i am still waiting for a reply from the hotel i will be staying at. its been 2 weeks now, i gave it 2 weeks then sent it again now its been almost 1 week and still nothing.will have to call on the phone i guess. scooby

Poor customer service, no matter where, is always a bummer. I guess if I was a grouch, I could well understand how some of the people in "customer-service" positions feel. I don't know the wage scales in the Virgin Islands, but if I was a minimum-wage desk clerk, I might have a little resentment towards someone who was paying more for ONE NIGHT in a classy resort than I took home in a WEEK, especially if the tourist had an "attitude". Ideally, "customer-service" employees ought to be always cheerful and friendly...but shouldn't everyone? I'm the Daily Rental Manager at a Ford dealer, and I talk with LOTS of grounchy customers . Some of them have the same "attitude", which is "OK, peon employee, I drive a $45,000 Lincoln navigator, therefore I'm special and you need to kiss my butt!". I give'em a big smile instead. I'm not a mathematician, but I know that some people expect "deference" to increase in direct proportion to the price of a good or service, and that sets them up for disappointment. My advice? if you see someone without a smile, give 'em one of yours! Or if you meet a total jerk, ask them with a BIG smile..."pardon me, but who crapped in YOUR cornflakes this morning"? I've done that a few times (with a smile and in a friendly tone of voice)...and nobody's beat me up yet!

Hello Scooby,

If you aren't getting through by e-mail, definately call. Some businesses here don't use e-mail very much or at all even when they have a website and e-mail set up.

--Islander

I'll add one small note to this thread which I bet is gonna grow- I've sent several emails to different businesses in STJ to get more info on boat charters and various services for our return trip in November, including the National Park Service and Maho Bay and I think I'm batting about 20% return on my (friendly) emails. At this point I've stopped sending email inquiries because I assume they'll be ignored. I take this as a sign of poor customer service and have to assume that no one cares enough to respond to me= maybe they don't care about good service period??

The attitude could be due to 'inevitable supply' syndrome and unfortunately one sees it more and more often in many walks of life. The thought process is "regardless of how I treat you, someone will inevitably take your place so why change?" The bell curve has shifted toward poor service, leaving a wide gap between poor and superior. We grow to accept it at certain levels and are 'pleasantly surprised' when we come across excellent service making sure to continue patronizing that firm.

Eventually, the customers stop coming and people wonder why. Superior service should be the goal, excellent service should be the norm...in the USVI or anywhere else.

I've observed that too, Chris, especially in "big city" envoirnments. I have to be at work at 7am, and although I only live 5 minutes from work, part of the drive is on a 4-lane limited-access highway. There's a stop light at the intersection where I turn on to the highway. Almost every morning at 6:45 am, someone will run the red light. Why? Because it's not convenient for them to stop. Like my wife told me the other day, it seems that "common courtesy", isn't that common anymore!

I've worked in some sort of customer service job since I was 14 yrs old. I pride myself on not being rude to people. If I've had a bad day, I just try to lay low as much as I can knowing that I'm walking a thin line. That being said, the only time I allow myself to be a wee bit rude is when someone was rude or disrespectful to me. If I'm going out of my way to provide good service, I don't put up with disrespect.

You are all right about the lack of customer service in general these days. Now, I'm so surprised when someone is actually helpful and nice that I praise them up and down and thank them wholeheartedly for offering me great customer service.

A lot of the problem stems from being overworked, a lot from apathy and a lot from being underpaid. It's unfortunate that customer service jobs are crappy for the employee in terms of pay and respect. I'd think companies would invest in training and pay since customer service is the point-of-contact for most businesses. A crappy meal isn't as crappy when the waitress is great and a crappy hotel isn't as crappy when the staff is there to help when you need it.

karrieb: A point related to Andy's question about Wi-Fi... The Virgin Islands are not-in general- as technologically advanced as many places in the continental US. There are businesses here who know that they should have a web presence, e-mail etc., but at heart they really don't know how, their employees don't know how, or they are hippies stuck in the good-ole-days and can't get past 8 track tape players. They may have good service in person or on the phone, but just are not internet savvy.

As an aside, we were talking this morning about telephone etiquette in the VI. Most places, if you call for someone, you will be told, "He isn't here, call back." No message, no idea of when, etc. The sense of time and urgency here is different from that which you may be accustomed.

Wi-Fi access is availalbe at Beans, Bytes, and Websites in town in Royal Dane Mall. I think it's $.10 a minute using your laptop. Some of the other Internet Cafes may also have it, but I'm sure BBW does.

Re: Customer Service. It's the business owner/manager who should set the service standards/requirements for the business. I, too, have had the same phone experiences you've had, and I wonder if the owner/manager trained their employees and required that they work at a certain standard. I used to do employee training in the States, and I was extremely surprised to hear many college educated, experienced workers answering the phone, "hello." No name of the business, no identifying themselves, no "how may I help you." It seems managers ASSUME that if an employee is of a certain age or education level, that they instinctively know how to give service - NOT! It's all about training and holding the employee accountable. The disservice has applied to both local and Yankee-owned businesses, so I don't think it's a local thing. I think it stems from lack of awareness, lack of training, and the pressures that come from focusing on marketing and sales instead of service.

I also think you get the type of service you demand. I, too, went into Cuzzins, and they looked at me instead of asking if they could help me. So, I just went to the bartender and asked what I wanted to know. He was very friendly after I approached him, but just as in the States, a diner alone isn't really considered an asset. I seldom sit back and let poor service stand in the way of my having an enjoyable meal - I try to politely and calmly ask for whatever it is I want, and most times the attitude quickly changes.

