Bird’s Eye View

BIRDS EYE VIEWbyCarol Messenger

“It’s because of COVID you know”

Don't blame it on the lack of staff

Don't blame it on the profiteering

Don't blame it on the bad attitude

Blame it on the COVID

Are you like me, getting sick of everyone using the excuse, “It's because of COVID you know”, for their lack of service and general lack of interest.

Let's face it, so many businesses are supplying crap customer service and we all seem to accept it because it is prefaced with… it's because of COVID.

Australia Post is a prime example. Eight to 10 days to get a letter from Perth to Sydney. It would be quicker if I delivered it myself. 30 years ago, my husband and I used to bring the WA mail out of Sydney late on a Friday night and we would be back in Perth for Sunday night. Yes, we were two-up driving with a single trailer, but the delay ‘now’ is not with the transport sector, although many would like you to believe that.

The delay is because businesses have put off large numbers of staff and expect us the consumer to now accept their subpar service so that they can make more money whilst blaming everything on COVID.

My recent trackable letter sat for three days at Melbourne Post Office before moving one hour to the Post Office it was supposed to be at. My complaints fell on deaf ears. “We’re having big delay because of COVID,” I am told'. So I ask, “How is COVID affecting letter distribution?” The answer, “Well we can't have as many staff on so things are banking up.

Hang on a minute, isn’t the mail (for the most part) machine sorted? You can't argue with them, everyone is so ingrained with COVID that it is the ‘excuse for everything’.

Of the four calls I made to get quotes for a friend for furniture removal from Bateman Bay to Perth, only one answered the call, and it took them a week to get me a quote. “Well we're busy you know because of COVID,” they say. Of the other three, one never called back and the other two took up to four days. All I can say is, I am glad that you are busy now because, with your lousy customer service, you won't be for much longer.

I went to get a globe for a truck marker light. From memory, it was about $2.80. “Oh no you can't pay cash, we only take card payment 'because of COVID you know.”

No, I didn't know. Where is the COVID in WA and I thought ‘Cash was King’. On principle, I left and took my business elsewhere.

Every year, an old work organisation I was with has a reunion. We pay around $20 each and get a couple of platters of food, whilst we drink and chat. This year we are told, “Sorry, we can't do that because of COVID you know. We would now have to pay the wages for a dedicated person to stand there and put a sausage roll or a sandwich on a plate for us, even though

Of the four calls I made to get quotes for a friend for furniture removal from Bateman Bay to Perth, only one answered the call, and it took them a week to get me a quote

we have hand sanitised ourselves to within an inch of our lives - we cannot pick up a piece of food to put in our mouths. Mind you, we can lean on the bar, touch the furniture but not a piece of finger food.

I ‘do’ understand that the world has changed and that there is a ‘new’ normal. But if you want your business to survive then you have to remember that tiny little thing called ‘customer service’. Unless you are a monopoly, then your customers have a choice whether to put up with you or move to someone more customer-friendly. And we all know, once you have lost a customer it is the devil's own to get them back.

It's ‘not’ all about COVID you know'.It's about what you are prepared to do you look after and grow your customer base .