QUALITY OF SERVICE IN CHILE - The Role of Foreign Companies

Over the past three weeks, a debate about the quality (or lack thereof) of service provided by Chilean corporations has taken a substantial amount of

space in the letters section of El Mercurio ("the only newspaper which

matters in Chile"). The debate was sparked by a February 6 letter from a

foreign lawyer resident in the country, and attracted many responses,

nearly all of them in agreement. For once, though it is a subject that

readers know is close to my heart, I have hitherto played the role of

bemused observer. It is time to enter the fray.

THE LETTER To put the subject into perspective, here is my translation of

the February 6 letter signed by Felipe Velasquez Fernandez, describing

himself as a "Corporate consulting Lawyer". I apologise for those resident

in Chile who have already read it.

"Sir,

I am a foreigner who has been living in Chile for over a year. Following

various months of actively visiting shops, cinemas, restaurants and

department stores, I have arrived at the conclusion that what I initially

thought was the exception is unfortunately the rule : we are talking about

the dismal quality of customer service in Santiago.

Whether it is a clothes chop, a bookshop, a department store chain, an ice

cream parlour or a restaurant : for the service staff, the entrance of a

client in their establishment looks more like a declaration of war than an

attempt at buying or selling.. Sales staff look aggrieved when an

impertinent intruder comes in to interrupt their calm. Without

exaggerating, I can say that only in a very few shops, in the time I have

been here, those who worked there took the trouble to answer my greetings.

The "good morning" or "good afternoon" are not acknowledged by those

supposedly there to serve the customer. Some react by a sort of angry

grunt. Others simply prefer not to strain their vocal chords answering

those they do not know.

It looks as if sales staff assume that they are doing the customer a favour

by serving him. They think their business grows by inertia, and not through

satisfied customers . Mistreating customers is alarming in this city. It

looks as if many of those people come to work as if to a torture camp.

Their boredom is visible on their faces, and in their general attitude.

Chile is admirable in many ways. Its economic development is fantastic. But

the real business of the future is for those companies who come to Chile

and teach what is customer service. In that, this beautiful country is in

deficit. "

POINTS RAISED AND NOT RAISED IN THE LETTER On the basis of my own widely

commented analysis, observations and experiences, and the public reactions

to the letter in the paper, there are several points to note. There is

neither character or culture of service in Chile. The staff interfacing

with the public poorly trained, poorly paid, poorly treated, poorly

motivated and kept uninformed of corporate matters. Contrary to what the

writer says, customer satisfaction is not the motor of corporate growth,

but greed, secret charges and illegal usury interest rates which both the

Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance refuse to punish.

It is also strange that Mr. Velasquez does not mention the appalling levels

of customer service by banks and utilities. I would suspect that he has

many minions who take care of his formalities for him, and he lives in some

sort of serviced apartment where he does not need to worry about paying

bills. Some readers of El Mercurio have suggested that he is probably

Spanish, which appears very likely.

If he is Spanish, he should think twice before throwing the first stone, as

we should remember that the largest chunk of banking, electricity, water,

telecommunications and toll roads is in the hands of Spanish firms. We are

talking (just citing my own recent experiences in February) about Banco

Santander sending you a letter profusely advising you of the new increased

limit on your credit card, but forgetting to advise of it the authorisation

agency, which means that your wife gets her expense refused in the middle

of Argentine Patagonia. We are talking (again) of Telefonica, who managed

to unilaterally change our main phone line to a card-operated one "because

a girl in Santiago put in the wrong area code", and then refusing to talk

to me at their main Viña office ("you have to handle all business on the

phone").

FOREIGN EXAMPLES Just being a foreign company does not guarantee good

service. Similarly, some purely Chilean owned corporations (such as Lan

Chile) can provide good service if they put their minds to it. Shops and

department stores may indeed serve you as Mr. Velasquez says, but

supermarket groups, all Chilean owned, as well as the same-ownership

do-it-yourself stores, are rather good. There is also a part of Chile which

works rather well : the government. Procedures and service at most

government offices (identity papers, tax matters, judicial procedures) have

been speeded up beyond recognition, and the staff are more helpful than in

the private sector.

Anyway, if you do not provide good service at home (as is the case of

Spanish companies), there is no reason why you should do so in your foreign

holdings. If you run the place from a regional office in Miami staffed by

Cubans more interested in getting their former homeland back to the dark

ages of Batista rather than answer your complaints, it is not going to work

either. If you pass-on your operation to a franchise, or in any case run it

with Chilean staff trained the Chilean way (a 2 week training seminar in

Milwaukee is not going to deprogram them from three generations of genetic

exploitation of the customer), do not expect miracles. Let us not limit the

criticism to the Spaniards (though they have a huge can to carry). Let us

mention the (now departed) British company who provided us with water

services in Viña after the company was 2privatised". An absentee Chilean

manager in Santiago and a new regional executive changing each three months

and sitting in the English countryside did not help. The Dutch-owned ING

group whose offices in Viña and Valparaiso never have any of the forms

required to pay-in the pension contributions of your maid ("head office

does not send us any"). Italian-owned ENTEL has a fully staffed office at

the airport. but neither it nor the three newspaper stands in various parts

of the building ever stock any prepayment cards for mobile phones ("head

office does not send us any").

I agree with Mr Velasquez. There is a need for foreign expertise in

customer service, but it is an uphill struggle against a counter-culture,

and you have to have the expertise in the first case. We Levantines come

from a part of the world where personal service is an art, but bad

behaviour is very frowned upon and has to be washed in blood. It is not for

nothing that the Hamurrabi code comes from these parts. Full marks for the

grieving father and husband from the Urals, who apparently did-in the

Danish air traffic controller working for a private company in Switzerland

in July 2002, whose mistake caused the crash of an airliner full of

children going on holiday. You cannot wait eternally for judges, who

finally end-up white washing the culprits of many deaths (such as the fire

in the Alps tunnel), or who put journalists and other whistle-blowers in

jail for revealing that public figures took part in raping and murdering

eight-year old girls...