Customer C.A.R.E. by Dr Trilogy
Module
| sponsored by Federal-Mogul
Sixty Two – Real Customer C.A.R.E. Calamities #3
The third example of Customer C.A.R.E. Calamities is the Grand Prix D’or of customer
c.a.r.e. calamities. And it is not one incident, it is an ongoing saga, and an institution that
has managed to reach rock bottom on the customer c.a.r.e. scale. In actual fact, what
you are about to read will appear to be science fiction, because the behaviour, and
service levels of this lot, may sound unbelievable, and if the truth be told, what these
mutants (the most generous term I could bring myself to use) have managed to achieve
is beyond the pale, and beyond the twilight zone. I am talking about the South African
Post Office, or more accurately, Not the South African Post Office. Interestingly, this third
calamity follows SANRAL and Telkom in our parade of incompetent calamities, and all three
parastatals are living proof that businesses should not be run by government, nor have
any government involvement in any shape or form. Customer service comes from a profit
motive, and only private enterprise understands what exactly this means. Government equals
inefficiency, incompetence, lack of urgency, corruption and NO CUSTOMER C.A.R.E.
N
ow let us have a look at
this calamity creature
euphemistically known as the
Post Office.
The Post Office is a calamity for the
country as a whole, a calamity for
businesses, a calamity for individuals,
a calamity for government, and even
a calamity for foreigners, which I shall
explain later.
And if you are a publisher, such as
Litage Publishing, which publishes
aBr, the magazine in which this
series of articles are being serialised,
the Post Office is one monstrous
and major calamity, and as I write
this, publishing houses are closing
down because of the “out of body”
experience known as the Post Office.
Let me give you a little insight into
what I mean.
But the publishers soldier on, and
their subscribers accept late delivery
of their magazines.
As an African doctor once told me –
TAB. I had to ask what he meant, and
he explained succinctly, “That’s Africa,
Baby”.
So if your magazine arrives a week
late, or never arrives, TAB. We live
with TAB, and we put up with it,
because the weather is great.
However, when your magazines starts
to consistently arrive two, three, four
weeks late, or consistently never
arrives, then you have to draw a line,
even with your TAB philosophy.
Over the past two years, the Post
Office has managed to redefine TAB,
in its most extreme form.
Being a publisher in South Africa has
its challenges, but by far the biggest
challenge is the dysfunctional postal
system.
It all started in 2012, when Post Office
management managed to lose control
of its workforce, particularly the
casuals that they utilise on a contract
basis.
At the best of times the postal service
levels are shocking, not coming close
to what is regarded as acceptable in
most democracies.
The “leaders” of this motley lot of
casuals and full-time radicals appear
to be a virulent form of anarchists, and
their actions appear to be based on
| words in action
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some type of military training, as their
modus operandi has been, for the past
two years, to lay siege to mailing hubs
and sorting houses, which effectively
paralyses the entire postal system.
Thus, on at least three occasions these
past two years these radicals have
managed to delay the delivery of mail
and magazines for up to two months
at a time.
And recently, they exceeded their
quota, pushing the strike to three
months, and counting.
But whatever their agenda, the
management of the Post Office has
to take the blame, because if an
incident like this happens once, you are
obviously caught off guard; it happens
twice, you wonder why nothing was
learnt by management; but when it
happens thrice and more, management
is clearly incompetent – has no one
heard of contingency plans?
And obviously the problems at the Post
Office run deep – why not resolve this?
You’ve had two years!!!
And don’t you understand what the
classical definition of management is?
december 2014 / January 2015