Roseau, Dominica – The Dominica Institute of Customer Service (DIOCS) has released the results of a recent engagement poll that found only 2% of local businesses routinely respond to requests. In light of this concerning statistic, DIOCS is urging the island to open its service culture brand to lead and emphasize the importance of improving customer engagement among service providers as a strategy for building a strong service culture across both public and private entities.
As Dominica opens up as a travel destination, DIOCS stresses that a strong service culture brand is essential to enhancing the experience of both visitors and locals as they interact and do business on a daily basis. “Service culture is not only about the hospitality and tourism industry, but also about every business and organization that interacts with customers and stakeholders,” said Mandisa Ducreay-Oseni, Executive Administrator of DIOCS. “By building a strong service culture brand, our island can improve the level of customer satisfaction on island, build loyalty, and encourage retention, which will ultimately drive our economic growth.”
According to DIOCS the organization conducted a series of polls among 100 local businesses to assess engagement levels, and the results were disappointing. Only 2% of companies are routinely responding to requests from customers and the general public, indicating a lack of commitment from organisations to build strong relationships with customers and stakeholders.
DIOCS believes that engagement is a key metric which can be used to build a strong service culture brand and therefore the Institute calls on local businesses to prioritize engagement by responding to and putting measures in place to
encourage staff to better respond to and engage their customers. “We urge businesses to take a closer look at their customer service practices and take steps to improve them,” said Alice Darlyrymple Vice President of the DIOCS.
“This includes providing regular training to staff, actively seeking and responding to requests or feedback from customers, and developing a customer-centric culture that puts the needs of customers and stakeholders first.”
DIOCS will be hosting a series of events and training programs to help businesses build their service culture brand and enhance engagement levels. On May 17th the Institute will host “Gathering of Service Champions, a motivational and defining Service Culture Conference” For more information, please contact the Institute at [email protected].
Customer service is terribly bad on island. I for one try to avoid some of the people who are expected to deliver customer service to me, because their faces are always “boo way”, they are rude, they give you back chat, they stupessss you, they chat with other employees and ignore you, they are even prepared to curse your mother!!! Very few exceptions. It’s about 95% bad!!
So customer service needs a total overhaul on island, and we must stop lying. Dominica is no “darn” friendliest country in the Caribbean. One of our problems on island is that we LIE to doggone much! We must say things as they are!
In terms of the government – our major service provider – the response is 0%.
That’s a very good initiative indeed. I have always been saying that our customer service on island has been lacking immensely. Businesses seem like you are doing them a favor when you come to their establishment. I have returned home for six years now and trust me. For what I have been seeing. We have a very long way to go when comes to customer service.
The organisation also needs to focus on the local businesses training their staff to treat their customers more pleasantly and courteously as most staff here in Dominica aren’t trained to do so and customers usually find they’re being treated roughly and without concern by such persons who work for businesses
Who are DIOCS? Never heard of them. Would suggest they start with government answering questions. Thank you.
There is no such thing like customer service in Dominica. Full stop, end of discussion.
So true, and that goes for both public and private sectors. But it starts with employers. They have to respect and treat their workers right so that their employees can treat their customers likewise. How workers relate to their fellow employees also reflects on the kind of service they provide to the public. Training is surely needed in this area as well.