Advice in dealing with Mauritian companies please...

Hahaha... Welcome to Mauritius... Where customer service is non existant.
You always have the feeling like they don't want to work

Yes!!!!! so correct!

I would like just customer BASICS never mind Customer SERVICE!!!

Allow me to tell you a story. Some time ago we went to this factory that manufactures boxes and asked for a quotation for several items. We were assured we would get it by e-mail. Unfortunately I lost their business card and forgot what was their name, and since in Mauritius almost nobody has an internet site, we had to go down there to check out what happened to sending a quotation. After a month and a half we went to that place. We arrived at 12:15. Now I'm stating the exact time for a reason since in Mauritius almost everybody goes to lunch at noon. The lady with whom we spoke was at her desk together with 2 other ladies. I asked her what happened with our quote and why do we have to wait such a long time for this, and if this is normal cause it feels like they don't want to work. The lady got all aggressive, said she wouldn't talk to me since I'm not nice (I probably wasn't at that time) and that she needs to go to lunch and we're keeping her from having lunch. Eventually she even started to cry.
We were promised again to receive a quote by e-mail.
2 weeks later (meaning 2 months since our original visit) we finally received the quotation, but it was sent from her boss e-mail. We also noticed that the minimum order changed suddenly from 300 to 1000. We asked what happened since when we first came to visit them minimum was 300 and now it's 1000. The boss answered us that yes, he decided it's now 1000 for minimum order.

So as you can see, worldwide customer is always right, in Mauritius customer is always wrong!

Dear gurj,

It looks like you're addressing domestic SME's which indeed most of them have not yet implemented sound phone customer services procedures. Something that uses to work out is to ask to speak directly to the business owner since the filters (reception, admin) are not usually trained on their product offering nor customer care basics (like following up on a call/request).

I suspect you're not based in Mauritius? The best would be to pay them a physical visit indeed

Good luck anyway

How about this true story!
My husband has a speech impairment due to a stroke. He was shouted at for being slow to give his phone number The cashier at the Mauritius Telecom office in Cascavelle screamed at him 3 times.
I went to see them  few days later to find out if something had been done about that member of staff. Of course nothing was done and the woman is still there
One would get an instant dismissal from their job in the UK.
The businesses with good reputation stand out like a sore thumb!
We employed TDA Consult in La Preneuse in the construction of our house, without them we would not have had such a fantastic,smooth and efficient service.
I personally do not know how some businesses survive in Mauritius.Why so many people invest in that country?

Dear chandraw,

Whereas I understand you went through an unpleasant situation at Mauritius Telecom shop please realize that I once got yelled at also while at St Pancras ticket counter but it never came up to my mind not to do business with British because of an isolated incident with a private (railway) company.

You seem to have "invested" yourself in a charming house in Mauritius hence would you mind elaborating a bit further your claim "Why so many people invest in that country?"...?

Cheers

I feel the conflict lies in that the Mauritian government appears to us expats to want to promote Mauritius as an international business player. Without BASIC international customer service standards it is not being realised how difficult this will be.

I am in Mauritius and have found much the same response when going in person. And there lies the quandry; in other countries there is no need to go in person, as a phonecall or email will suffice and will save time and money so one can concentrate on ones own business.

MRU broker: yes you can get bad service anywhere in the world....I know for a fact though in the UK there are complaints procedures and all complaints are taken very seriously. The company reputation is very much at stake. This maintains the employee keeps up company standards and therefore there is little bad service. I think as expats thats is why we are confused that small businesses can continue in Mauritius. Chandraw must've been so upset at the treatment of her husband and was not even given an apology - In the UK ( firstly I doubt it would happen to that level but lets say it did) The customer would receive an immediate apology, staff member would be reprimanded even possibly leading to remedial action/ dismissal.

I hope that makes the point clearer and we can discuss further without getting too personal. I am enjoying Mauritius but you need a strong constitution to do business here - even some simple things become frustrating and that was the reason for opening up this discussion.

hi.

"Nu pays bien malade". is this the slogan?

LOL i perfectly agree with every body here.

Just one thing, i think that demands a lot: I phone a company. It takes a while to get the right person, and a while to get him/her to understand the exact needs. And sometimes if we are lucky, another while, to get a reply, and most of the times Never get replies.


