WITH Cyprus joining the EU in May 2004, it was said that the country would be moving into line with the rest of Europe, harmonising its laws, regulations and everyday life with its European cousins.
Nearly two years on though, and the country is struggling to adapt, with small island mentality still rife in many walks of life, meaning consumers have to put up with customer service which would be considered unacceptable in many EU countries.
Government departments have long been in the firing line, with civil servants facing jibes about their cushy working hours and fat-cat salaries.
The government itself has also been criticised over its failure to get all sectors better co-ordinated and synchronised with each other.
Several people have recently contacted the Sunday Mail accusing the authorities of providing poor customer service.
Businessman Yiannis Iraklis explained that he needed information from the Communication and Works Ministry regarding a permit he needed to apply for.
“It was a rather simple request that I had, but judging from how long it took, you would have thought that I was asking them to reveal national secrets,” he said.
The first person I spoke to informed me that she was not authorised to give me the information and gave me the telephone number of one of her colleagues. That person then told me that I had reached the wrong department and gave me the details of another person. That person did not answer the telephone, and this being Cyprus, there was no facility to leave a message. I eventually reached the correct person at the sixth or seventh attempt.”
Sofia Newell was also far from impressed. The student said she contacted the Interior Ministry’s Civil Registry and Migration Department as she wanted information for an essay she was writing. “I was told that the person in charge who could help me was on holiday and that nobody else could assist with my inquiry. I find this difficult to believe. In every other country I know, if somebody in charge is away from the office, another person is appointed in their absence to carry out their tasks. Several days later, I spoke to the relevant person upon their return and was then told to put my request in writing. I did not receive a response for a further two weeks, by which time the deadline for my essay had passed.
“These people really have no idea whatsoever on what customer service means. It’s a joke.”
A man who applied for excise duty relief from Customs when buying a new car, wanted to pull his hair out in frustration.
Savvas Antoniou explained that he was entitled to a maximum of £3,000 off the duty of the vehicle under a government repatriation programme. “In order to qualify, I had to prove to customs that I had been living in England,” he said. “I provided my birth certificate, two passports, mortgage papers, wage slips, tax forms, NHS cards and education certificates, but this still wasn’t enough. It was obvious to anybody with any common sense that I had been living in England my entire life, so why did Customs need further paperwork? It’s bureaucracy gone mad.
“In addition, after waiting in line for two hours to speak to somebody, I was then called inside, only to sit idly at an official’s desk, waiting for ten minutes until she finished a private telephone conversation with a relative. The hassle of it all nearly caused me to give up with my application after being forced to make numerous trips to Customs.”
When asked to comment on the complaints, the Consumers’ Association did not pull any punches. President Petros Marcou said that, “they are touching the huge and important subject of government bureaucracy. In the past, we have received many complaints from consumers that the response of certain government departments is not up to standard and speed.”
He explained that the Association has written to individual ministries asking for an explanation. “In some cases, we have had to write to them two or three times before getting a response, which in extreme cases has taken between six months and a year to arrive.
“Steps must be taken to remedy and improve the situation. The citizen, according to the Constitution, must get a prompt response from government to their inquiry.”
Marcou noted that many services were insufficiently staffed and equipped. “The government organises public services according to its needs,” he said. “They have inherited this from the colonial days, but now that Cyprus is in the EU, we have more pressing problems to address and we need to modernise our civil service and must meet this new challenge. We have to address organisational methods of service and ask ourselves whether we are simplifying procedures and legislation enough.”
However, Marcou pointed out that the opening of a Customer Service Centre in December had improved things. “The citizen is now able to get a new passport and ID card, for example, in a matter of days, rather than a matter of months, so some improvements have been made. The Service Centre is a step in the right direction to serve the public quickly and efficiently.”
And only last week, it was announced that road tax renewals could now be done online.
When we asked Interior Minister Andreas Christou for his views on the matter, perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised when he requested that our questions be sent through in writing.
Much to our surprise, however, we were called back within 48 hours with a response.
Senior Officer Andreas Ashiotis said that, “bureaucracy is an illness which affects all public services in many European countries”.
“We are aware of the problem and have asked departments to put forward suggestions on how to improve the situation. Progress has been made. We have published citizen’s charters and try to abide by them. We are not claiming that we are perfect but we are getting better.”
He added that 18 months ago, the Interior Ministry synchronised its services, resulting in the fact that callers always get through and are instantly redirected to the correct department.
“We admit that some departments have in the past been slow to respond to inquiries and the Minister himself is concerned about the quality of services and has personally put forward a programme to improve quality. We expect a significant improvement after his suggestions are implemented.”
Responding to accusations that departments are inadequately staffed and equipped, Ashiotis explained that, “we are trying to ensure that this does not affect the quality of our services; however, this is not an excuse and we are trying to simplify procedures and are looking at other ways to meet our needs.
“We disagree with the claim that we operate as though we were stuck in colonial times, but it is nevertheless important to be aware of our shortcomings. We are upgrading our knowledge of how public services work in other European countries and receive assistance from EU co-operation programmes.”
Sidebar
India’s Mahatma Ghandi once said: “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider to our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so.”
The notion of customer service as a tool of competitive advantage started to gain ground in the United States in the 1980s, and has since become a worldwide phenomenon.
Most organisations claim to treat customer satisfaction as an important issue. Targets and service standards are commonplace, as customer expectations have increased.
Many organisations have attempted to automate some routine interactions with their customers, because face-
to-face customer service is the most labour-intensive, expensive, and risky way to do business with consumers. As is often demonstrated in movies, one bad employee or one bad consumer can ruin a day for many other employees and consumers. Despite all these efforts, it is still argued that many organisations are not good at service and that large organisations in particular are frustrating for the customer to deal with. For example, automation can go awry if not executed correctly, as shown by widespread dissatisfaction with automated telephone systems.
Factors which contribute to good customer service
Friendly and helpful staff
Staff with ability to listen
Appropriate tone of voice
Approachable staff
Staff displaying appropriate body language
Staff with good product knowledge
How staff greet the customer
Understanding the customer’s needs
Wide product range
Good quality products/services provided
Long opening hours
Delivery service (if possible)
Factors which contribute to poor customer service
Do not lean on counter/look lazy
Do not stay on the phone or chat with others while the customer is in the vicinity
Do not eat around the customer
Do not tell customer your life story
Do not be too aggressive with the customer, know when to back down and reapproach later
Do not redirect the customer to other members of staff as this could make them frustrated
Gains of good customer service
Increase in sales
Betters organisation’s reputation
Retain/attain customers
Retain/attain staff
Increase in voluntary job application
Positive word-of-mouth
Consequences of poor customer service
Low number of customers
Stress
Attrition – Employees leave the organisation
Low sales
Decrease in organisation’s reputation
High levels of complaints
Unhappy staff
Bad atmosphere within the organisation
Conflict
Effect on profits
Policies requiring exaggerated politeness, loosely referred to as ‘robot-talk’
