WE COMPLAIN ABOUT poor management and the “like it or lump it attitude” in the public sector. Rightly so, but it’s swiftly creeping into the private sector.
We’re seeing more and more evidence that bigger is not necessarily better for us (although it’s no doubt better for the shareholders). The bigger an operation, the more impersonal and unwieldy it is, and customers find it increasingly difficult to navigate the electronic minefields they face in trying to solve problems. In these big corporations resulting from multiple mergers, management becomes faceless – in most instances, customers don’t see or even know who the manager is.
I’ve experienced this with other companies, the most recent being Lime or Flow or Columbus or Cable & Wireless Communications . . . or whatever they are. Having heard the outpouring of complaints from dissatisfied customers via the media, I am adding my two cents.
What are all these mergers going to mean to the customer? Just a change of company colour from green to blue? Flow says that its mission is to “serve the customer. . . develop and operate a broadband network that will enhance the social and economic development of the Caribbean by delivering products and services which consistently exceed the expectations of Flow customers . . .”. All I can say is they don’t think very highly of their customers’ expectations.
Far from things getting better after the merger, they’ve got considerably worse. The Internet is slow and intermittent, there’s considerable delay in getting dial tone on landlines after making or taking a call; there are problems accessing one’s security system (no doubt caused by Internet problems) . . . and the list goes on. They’ve proved that just as a rose by any other name is just as sweet, a LIME by any other name is just as sour. Or as a writer to the Nation Editor put it, “a cowboy by any other name . . .”.
The problems are one thing, but our frustration is another. We see names like Niall Sheehy and Jaggernauth Dass, among others, on the management team listed on the Flow website, where they ask: “How can we help you?” Seems like a rhetorical question when the only contact you have with them is via newspaper reports and media interviews. Try to make an appointment and see what happens!
I realise that contracting services is becoming the norm for companies, but this can lead to difficulties where the customer doesn’t know who is accountable to them. The Flow service delivery reminds me of an advertisement put out by a company sometime ago, where they boasted of providing all services under one roof – compared to other companies where the ice cream cone was supplied by one section, the ice cream by another and the sprinkles by a third. That’s how Flow/Lime seems to operate.
The most ludicrous example to date was my experience while trying to get a credit for an apparent incorrect charge. I was told that the charge was valid, and all my efforts to explain via telephone that it was incorrect were futile. So I took my bills to Windsor Lodge, and since no one had heard of the staff member who had called me, I telephoned her to ask if I could show her my bills. I discovered to my amazement that although we were in the same building, I couldn’t see her, only talk to her on the phone. If I wanted to talk to someone, I could do so at Customer Care but that was a different franchise and there seemed to be little communication between the two entities.
After many phone calls, LIME finally admitted that my claim was valid, but what a waste of my time. When I expressed disgust at this situation, I was told that management was responsible, implying “don’t blame us”. Now I see they’re even blaming Kick ’Em Jenny.
Of course we’ve become accustomed to the automated answering service and the number-pressing, but I recently had a situation where no option was relevant, so I had to give false information to be able to speak to a person, albeit a person with programmed answers. Eventually after a world tour I was amazingly called the next day by a real live (contracted) technician who actually visited the site.
No wonder people are saying that Flow stands for Following Lime’s Old Ways.
• Dr Frances Chandler is a former independent senator. Email [email protected].
