Alan Munro's Blog

It's very true: the old adage still holds. If you have a good experience you tell one or two people. If you have a bad experience you tell 10 ( - thousand if you have a blog!)

But at the same time, [url=businessblueprints.wordpress.com/.../96-of-people-do-not-complain]96% of people don't complain[/url], highlighting the need for businesses to get real feedback from their customers and, most importantly, to listen to it and address the problems.

[url]www.businessblueprints.co.uk[/url]

And that other old adage - don't make a promise if you can't deliver on it (no pun intended). Or if you break the promise, do something to make amends....

I got a shrug and an apology from the guy at the post office this morning. It's not his fault - but, if I was him, I'd be getting it fixed.

Ive had so may problems with the post office, specifically their re-delivery service. Twice I have requested parcels to be redeilvered to my local post office as I was out, they give a list of days to choose when it's delivered online, i choose a day, i go to the post office on that day and it's obviously not there. Twice. I also got into an argument with the person at the post office as he didn't understand that having 2 'sorry you were out cards' with x2 written on one of them equals 3 parcels. "..but you only have 2 cards.." sigh, baffling.

The problem with this is it's not as if we have a choice of who we post with, it's this or nothing, so they don't have much incentive to actually get it right. Instead they decided to strike and make it worse for everyone.

I had to get some Hungarian Forints before Christmas. So I asked my local post office whether they had them in stock, or whether i had to order them.

I was told they definitely had them in stock. I couldn't get them there and then as I hadn't been paid, so when I had, I went back, only to be told that they definitely never had them in stock and had to order them.

Our local post office also has the wrong opening hours on the internet - so if you turn up after 5.30 on a Saturday, you'll find a lot of hacked off people trying to get in.

I recommend M&S travel money kiosks - perfect perfect service.

Dear BT Complaints Department,

6 months ago I went wifi at home. They issued me with a password and an internet address that does not work. It still does not work, and I refuse to use BT e-mail service becase it is so inefficient.

Last week I called them (Mumbai) and asked for technical support in UK. They told me they could not give me the number. I told them You are BT. You have the number. London told me you have the number. Do it.

They gave me a new password and the service worked for 2 days and failed again because FACT: First world companies are being run by third world services.

I duly informed them I could post a letter to India, and it could take a week to get there. I signed-up for BT e-mail service, and six months later I cannot get a message to my neighbour.

People in Britain are being laid off because of BT's failure to provide a decent service through their grossly inefficient overseas offices.

This is totally unacceptable.

When the world is run by accountants, the idea of outsourcing customer service functions to lower-cost economies looks like a stroke of genius. As we've seen in the past year, accountants and their ilk aren't very good at running the world. Everytime I get plugged into 'Dave' in Mumbai I get that sinking feeling. Of course, I feel bad for 'Dave' but I feel worse because I know I'm about to take part in a frustrating telephone call that won't resolve my problem. To me, this kind of outsourcing is just wrong on so many levels. Vote with your feet and switch to another provider.

We all know Napoleon said "Britain was a nation of shopkeepers." and we are still a mentality that focusses on service, even if we don't get it because the call centre is in Mumbai. It's an incredibly British thing, just as much as it is not to complain.

A Russian friend asked me once what it means when English people do this:.

Tut and look to heaven. There are no airs and graces in Russia. You just do it,

or someone does something bad to you.

In the US I there was an internal flight where the staff were so rude I couldn't beilieve my ears: "YOU sit THERE".... (She was splitting up an elderly couple).

and "BURGER" the announcememnt that lunch had just arrived on your lap...

Not enough people get up and complain? Years ago in France, I took a commuter train to Paris in the rush hour. The train was 2 minutes late. They almost lynched the driver. Every train in France is on time because the drivers know if they are late, the French Revolution is waiting in the next carriage just behind them.

Perhaps this is what the Post Office lacks: A bit of get up and work. It's great when it works, and only visible when it doesn't. The sad thing for me, is so many other businesses lives are at stake because a few selfish individuals who are ruining things not just for their fellow employees, but for the rest of the nation. They would rather die than accept inevitable change that could allow a few of them to survive.