Dickson Igwe. Photo: supplied

In any event, this seminar was in no way focused on customer service. It was a management training affair. An elegant English lady was one of two presenters at the seminar. She stated that the worst service she had ever experienced at a restaurant was at a so and so restaurant in a so and so place in these Virgin Islands. Funnily, none of the delegates at the Seminar were surprised.

This lady is a regular visitor to these spectacular and majestic shores. She has lived in the Virgin Islands and she presently lives in the UK. The lovely lady then went on to state that poor customer service, wherever it occurred, was a cultural phenomenon, and that it was very difficult indeed changing a cultural subset, such as poor customer service. INTERESTING!

OK, the cliché, THE CUSTOMER PAYS THE WAGES, is a wise commercial statement indeed. And the importance of good customer service, and the bad publicity poor experiences by visitors give these Lesser Antilles was highlighted a year earlier than at that momentous seminar in early March, 2013.

The incident took place in early 2012. And it appeared in the Editor’s Log of the Magazine, ‘’CRUISING WORLD.’’ In a narrative in the March 2012 edition, titled, ‘’ CHARTER TALES TO TELL,’’ Mark Pillsbury, described the experiences of a California couple, charter yacht guests, on honeymoon in the British Virgin Islands. ‘’Cruising world,’’ is an internationally renowned yacht charter magazine.

The Editor wrote about this couple who stated how, ‘’ the pictures of the boat on the website looked alluring, and the owner of the chartering company led us to believe that he was an honest and nice man. We were really looking forward to our first romantic time on water.’’ The Cruising World Editor further described how, ‘’ with a deposit paid, and their bags packed, they flew from Los Angeles to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands eager for the honeymoon to begin.’’

‘’They caught a late ferry to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands and arrived just before dark to find a maintenance worker rather than the charter company owner waiting for them. The owner it seems had left the island for the unforeseeable future. They also found that their boat didn’t look a thing like the 2005 Beneteau 463 that they’d seen in the pictures and had been assured they were renting.’’

No. The boat they found, ‘’ looked worn and tired. Its refrigerator required bagged ice to keep things cool, and the GPS had the screen of a circa-1980s computer. The boat lacked the promised dodger, and air-conditioning, and as they were soon to find out, the vessel leaked like a sieve.’’

‘’Their captain who’d accompany them for the first couple of days while they regained their sea legs was apparently a beaut too.’’ Whatever that means: probably yachting terminology!

The honeymooning couple, ‘’ described him as drinking beer from dawn to dusk, when he’d switch to hard liquor. He joined them for every meal ashore, talked incessantly, and further padded the dining tab with orders for more wine.’’ This latest rendition on the country’s poor customer service Modus Vivendi showed that the issue went far beyond the regular restaurant type discourtesies.

Returning to the high powered English manager and the management seminar, and one nugget received from her customer service aside was this: it is time to change the customer service culture in the Virgin Islands. This may mean a single CUSTOMER SERVICE CHARTER for the entire island posted everywhere.

A customer service charter should be an attractive and well thought out NATIONAL DOCUMENT, easily managed and adopted, and implemented, with seven to nine customer service promises. And it must be adopted by all Virgin Islanders and residents, as critical to the proverbial bottom line.

An ambitious and youthful local business executive has done this at a number of facilities around the country. Mr. Marketing Executive promises the company’s customers for example, that they will be met with courtesy and hospitality, notwithstanding the transaction amount and type.

This visitor to those facilities must agree with Mr. Executive that his customer service people attempt to abide by that charter as posted at those facilities. The Charter is displayed in a prominent place on the business’ premises for all to see. And yes, this Old Cowboy is usually met by a smiling customer service person when he drives into the various facilities around the country for a purchase.

Talking to another high powered executive in the tourism industry just the other day, and the lovely Virgin Islander agreed with this Small Town Marshall that customer service in the country was in need of a lot of help. She asserted in a short chat with this Small Town Bailiff, that a holistic approach to excellent customer service was critical for the tourism product and tourism sector in the Virgin Islands.

That put a smile on his face. Alas the issue of poor customer service in these glorious Virgin Islands is going to be tackled. But still he would be thrilled indeed to see more smiling faces behind the cash tills at a certain supermarket.

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