Page 42 - MYM 2016

Service experiences in the developing world can be exasperating. The culture of service is often not understood and, therefore, completely ignored. Public services are notorious for ruining one’s day, if not one’s mood and health. While education is important, policy is needed to open up more service alternatives and establish a legal framework that holds those in violation of customer norms and expectations responsible.
customer Service in the doldrums
Marketing’s preoccupation with acquisition of customers, main- taining strong relationships by providing value and bene ts, availing to them a whole range
of o erings to increase revenues and pro ts, nding ways to retain the most pro table segments, and enhancing the relationship organically have become increasingly important in today’s competitive envi- ronment. Some marketers try very hard to care for and nourish the organization’s life-blood – its cus- tomers. Others simply do not seem to comprehend the meaning of being customer-oriented, losing droves to the competition despite having a good product or service that o ers many bene ts but which fails the customer in other ways.
Failing the customer may be di cult or impos- sible to eliminate; according to evolving research, service failures and poor recovery strategies are
the leading causes of customer defection in service organizations. Failures arise from a multitude of factors: unavailable services, being unreasonably slow, or not paying attention to customer needs are big contributors leading to switching behavior.
Service failures experienced and endured by customers in developing countries are especially exasperating, o en met with a shrug and a yawn.
bY SYed S andaleeb
e consequent dissatisfactions experienced, o en in the public sector, are palpable, in frustration, disappointment, impoliteness, argumentation, dis- respect and rage. It is thus important to understand how poor service provision contributes to serious erosion of an organization’s customer base. In an era of privatization, open markets, and globaliza- tion, customer loyalties will be strongly challenged by new and innovative service o erings from com- petitors, both within and outside the country.
Consider the public sector in Bangladesh (Figure 1). A report by Transparency International indicates the proportion of people who experience corruption from various government agencies. e numbers are staggering but many do not complain about bad service. A large number feels it would be useless to do so. Others do not know where to complain (a convenient strategy for the provider). Still others do not want to experience future prob- lems by being so bold as to complain (a culturally ingrained behavior that needs to change).
In an exploratory study I conducted in Ban- gladesh to examine the propensity to return to the same service provider a er experiencing a service failure, the picture that emerges is surprising. ere is no di erence in propensity to return to
a service provider whether the provider is from
42 | MINd YOUr MarkETING OCTOBEr 2016