Year after year, government after government, we have heard the cries from ministers and the public alike for the urgency of diversification. This has become an even more pressing matter now due to the continuous decline in oil prices and the state of the world economy.
To many people, one main area of diversification we can seek out is tourism. Why? To many, the answer is simple: we are an island, we have hotels, beaches, nature trails, restaurants, nightclubs and a bounty of historical sites to visit.
Does this make us fit for the tourist industry? Unfortunately, it doesn’t. A key pillar of a successful tourist industry is service. Tourism is a service industry and as Trinidadians, service is not really our strong suit.
This was clearly established on Old Year’s Night when hundreds of incoming passengers were forced to ring in the New Year while waiting to be processed. Poor customer service is prevalent across the nation.
There are dozens of facebook pages dedicated to highlighting the plight of customers in various industries—from restaurants to telecommunications. The most common cry we hear is that the company doesn’t care about its customers and the customer service is so poor. In all fairness it’s not the company but mainly the workers.
We lack work proper ethic. Many business owners will state that it’s difficult to find good workers, they either arrive late, leave early or are missing for half the day because they always have things to do. As soon as the clock strikes 4 pm there is a stampede heading towards the door while at 8 am offices may seem like ghost towns.
The way many people deal with customers makes it worse. Many employees are disrespectful to customers and sometimes simply ignore them. Many of us would have had the experience for being on hold for more than half hour with no response.
My question now is, if this is how we constantly treat our own people, how are we expected to treat others?
Vivek Rambarran