I had an appointment for 4 pm with a service provider and when I arrived there, he wasn’t there. Even though, I had called in the morning to reconfirm the appointment, this man just didn’t respect the appointment. He didn’t leave any message; didn’t call me to inform me of the change of the program. Apparently, he forgot about it meaning he didn’t take serious his own word.

I am writing about this because this is not the first time I have experienced such unmannered habits. It is such a shame that it is becoming difficult to trust people’s words these days. It just looks as if people do not give any importance to their promises.

Customer service means keeping promises. Your promises to build trust and understanding and create great customer loyalty.

As customers, we all evaluate a company based on how well they respect their promises. It is said that "a promise is a debt” and here are four reasons for keeping your promises:

Keeping promises is a sign of courtesy and respect
Courtesy as we have described before is a sign of respect towards others.

Always, remember that when you book and appointment with someone, the other person adapts his program on your appointment.

If for one reason or the other, a last minute unplanned event prevents you from honouring your engagement; please call to inform before. Don’t just make the person come just to see that you are unavailable. If you have to be late for 10 or 15 minute, please call as well to inform. Don’t assume that 15 minutes late is not too serious. As we said last week, time is money even in Rwanda.

Keeping promises means knowing your company promises.
If you tell your customers that your offices are opened from 7.30 till 5PM non-stop, you need to respect that. Make sure that during lunch period, there is always someone there to serve your customers.

The last time I went to this office at 1 pm, I had to wait for one good hour before the service person came back. There was no whatsoever information written on their lunch hours services.

The writer is a customer care consultant.

She can be reached at sandra.idossou@sheiconsulting.com