The FINANCIAL — On average over 80% of workers avoid responsibility when it comes to a customer’s complaint or request for extra information. “Not my responsibility” is the common refrain of service personnel, a new survey by The FINANCIAL has shown. Out of 300 respondents 75% said that service quality has not improved in Georgia during the past three years. 18% stated that they see insufficient improvement and only 0.5% stated that the Georgian service sector has made a huge leap forward.
The low level of decentralization inside Georgian organizations has been considered the main reason for staff avoiding responsibility. The worst customer service is observed in branches and regional offices.
“Employees often cannot respond properly to consumers and do not transfer them to their senior management. So, they find the following response the most convenient – “I do not know”. Employees do not want to take on extra responsibility as they do not expect to get any benefits from doing so,” Akaki Tavadze, HR direction Teacher at Free University, explained.
“We expect fast and competent service from any company or organization we have dealings with. Time is an important factor nowadays and therefore fast service is crucial in determining good service quality. Employees should be ready to transfer consumers to the relevant, competent person to solve a problem if they themselves cannot do so,” said Eka Machavariani, HR Manager at Maxhome Trade.
According to Machavariani, the top five mistakes service personnel in Georgia make are: 1. They do not welcome consumers properly; 2. They ignore nonverbal communication: gestures, tone of speech; 3. They do not know the properly product they are selling; 4. After greeting (if they do), they cannot continue to provide service in the right way; 5. They do not thank consumers for their purchase (on the contrary, consumers are the ones who do it).
Lack of knowledge about the products being sold was named as the main mistake made in the service sector by Lili Bibilashvili, President at HR Professional Guild. “Eating, drinking, and chewing gum in front of customers; not providing all the information about the products (hiding shortages for example); Simply responding to customers with the unhelpful phrase: “I do not know”; Invading customer’s personal space (getting too close) – are all problems,” Bibilashvili added.
“Superficial dependence; ignoring remarks; blaming mistakes on others; existence of individual approach – were added to the list of top mistakes by Tavadze at FreeUni.
Over 26% of respondents said that the HoReCa sector has the lowest level of service quality in Georgia. The worst service is observed at supermarkets: 70% of people questioned responded negatively about it.
“The highest quality of service in Georgia can be found at its leading companies, in particular in the banking sector and hotels. Supermarkets are the places that tend to offer the lowest quality. The unpreparedness of staff and obvious dissatisfaction with the fact that they “have to” work in a shop is one of the reasons. Such jobs are still blameworthy in Georgia. Offering help and high service to customers are not considered important by workers,” said Machavariani.
“Supermarket employees have very stressful and laborious work, contrary to at other trade points. Despite their arduous work, supermarket employees get equal pay to other stores. Labour consumption, low wages, high probability that employees will have to compensate, cause a high percentage of worker outflow. Frequent changes of workers further reduce the service quality,” said Bibilashvili.
“Bad service was a big problem at cafes and restaurants in Georgia for a long time. There is still room for improvement, but recently it has started improving. There is an alternative to paying more and receiving better quality service – pay less for lower quality service,” said Nina, 32.
“Consumers are not ready for high quality service, it sounds paradoxical but is true,” Bibilashvili said. “High quality means higher prices and the majority of our low income population cannot afford it,” she explained. “The low level of competition and the fact that the majority of workers have higher education and yet do not work in the field of their specialization combine to make them think they are unlucky and all this affects the quality of their service. Lack of professional colleges; management’s strategy to reduce expenditure on service-improving steps – these are the main reasons behind the low service quality in the country, according to Bibilashvili.
“Why is service not improving in Georgia: the low competition; desire to earn big money in a short period of time; owners thinking that if a tourist comes all the way to Kobuleti then they will not go back, of course they will not, but they will never return again. People do not think about all of that however,” said Tavadze.
“Good service starts with the knowledge about the product or service that the company/shop sells. Communication and cogency of employee is also an important issue. Hiring the right people is a key factor. There are people that can never offer good service despite undergoing training. It is down to individual people’s natures. Some people are extroverts, open and communicative. So hiring them raises the probability that they will offer good service in turn,” Machavariani said.
While summarizing the service sector in Georgia, despite the improvements still to be made, Bibilashvili said that there have been positive steps in this direction.
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