The DIOCS Week of Activities is as follows:
Monday– Launch of Customer Service Week of Activities 2021
- Press Release – National Power of Service Campaign
- Launch of DSI-SKILLS Academy
- Radio Programs
- Social Media Customer Service Appreciation Activity highlights
Tuesday–
- Feature activities hosted by Partners
- Spotlight of Nominees of Service Excellence Awards
Wednesday–
- Highlight of our service professionals, members, committee members, staff, and Directors. * Decorate building with Balloons! The Customer is Boss!
Thursday–
- Webinar Hosted by Natasha Yeeloy-Labad ft. Dr Germain Jean Pierre, Dawn Lovel and the DAIC Dominica & Barbados; “The 4thIndustrial Revolution and The Future of Service! The implications for service professionals?”
Friday–
- 2021 Service Excellence Awards! Presentation of awards and Pinning ceremony. Grand Prize Announcement- 9:00 am
Happy to consultant. Be part of the solution and not the problem. Dominican has always been known for bad customer service and it is very sad to say that having to admit this flaw. However, we must some credit to some of the businesses for example, Do It Centre brilliant from entry to departure. Very few operate in this way.
I do hope that this will be a yearly practice so we can get Dominica in the right place.
Forward we go
Word of wisdom to Dominicans.
Honor takes you places and not title.
Honor is lacking among citizens and highly amongst professionals and that’s the reason for poor costomer service. Leaders needs to set the example. May God enlight the understanding of the people of Dominica
Bad customer service you can say that again!
I have done lots of travelling in this world because of my military experience Dominica, has turned out to be one of the worst, having said that i can now see a bit of changes and more training in todays new Dominica. Well done to the power of the Labour government 10 out of 10 who do not like it tough s * *t.
I agree with Mr.Mark,one thing he did not mention is that the vendors,secretaries cashers GOSSIP too much,while the customer is waiting for service.
Congratulations to Mrs Natasha Yeeloy-labad on this promising venture aimed at fostering and consolidating a service oriented culture and mindset premised on courtesy and professionalism in the work environment.
Ive been saying this for years! … Dominicans do not have any conception of customer service. It’s honestly why i refuse to invite friends to Dominica , i dont want to be embarrassed
I agreed with you. Customer Service in Dominica is at it lowest. Very Very unprofessional and no courtesy, no empathy, will not make good eye to eye contact and it appears that they are always very adamant and very rude. I can promote what you are saying I am a retiree at a major Bank and I can make a comparison. I ask WHY? do they hate the jobs that much? I think the employers need to compensate them better maybe this would help. They need good customer service to help improve the ISLAND.
Businesses/vendors should pay attention to their customers awaiting service in order to maintain the orderly flow of service on a first come, first serve basis.Too many times you witness customers receiving service even if you were ahead of them because the service provider allowed them to get away with that behavior. Very frustrating to the folks who are trying to do the right thing.
Remember, we are all there for the same reason therefore some courtesy should be shown to someone who was ahead of you.
Service begins with the way we treat one another in the lines and ends with the service providers.
I am sure it is just as frustrating for the providers when our actions don’t display common courtesy.
We queue up for service at the banks, why can’t we do the same elsewhere?
Good Job Ms Leeloy. Better customer service is much needed in Dominica. Keep up the good work.
“If we do not change our service attitudes, we would have to watch our beautiful island and all the possibilities that it offers fade away under the competition from more aggressive market contenders,” True words have not been spoken. As a nation we have to improve 100 fold in customer service from the private sector to the Government service areas. One can write a book on the horrible customer service at the Government services. Customer service starts before the customer enters your establishment and body language says a lot.
We can do better as a nation.
One Love Dominicans #OLD767
Ms Labad left me at one whilst I was waiting to be taken to another higher number. Customer service is not a once a year thing but an everyday activity so I was expecting to hear of some suggestions as to how we can educate and get our people to change their behavior towards a more compassionate, people oriented service nation. Unless we start showing by our actions, change in behaviors, verbal and non verbal towards each other as Dominicans then the exercise will only be a promotional campaign. We need to start to get our people to change behavior which will be difficult but not impossible. It requires actions at all levels. We can learn from other regional countries what they have done to cultivate a new customer service paradigm. Certain aspects of what we consider cultural will have to give way to make great customer service a core principal of life not only of business. It must become our raison d’etre to build a more perfect Dominca for ourselves and then visitors.