Let's all enjoy ourselves wherever we may be.

Karen

hi islander, thanks for the note. i will have to call them, i did talk to them once by email and they had me down as not prepaid, and my thing is prepaid on my credit card already. so i was relaying that back to them. but seems no one is home lol. i will have to call. no biggy got lots of time. and copies of the statement just in case.lol anyway i agree that being layed back island style is good for everyone in this world today. and all should treat people how they want to be treated. a smile goes along way. scooby

I have to share a story of my recent visit. We decided to stop into KFC for lunch. Of course there was a long line that took about 20 minutes to get through. A local lady behind my husband and I was getting irritated by the service, and complained to the manager. The manager told her, if you don't like it go somewhere else. Needless to say since my husband and I own several retail businesses, our eyes about popped out. Because on the mainland that would never fly, the lady would have left and gone to the place next door. Since as a consumer you really don't have many choices on the island.

Since I have been to STT several times I expected the lack of customer service. So in general it didn't get to me so much. I have become accustomed to the lack of greeting, smiles, slow pace, etc. The only time I was irritated was at Cuzzins. It is such a cute place with great food, and it is a shame the service is the worst I received on STT. My main problem centered around a soda. I ended up having to go to the bar and get my own after asking my waiter twice. Our table was only one of three he had.

I agree that many places are simply not internet/e-mail savvy, and don't even think about voice mail. As Ric says on a different thread, "Welcome to the 1950's" and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I also agree that managers need to train employees better (up here too!!) and I know I've been guilty in the past of assuming a certain level of competence comes with age/experience/education.

Natalie's story made me think of the time I was standing in line to get tickets to a popular production at the Metropolitan Opera. Now, at the time I was the box office manager for a medium sized opera company, so I had a fair amount of experience in that area. The gentleman (and I'll use that term loosely) in front of me was giving the person in the box office a hard time and arguing. The BO person suddenly slammed the window shut on the "gentleman", waited about 30 seconds, then opened another window and announced "I'll take you ma'am". I swear, at that moment I was positively envious of the position that BO person could take because he KNEW that someone else would buy those tickets. I don't condone the behavior, but for a moment I sure wished I could do the same thing to some of my PITAs (pains in the...).

One of the service advisors at our Ford dealership said it best. A customer was in his face, giving him a REAL hard time about something that wasn't his fault. The service advisor calmly but firmly interrupted the conversation and told the highly-po'd customer.."Sir, right now there are TWO people interested in fixing your car..and ONE of them is rapidly loosing interest!"

I really appreciate the comments on here and was not attempting to imply that Stateside you do not encounter various levels or various degrees of service.I was just trying to point out that in a tourist enviorn where you recieve vistors the assumption should not be made well ''you are in the islands'' so you can wait around,till I get to you''I grew up on St Thomas in the retail business.Does anyone remember the Peppermint Stick?.Every visit home I am just more and more amazed it seems for every step foward we take,we seems at times and in certain areas we take 2 steps back.I do not think that we should take the many tourists,visitors to the island for granted as there is stiff compition for dollars on other islands,ports,cruise ship locations etc.

We are planning on arriving the 3rd of sept and I have to say, I have had wonderful luck with most all of the communication needed throughtout the island.

My husband and I have been in touch with multiple dive shops via email (which if they don't email, I don't deal with them...hate talking on the phone). Of the 13 emails I sent to various dive shops, I have received 13 initial replies and multiple follow ups.

I did have a heck of a time with getting a car rental but it was state side and they had little control. Island side, the rates sucked compared to the net. But then again, I find that just going from one state to another and can deal with it.

Of all the communication we have had, which has been quite a bit due to our desire to scuba dive through just about every dive shop, I rate this much better than St. Louis customer service 🙂

To each their own and I sure hope my visit proves all your's wrong! Hate to be pissed on vacation!

Trayc

These are interesting posts. Maybe the owner(s) of Cuzzins will hear about some of these complaints and take action to address them. Canoebase, you make some excellent points and I agree with most of what you said. But if you meant to suggest that a minimum wage desk clerk is justified in feeling some resentment toward a customer who is paying more for a room than he or she makes in a week, then I beg to differ. First, income differences are at least in part a function of one's age and number of years in the work force. Most of us early in our work careers earned a minimum wage, and the fact that we were then serving customers who had many more years in the work force (and hence could afford items we could not) should hardly be a cause for envy or resentment. Second, the kind of resentment you are describing would not be limited to minimum wage earners. A worker in a Hylas Yacht manufacturing plant who made $75,000 a year could experience the same kind of resentment toward a customer who was able to plunk down $800,000 for a yacht. But resentment in this situation is really pointless, because the worker's job depends heavily on the willingness of people wealthier than him to buy the product he is paid to manufacture.

I think you hit the nail on the head, Stefan...but a LOT of workers don't "get it". The worker is there to serve the customer, no matter whether the customer is buying a sandwich, a Ford, or a mega yacht.The customer is doing the business a favor by patronizing it, not the other way around. What I personally think is ill-advised is in many cases, the servers at restaraunts, the desk clerks at hotels, the customer service personnel are the FRONT-LINE employees, the ones that the customers deal with, and ultimately, what influences the customer's opinion about the business. And they are the lowest paid. What's even worse, frequently they aren't even instructed in customer-service skills. That's a classic example of a manager/owner being "penny-wise and pound foolish". I'm going to be on STJ except for the last day when I fly out, I'll have to stop by "Cuzzins" and see if they'll serve me!