Grahamstown is renowned for many things good service is not one of them. More often than not, customer service in this town is abysmal.
Anytime you open this discussion in a group of friends each one will come out and relate their personal horror stories about how badly they have been treated at a local commercial establishment.
Grahamstown is renowned for many things good service is not one of them. More often than not, customer service in this town is abysmal.
Anytime you open this discussion in a group of friends each one will come out and relate their personal horror stories about how badly they have been treated at a local commercial establishment.
Until recently Grocott’s Mail had aregular column called Rants and Raves where members of the public could air their feelings about bad (rants) or good (raves) service. We put an end to the column because it was too depressing and there was always the looming threat of legal action from the victim of a rant.
But we still get letters from readers who feel that we ought to launch a campaign, or investigate a particular establishment because they are rude to their customers.
We try not to print abusive or potentially slanderous correspondence.But in fairness, there are also some businesses in town where customers are treated as if they are important, and occasionally we receive letters from readers who are so surprised at efficient service they feel obliged to write a letter to their local newspaper.
We aim to print all such letters. Grahamstown is fortunate enough to receive a large number of mostly well heeled visitors every year.
Students and pupils come to study at Rhodes University and to the various schools, bringing their parents for a visit and thousands come for SciFest, the National Arts Festival and many other conferences.
Do we make them feel welcome in our town? Do we make them feel that maybe it would be nice to spend another day or two here to see the local sights?
It really doesn’t cost anything to be polite to a customer, and to our knowledge, very few people have been hospitalisedsuffering from the effects of trying to smile.
So why don’t we as Grahamstonians make an effort to be friendly to each other, to visitorsand to customers. Who knows, it might even improvebusiness prospects.
