Aki Kalliatakis: Customer Care

The main point that was presented in this seminar was centered on getting customers to be loyal to you. This makes me think about the Proudly South African campaign through which the government encouraged South Africans to support South African products and invest within the country. Would you not agree that this is hard to attain unless we assume a unified, courteous, secure and credible cultural identity for South Africans through nation-building? This is the focus for my practice as an ethnomusicologist. From what I have observed, there is no South African culture that can truly say that they understand the other 10 cultures within South Africa empathically. Please correct me if I am wrong. A lot of friends of mine that work in the corporate environment are still faced with racial prejudices and a work environment that undermines our democracy.

Kalliatakis suggests that customers become disloyal to products or services because of the following shortcomings:
* poor quality services
* high defect rates
* deficient service
* lack of understanding of the customer’s needs
* time pressure
* poverty
* overwhelmed by cluttered information
* no trust and relationships
* they want to feel special
* they want to be involved in the product design and value-labelling decisions
* the product or service has no integrity
* the product or service does not seek to invest and inspire its employees

Kalliatakis then reveals an alarming 68% of customers that support other products and services because they were bored, felt unappreciated and not special. This is the highest figure in his market research followed by customers who leave because of bad customer service. This reminds me of a performance I recently attended where the jazz artist was so unapproachable that there was no moment of inclusiveness between him and his audience. At times we forget that business is created and supported by human beings. Does it help to treat your audience as if they are not really there and that perhaps they do not see that the performance you have given lacks quality? Is it so hard to put more effort into finding out what your audience wants and to make them feel like they are part of your performance in a pleasurable manner? Like I stated in the beginning, I am not yet convinced that South Africans are loyal to their country. May you be my witness as I strive to be an example of patriotism to my country?