As a Bahamian consumer (in The Bahamas), you get abused by businesses on a daily basis.
Sometimes you don't even realize when it happens. But when you do, you row, argue, fire off some cuss words so everyone can hear you, maybe call for the manager, kick up a fuss in the moment, but are you creating an environment for enduring change?
Do you make such a lasting impression in the few minutes you're disgruntled that a business has no choice but to develop a real customer service policy that is attentive to you, the consumer, and is not just for appearances or to meet a corporate requirement?
Do you make a difference for others by first standing up for your own rights once you know what they are?
The typical attitude of Bahamians is to sit back and accept whatever happens. We have a suffering culture. We get brainwashed into sacrificing our contentment and individual rights because if something happens to us it must be meant to be. We feel as though there is little or nothing we can do to change the way we're treated in so many ways in our own country, so we seldom, if ever, agitate for real change.
But as a consumer you have more power than you realize.
A business is in business to serve you. And that includes any business. Any organization that takes money from you and gives you a product or service in return for your hard-earned money is operating as a business and is doing it to serve you with the hopes that you will be satisfied enough to spend money with them again.
Yes, they bring you many of the things you need and maybe most of the things you want. But their reason for being is you.
Many businesses will say they are in business to make money. And good business sense does require a profit at the end of the day.
But if no one buys what businesses sell, then what are they in business for?
The reality is that they rely on you, the consumer, to buy what they sell.
So, they must determine with a great deal of accuracy if they can supply your needs or desires, and then set about trying to do that. But you determine whether they succeed or fail in this. And it all hinges on the quality of product(s) and service(s) they offer you.
And we're not talking about just flashing you a friendly smile as they ring up your selected items at the point of sale or traipsing around the store behind you while engaging in a psychological battle and small talk to coerce you into buying what they sell.
We're talking about real customer service. And real customer service goes beyond the smile and small talk; it's about making and keeping good relationships with consumers. And good relationships require good treatment, in both directions, in those relationships.
Evaluating your relationship
Would you get involved in any relationship where you knew or could already see that the other person only wants to boss you around or take advantage of you?
A business can't just sell you what it wants, however it wants, treat you how it wants, and be done with it. There is more to be considered in a business transaction before and after the exchange of money. And consumers are wiser when they know this.
Are you being sold a product or service that is of good quality?
Are you getting that product or service you paid for in a manner that suggests a business values your patronage and wants to keep you as a customer?
Are your needs being met every time you come into contact in the business-consumer relationship?
Do you and the business you patronize want to achieve the same end goals in your relationship?
Now there is always some element of persuasion involved in marketing a business, given its profit-earning focus, and companies will try hard to convince you why you should buy what they're selling.
But they should never aim to deceive you, boldly lie or misrepresent and not expect that you will give negative feedback at best or create substantial havoc at worst. No good or productive relationship would involve any of these things. And a productive relationship usually brings reward to both parties.
As a satisfied consumer, you want to reward a business, whether it's complimenting the chef, giving a good survey rating or leaving a generous tip. And you will not do any of these things unless you're pleased with the product and/or service you receive.
We know that tipping (gratuity) is something many Bahamians are familiar with. In fact, some Bahamians rely on these forced tips to feed their families, so they are quite important. The problem is that the people who rely on these tips often, like many other things people in our society seem to believe they're entitled to think that you have to give it regardless of the treatment they give you. And this is counterintuitive to the act of tipping, which is essentially a reward based on good service and good products you receive.
A business or its employees must know that if you were perfectly open to the prospect of giving a tip but are instead forced into paying a gratuity, you are probably going to give less or be less likely to give at all because of the fact that they've made you do it. Being pressured to tip also makes you more critical of the product or service you receive and changes your frame of mind for giving.
The biggest offenders
The worst possible offense by a company that charges gratuity, which not only changes your frame of mind for giving, but also for patronizing their establishment, is engaging in deceptive practices like concealing the percentage rate of gratuity charged by not disclosing it clearly on the list of services and products or on your receipt or labeling it vaguely as a general 'service charge'.
When it does this, a business is making it very unclear to you what it is you're paying for or if it's something you should or are required to pay at all.
A business that does this ultimately meets its demise in a free market economy, because the dynamics of a free market system will push them out of competitiveness. The only way a business can sustain this conduct is if it maintains a monopoly on the product or service it provides and consumers remain ignorant of their rights and complacent in their actions.
But with more competition, a message you as a consumer have heard countless times, the market share of a monopolistic business is sure to be eroded when consumers are provided viable alternatives for products and services in that real free market economy, as well as better information about the industries that exist in that economy.
Consumers must show a stronger desire for information that helps them make the best purchasing decisions; they must become better educated about their rights and the options available to them to hold businesses accountable for their conduct, and they should demand more with respect to the enforcement of consumer rights, regardless of the type of business involved - even if it's a government service.
In fact, a significant red flag for you, the consumer, is a business that does not have an accessible method of allowing you to express your level of satisfaction and offer your feedback about a product or service they sell, or one that does not publicly disclose this information to you.
Because not only does your constructive criticism in the ratings you give help to improve and further develop that business, those ratings also help other consumers to make important buying decisions for themselves and for their families.
If you have no option for providing those constructive criticisms, then you, as a consumer, should be less inclined to do business with that company.
o Nicole Burrows in an academically-trained economist. She can be contacted at: nicole.burrows@outlook.com.

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