Sometimes it is just a few helpful words or a smile but it can make the difference between an irate shopper and a loyal customer - and more importantly, between profits and losses.
From luxury boutiques to corner fruit markets to seven-star hotels, customer service is a key component of a person's experience in the UAE.
And as people become more wary about spending, businesses should be polishing their people skills to edge out the competition, says TB McClelland, the president and chief executive of The Luxury Marketing Council in the Middle East.
"The companies that go on the offensive and get their people trained, and use this opportunity to spruce up stores or hotels, will position themselves better when the economy comes back," he says.
Unfortunately, the quality of customer dealings with store and hotel staff, including in the UAE, is getting worse, according to a recent survey by the UK-based training and development consultants Joshua Group.
When rating different aspects of customer service, such as taking complaints seriously, the ratings were roughly at the same mediocre levels as last year - about average - or had dropped, says Ruth Field, the vice president of Joshua Group.
"Nobody really wants to see that decline," she says. "Given the marketplace as it is, really, everybody should be working hard."
According to the 583 active customers surveyed between December last year and last month, the biggest shortfalls were in the quality of staff behaviour, such as politeness and knowledge, and consistency of service and information between different staff members, she says.
"Customers are quite astute. Dubai is quite expensive for everything, such as eating out. And along with that, Dubai has to provide an increased level of service, not decreased."
Part of the problem is that growth has outpaced the available staff resources, says Majid al Ghurair, the chairman of the Dubai Shopping Malls Group and president of BurJuman shopping centre.
For example, for a new shopping centre the size of Dubai Mall, with 800 stores and another 400 scheduled to open, it is difficult to recruit enough staff, let alone those who have extensive customer service experience, Mr al Ghurair says.
But for luxury brands, the quality of staff can affect the brand.
"We are always in a debate with our retailers that you cannot bring a high-end brand and put a salesperson who doesn't understand the brand itself," he says.
"How are you going to convince that client to buy that US$2,000 (Dh7,346) or $3,000 suit if you don't have the knowledge about the product itself?"
People need to be trained and given time to understand the business, but that can take a year or two, Mr al Ghurair says. "Because the growth was so high, a lot of companies didn't have enough time to train and catch up with the growth they had. But now they have the time, and I think they have to focus very much on that area because this is what is going to make the difference."
Keith Flanagan, the general manager of Al Ghurair Retail, which manages brands such as Springfield and Triumph, says his company is taking this approach.
"I'm spending more money on training than I ever have," he says.
On the whole, however, that is not the strategy adopted by many companies in the UAE.
"It's a transient workforce and, by and large, companies here don't want to train their people," says Mr McClelland.
It is a misguided philosophy, he says, because studies have shown that exceptional customer service can increase a bottom line significantly.
According to research by the US consulting firm Bain and Company, the average company loses between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its customers each year, with 84 per cent of those citing shoddy service.
But training can only help so much to prepare a person when dealing with the diverse nationalities and their varying languages and expectations, says Mr Flanagan.
"There are 70 or 80 different nationalities here," he says. "How could you possibly comprehend what each of those people need?"
A further difficulty is that as economies improve in countries where English is commonly spoken, such as India and the Philippines, more people are staying to work at home rather than take jobs in the Gulf, says Mr McClelland.
This further shrinks the pool of job candidates who can speak English fluently.
Despite all these factors, some retailers, hotels and restaurants, such as the Ritz-Carlton, deliver a superb experience to their customers and guests, Mr McClelland says.
Many have become accustomed to mediocre service, he says, but that presents an opportunity for retailers to step up their game.
"If a brand can excel at customer service, that almost shocks people. And in this environment, it's important that when the customer walks through the door, you gain their loyalty and keep it."
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
SERIES SCHEDULE
First Test, Galle International Stadium
July 26-30
Second Test, Sinhalese Sports Club Ground
August 3-7
Third Test, Pallekele International Stadium
August 12-16
First ODI, Rangiri Dambulla Stadium
August 20
Second ODI, Pallekele International Stadium
August 24
Third ODI, Pallekele International Stadium
August 27
Fourth ODI, R Premadasa Stadium
August 31
Fifth ODI, R Premadasa Stadium
September 3
T20, R Premadasa Stadium
September 6
$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
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Fight card
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- Kem Ljungquist (Denmark) beat Mourad Omar (Egypt) TKO
- Michael Lawal (UK) beat Tamas Kozma (Hungary) KO
- Zuhayr Al Qahtani (Saudi Arabia) beat Mohammed Mahmoud (UK) POINTS
- Darren Surtees (UK) beat Kane Baker (UK) KO
- Chris Eubank Jr (UK) beat JJ McDonagh (Ireland) TKO
- Callum Smith (UK) beat George Groves (UK) KO
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ric%20Roman%20Waugh%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EGerard%20Butler%2C%20Navid%20Negahban%2C%20Ali%20Fazal%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Dubai Rugby Sevens
November 30, December 1-2
International Vets
Christina Noble Children’s Foundation fixtures
Thursday, November 30:
10.20am, Pitch 3, v 100 World Legends Project
1.20pm, Pitch 4, v Malta Marauders
Friday, December 1:
9am, Pitch 4, v SBA Pirates
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Eco%20Way%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20December%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ivan%20Kroshnyi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Electric%20vehicles%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Bootstrapped%20with%20undisclosed%20funding.%20Looking%20to%20raise%20funds%20from%20outside%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
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Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
UNSC Elections 2022-23
Seats open:
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Countries so far running:
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
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Director: Jessica M Thompson
Starring: Stephanie Beatriz, Michael Stahl-David
Three stars
MATCH INFO
Asian Champions League, last 16, first leg:
Al Ain 2 Al Duhail 4
Second leg:
Tuesday, Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha. Kick off 7.30pm
MATCH INFO
Chelsea 1 (Hudson-Odoi 90 1')
Manchester City 3 (Gundogan 18', Foden 21', De Bruyne 34')
Man of the match: Ilkay Gundogan (Man City)
The%20stats%20and%20facts
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Company%20profile
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Euro 2020
Group A: Italy, Switzerland, Wales, Turkey
Group B: Belgium, Russia, Denmark, Finland
Group C: Netherlands, Ukraine, Austria,
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Group D: England, Croatia, Czech Republic,
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Group E: Spain, Poland, Sweden,
N.Ireland/Bosnia/Slovakia/Ireland
Group F: Germany, France, Portugal,
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The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 650hp at 6,750rpm
Torque: 800Nm from 2,500-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 11.12L/100km
Price: From Dh796,600
On sale: now
SPEC SHEET
Display: 10.9" Liquid Retina IPS, 2360 x 1640, 264ppi, wide colour, True Tone, Apple Pencil support
Chip: Apple M1, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 64/256GB storage; 8GB RAM
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, Smart HDR
Video: 4K @ 25/25/30/60fps, full HD @ 25/30/60fps, slo-mo @ 120/240fps
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR, Centre Stage; full HD @ 25/30/60fps
Audio: Stereo speakers
Biometrics: Touch ID
I/O: USB-C, smart connector (for folio/keyboard)
Battery: Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi; up to 9 hours on cellular
Finish: Space grey, starlight, pink, purple, blue
Price: Wi-Fi – Dh2,499 (64GB) / Dh3,099 (256GB); cellular – Dh3,099 (64GB) / Dh3,699 (256GB)
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
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UAE'S%20YOUNG%20GUNS
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