The negative sentiment that surrounds customer service in SA seems to me to stem from the proliferation of the internet and the use being made of the internet by consumers to voice their opinion. Anybody with an internet connection (PC or Mobile) can voice their opinion about bad service, and this opinion potentially reaches millions of eyeballs all over the world. The reluctance of the guilty companies to get invovled in the conversation has been interpreted as a “don’t care” or “can’t be bothered” attitude but I don’t think this is the case at all.

getclosure has taken me into the offices of the head of customer care or marketing of many companies including all the banks, all the cell phone service providers, most major insurance providers and most major retailers. These people actually do exist and even more remarkably most of them actually do care about legitimate, real complaints. They just seem to be in a tail spin trying to get their ducks in a row to respond to all complaints coming in from numerous channels.

The truth is SA companies (particularly the massive blue chips) are only now realising that there is a conversation happening online and that in order to stay in business they need to engage in this conversation. They have realised that complaints coming in from online platforms need to be given just as much attention as a complaint that comes in from their call centre. I admit this realisation took a little longer than it should have but lets be positive and say “at least it happened”.

I predict that in the near future we will see a marked increase in the number of companies engaging with their customers online and actually encouraging customers to use online portals like getclosure to submit feedback.

That’s it from me… if you would like to get hold of me feel free to email richard@getclosure.co.za. In the meantime get involved and if you have had bad service recently let someone know about it…