The cost of dealing with corporates

These are questions I've addressed timeously and to date, these issues still haven't been answered. Take a company such as World Online, who were recently bought out by Tiscali. After huge amounts of rebranding, advertising campaigns, divisional shuffles and rah-rah sessions to make the company a fighting force within the ISP industry, they are now coming last with bad customer service. The reason - they just don't care!

Now when it comes down to rands and cents - which is the crux of the matter, how much money is one prepared to spend on sitting on the phone trying to get your email, account queries and internet sorted out? How much time can one spend compiling numerous emails that you know are never going to get answered, sourcing the correct people in the many divisions and conceding to the fact that your calls and emails are never going to get returned? You know that there is a CEO but he/she is either never in the country or you can't get through his/her personal secretary. Whether you look at the monetary value or the time wasted, at the end of the day, it all costs.

Do you resort to going to the competition? Are they any better? Do you go through all the frustrations over again or do you grit your teeth and stick to what you already have?

Bottom line, that is why there are so many small players coming into the market competing with the larger organisations. They will do a much better job because they are hungry for the business and they are dedicated to give the value added service that everyone deserves.

It shouldn't make a difference if you are the man on the street, a SMME or another company - each person or organisation should be treated in the same manner. After all, if it wasn't for us - that's you and me - these large organisations wouldn't exist.