Why I love doing business with the Government.....Not

I had a unique experience today.... I had to get money from the Government for services rendered. I waited in line for my cheque and efficiently received it, however I was shocked that it was not for the invoiced amount, apparently I have to pay stamp duty on all government cheques... Yes you have it, pay for the privilege of receiving payment of a invoice (in this case 50 cents). Now little old me.. wasn't going to take this so I asked to speak to someone to justify this and was politely told its stamp, everyone pays it. So I wanted to explanation why I should pay for the privilege of doing business with the government and could you investigate and either email the justification or telephone me with it....the lady looked at me as if I was mad and said "no you can phone me...Ahhhhh!!" Must be the Sensitised Public Private Sector inititive at work.

I now have the solution for the private sector, work out you invoice and add the stamp ad call it government surcharge.

Congratulations to the Dominica Association of Industry and Commerce and Mimi Piper for their excellent free workshop and to Abdellatiff (Ludwig) Oueniche the guest speaker, shame on all those who could of attended but chose not to.

Why doesn't anyone answer their emails

OK one thing that really irks me about Dominica is that so many people don't answer their emails. I think it is that people hope if they don't answer them the problem goes away. When the government or a business do not answer its emails or call you back on the telephone. If you don't respond promptly it tells your customers you think they are not important, you don't care about them and you cant manage customer relations. People that have not answered my emails:

I have just completed running a Customer Relations Workshop and all the attendees got the message.

Advice to all Dominican Businesses and the Government if you haven't got a policy on answering emails or you don't intend to use them a a tool for managing your customer relations don't have one.

Customer Relations Award goes to the taxi driver Eddie who works with Caribbean Sea View Apartments who picked up from Melville Hall a couple who were staying at the Apartments, then waited for them whilst they dealt with Liat about their lost luggage (there is a surprise....not), took them into town and arranged for a clothes shop to open so they could get some fresh clothing, then took them back to Mero, waited for them to change and then took them to the festival, the guests raved about how nice he was and what a good deal they got. Not bad for a guy who was only booked for a Airport pickup.

The Moral is: The extra bit makes the difference (he has had loads of work from the Guests over the weekend).