Shop4training.com blog

I had hoped with all the focus on the economy that one of the real benefits would be an improvement in customer service levels in Ireland.

Now, I may not be the best judge of service, as I spend a disproportionate amount of time working these days, so my days out consist mostly of meetings in Hotel lobbies and coffee shops across the Ireland of Ireland.   Last week was a great week; I fitted in a trip to Cork to meet some fantastic trainers and people that are going to be a vital part of Shop4Training in the future. After 5 hours of driving and thinking I arrived in Cork.  

I have never driven to Cork City before, so it was a little new to me.

I haven’t bought a GPS System yet, and hard as I try, I am a hopeless map reader.

My navigational and map reading skills only get worse when mixed with peak hour traffic, and I arrived in Cork City at 5.30 just as everyone was leaving work.

I needed to head in the direction of the new Jury’s City Centre Hotel as I had an early morning meeting there, so wanted to find a B&B in the area.   I pulled over to a parking space and called the Jury’s City Centre hotel. Now it’s a 4 star hotel. The phone was answered promptly by a male receptionist.  I never got his name, but asked him if he could give me an idea of the direction I should head in to get to the Hotel (I had explained exactly where I was which happened to be, just outside the other Jury’s).  

After a few huffs and puffs, a few very unhelpful directions (that only a person who knew their way around Cork would understand), I decided he must be very busy, so I didn’t need to take up anymore of his time. I thought that now that I had a vague idea of where I was heading, I could ask someone passing by.

Just as I reflected on his rather unhelpful attitude it got worse … the receptionist (the same man) who is paid by Jury’s to answer the phone, deal with tourists and provide service to customers, said “ but don’t bother coming as we don’t have any room tonight” !

Don’t Bother…. Wow was I taken aback. Not once during our brief conversation did he ask me who I was, if I had a booking or if he could help me at all. So he could have lost Jury’s a large booking, or perhaps Jury’s is in the very enviable position that the Cork City Hotel is just booked up for years to come. Well I wouldn’t rush to stay there now.   

I think with a refresher customer service training course wouldn’t go amiss too.   

I did attend a meeting in the Hotel the next day and stayed on for a while to have coffee and meet a few more people, and I must point out that the bar staff where very friendly, and the coffee was good.    I happened to have isolated a specific event, but I have encountered so many occasions lately where service has been lacking. When speaking to colleagues from all walks of life their complaints about service are all similar, from calls never being returned, people defending their staff when you do make a complaint (in other words it must be us) to people being ripped off.   So please if Shop4Training is lacking when it comes to providing you with a service, please let us know, it’s not always easy to swallow, but I promise that we will do our best to fix it.  

My tip for the day is to make it easy for your customers to complain, it gives you the chance to fix the problem, because believe me if they can’t tell you, they will certainly tell someone else.    

Tell us about any of your negative and Positive service experiences.