One of the famous banks in mauritius. My experience. I phoned to ask who is the person responsible of translations: i asked the same questions to those guys:

1. I called the bank.
2. I called my branch manager.
3. I called the assistant Branch manager(branch manager absent)
4. I called my company accounts person
5. I mailed all of them.
6. I recalled them yesterday.

The request was at 4th April. Today, not answered. And we're definitely not in a 'Solutions phase'; we are in an enquiry state.

And guess what? The Branch Bank assistant said to me, in person.

"I know nothing of all these; but i will enquire. Leave your phone number....."

HAHA! In computing we had this term "Denial of service.."!!!


What have i to do? I don't know...

I think there should be an association that deals with these or a kind of website for complaints...


Its a kind of total expenditure, over phone, meeting the persons, talking to them, all i did. No answer to a simple question.

And its as simple as that: MR XYZ does it. Please call him. OR call the department in question.


Best regards
Night Fox.

What most people seem to forget, that a lot is lost in translation. Whilst English may be the "official language" it is still a 2nd language to most Mauritians. It gets even worse, when an expat, whose 1st language, is not English,makes enquiries at a bank, service provider etc etc. That's whe it really gets lost in translation. best way to handle important queries, is to get a Mauritian that you work with either to go with you, or make the call on yr behalf

Guys,

You should not forget we're not in Europe. As I said domestic SME's might not have adopted international standards on Customer Service probably because small local clients are not demanding such standards. I can assure you that any SME or large corporation focused on export or international clients do have such strong Customer Service procedures in place, it is just a simple matter of internal procedures being fitted to customer's usages and needs.

As an example you will notice that locals are used to queue up for hours at the Post Office, MT shops, banks, etc. in order to execute basic tasks which could be easily done via phone or web... You won't see them complaining about it, they've just been used to do so since ever... 

We start to witness some first level of Customer Services in domestic industry sectors where competition is more fierce such as specific banks, a few of them have adopted some fair level of Customer Service, especially the corporate and private banking divisions... Just give them some time, show some patience and above all do not hesitate to propose them in a politely and constructive way to implement such standards if you feel so...

As for what MT concerns please keep in mind that this is a para-statal company having a monopoly position, do not be misguided by their Orange brand and do not expect them to put client's needs first, they're in a very comfortable position and customers have not much choices...

Hi guys!

Am totally happy to hear that everyone sees that there is a problem:

Still, its asking a question; that ought to get a reply.

And the problem is solved. I believe we all have questions, and while we enquire it takes a lot of time, and waste energy, waste productivity.

We may not be like the other countries; But a question asked, is a question asked; There is only 3 possibilities, in answering:

  `1. Yes, its like this..........
   2. No, i'm afraid we don't do this.......
   3. Please give me some time, i enquire and get back to you.....(and he gets back to his client)

  its a simple code of ethics

  I believe we don't need training to do as above replies; I believe we don't need to be super skilled staffs, or over-graduate, or any other quality types.

  Its just a simple code of ethics in life. Can you answer the question asked to you? I do that, for my company.

Its a culture, we'll change; but years will follow.

best regards
nightfox

Hi,

I am a mauritian business consultant.
Have you any difficulties in dealing with Mauritian companies ?
I can handle this for you.
Please send me your requests and I will advise and see what I can do for you.

Best regards

I arrived here in paradise, and then i contacted orange to instal MyTi internet and tv , they arrived and started installing, putting wires over my curtains , when i asked , what are you doing, they told it was not their duty  to properly install the wires. Then they pretended that the tv signal had a problem and if the tv reception was no good , they could not leave my internet, orders from their supervisor, and they left, when we went back to orange a very nice lady told us to make a new request, we did and waited another 2 weeks, lo and behold , another 2 persons without an orange uniform arrived , they connected everything in 5 minutes, all the wiring was already in our house. What did they want a bribe? All I can say it leaves a bitter taste , and at the end who can you trust? Language is not the issue, I
speak french !

There is no post/active billboards for such complaints in mauritius? In scammers also, names of people who had taken money in advance, and not delivered their jobs?

i see famous sites like scam watch/scam guards; there ought to be a one for complaints!

Nightfox