According to Mintel, a UK research organisation, Britons are becoming increasingly cheesed off at bad service. A lack of manned tills tops their list of gripes, and that was followed by the attitude of shop assistants who apparently could not care less. The point, however - do those same customers complain, and the report seems to suggest that they don't... they simply move on and grumbling in true Brit fashion, take their custom elsewhere. I have a feeling that South Africans are pretty much the same - we tend to moan to friends and workmates, but balk at letting the manager know about the problem. And we need to change. We need to complain - not shouting and yelling at some poor staffer who can't do anything about the problem anyway and perhaps wasn't responsible for it in the first place, but by making our feelings known to the manager. If we don't, we're not going to see service improve. Case in point: this weekend, we rented three DVDs. True, one was very much the wife's choice and in any event I would have been catatonic with indifference at the thought of watching it, but it still ended up with the bother of having to return to the video store and change it. Yes, I know I should have checked both DVDs better before leaving the store in the first place - but the fault is not always apparent. However, a brief calm and courteous word with the manager hopefully will do the trick. If it doesn't, the next word will be a little more forthright. The bottom line: we need to put up, or shut up - telling friends does nothing to cure the problem.


Rod Baker, Content Manager