Dutchuncle777
Well-Known Member
It so happens that I had some excellent experience in both the financial and ICT sectors, of rendering customer service. As I am old enough by now, I can boast having been trained by the last veterans of WWII. School teachers and also managers at work were strict disciplinarians, yet humane. They were mostly tough to deal with but people who understood that sacrifice and discipline was what saw them survive a terrible war.
We learned the hard way that sacrifice and the willingness to deliver much more than being paid for, was what eventually would bring career success. We learned to contribute towards society by being willing to suffer discomfort. Salaries were small and promotion opportunities rare. However, we never married our duty to our job. We had to be responsible and accountable, regardless. Our career was a purpose and a calling and we did lament our tiny salaries but never did we go on strike, shrug at a customer or disrespect them.
In this day and age, our service providers have become faceless, unreachable and we sponsor sports so that they can benefit. They get the the loyalty mileage from the many Rands we pay too much for their services. When a youngster needs to be educated, for the umpteenth time by me, about his own products, I get antagonised. I can boast a life of extremities, of unspeakable hardship yet never did I give up either hope or effort. I have been battling on, without any support, for well over a decade without being paid. I am not lazy and I do work more than 18 hours every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
My son could not get a job and he volunteered, worked for about a year without pay and then got a permanent job, which was not to last very long as his crooked employer disappeared with lots of money and is being sought by SAPS and SARS alike. My son then got a freelance position where he works 6-7 days a week but only get paid a fixed retainer for every event day. He is a diligent young man, conscientious and utterly reliable.
When I meet a "brand specialist" or sales executive" who then treats me as if the dog dragged me into his store, I feel my blood pressure rising. When someone tries to sell me the cheapest, utter junk item in his store without even listening to what my specific needs are, I get worked up a little. When he then addresses me in bad English, i switch to Afrikaans, my mother tongue. The speaker of broken English, tells me in his strong Afrikaans accent that he is in fact English speaking. Also that irks me as some top brands, such as a manufacturer and distributor of exorbitantly priced hardware from abroad, hires people who will disappear for lunch while talking to you! Good riddens, their product is 40% dearer here than in America! Yet their "sales executives" have no idea of how to render even the most basic customer services.
Let me bring a point across: if you dress down, or talk down, or disrespect - expect me to be doing the same. However, I will not dress down, I will attempt at using acceptable language and I will repatriate my Rand to the shores of retailers and service providers who have earned my trust and respect.
Our service providers and hardware suppliers should be aware of the fact that we can and will find alternatives. If you cannot hire decent staff, even when twenty million are jobless in our country, something is amiss. If you staff cannot jealously hawk over their own careers by having integrity, they should lose their jobs. Nobody unwilling to even do what we as customers expect in all fairness, should take home a salary derived from my pocket.
I research software, hardware and service solutions and propose systems integration solutions to some NGO's in various countries. Nobody pays me but I saw the need of many humanitarian organisations that brings relief to the destitute. I advise them whet to buy and where to order from. I do this as part of my broader scope of community building activities. In the past, where government, soul shops and society had failed helpless people, I persevered and tasted the joy of successfully bringing the situation to a desired closure. The taste of success with a job done well is palatable in the superlative.
Perhaps youngsters should learn that real joy comes from having done a good job, that success breeds success and that responsibility precedes rights. The union-trained arrogance we sometimes see from workers is rather far removed from tasting the sweet fruits of success. We did not strike, we did not flinch, we may have complained but we pride ourselves in having a kind of work ethics second to none.
My poverty presently has little to do with laziness - and I am on a victorious path as I will only be beaten when I admit defeat. Ant eye kant spel kwit.
Observe.
Learn.
Replicate.
Taste success, even if it takes forty years in the desert to prepare your character!
Service providers, I have raised the bar. How high can you jump? My rand is up there, for grabs to the one with the most guts, gumption and integrity.
We learned the hard way that sacrifice and the willingness to deliver much more than being paid for, was what eventually would bring career success. We learned to contribute towards society by being willing to suffer discomfort. Salaries were small and promotion opportunities rare. However, we never married our duty to our job. We had to be responsible and accountable, regardless. Our career was a purpose and a calling and we did lament our tiny salaries but never did we go on strike, shrug at a customer or disrespect them.
In this day and age, our service providers have become faceless, unreachable and we sponsor sports so that they can benefit. They get the the loyalty mileage from the many Rands we pay too much for their services. When a youngster needs to be educated, for the umpteenth time by me, about his own products, I get antagonised. I can boast a life of extremities, of unspeakable hardship yet never did I give up either hope or effort. I have been battling on, without any support, for well over a decade without being paid. I am not lazy and I do work more than 18 hours every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
My son could not get a job and he volunteered, worked for about a year without pay and then got a permanent job, which was not to last very long as his crooked employer disappeared with lots of money and is being sought by SAPS and SARS alike. My son then got a freelance position where he works 6-7 days a week but only get paid a fixed retainer for every event day. He is a diligent young man, conscientious and utterly reliable.
When I meet a "brand specialist" or sales executive" who then treats me as if the dog dragged me into his store, I feel my blood pressure rising. When someone tries to sell me the cheapest, utter junk item in his store without even listening to what my specific needs are, I get worked up a little. When he then addresses me in bad English, i switch to Afrikaans, my mother tongue. The speaker of broken English, tells me in his strong Afrikaans accent that he is in fact English speaking. Also that irks me as some top brands, such as a manufacturer and distributor of exorbitantly priced hardware from abroad, hires people who will disappear for lunch while talking to you! Good riddens, their product is 40% dearer here than in America! Yet their "sales executives" have no idea of how to render even the most basic customer services.
Let me bring a point across: if you dress down, or talk down, or disrespect - expect me to be doing the same. However, I will not dress down, I will attempt at using acceptable language and I will repatriate my Rand to the shores of retailers and service providers who have earned my trust and respect.
Our service providers and hardware suppliers should be aware of the fact that we can and will find alternatives. If you cannot hire decent staff, even when twenty million are jobless in our country, something is amiss. If you staff cannot jealously hawk over their own careers by having integrity, they should lose their jobs. Nobody unwilling to even do what we as customers expect in all fairness, should take home a salary derived from my pocket.
I research software, hardware and service solutions and propose systems integration solutions to some NGO's in various countries. Nobody pays me but I saw the need of many humanitarian organisations that brings relief to the destitute. I advise them whet to buy and where to order from. I do this as part of my broader scope of community building activities. In the past, where government, soul shops and society had failed helpless people, I persevered and tasted the joy of successfully bringing the situation to a desired closure. The taste of success with a job done well is palatable in the superlative.
Perhaps youngsters should learn that real joy comes from having done a good job, that success breeds success and that responsibility precedes rights. The union-trained arrogance we sometimes see from workers is rather far removed from tasting the sweet fruits of success. We did not strike, we did not flinch, we may have complained but we pride ourselves in having a kind of work ethics second to none.
My poverty presently has little to do with laziness - and I am on a victorious path as I will only be beaten when I admit defeat. Ant eye kant spel kwit.
Observe.
Learn.
Replicate.
Taste success, even if it takes forty years in the desert to prepare your character!
Service providers, I have raised the bar. How high can you jump? My rand is up there, for grabs to the one with the most guts, gumption and integrity.
