Take it to the top, or build from the bottom ?

After paying £30 for courier delivery services as charged by TLS Nigeria (visa center) to return documentation of family members who had applied for visas. The TLS (visa center) courier company or contractor of choice DHL Nigeria had a light taste of my wrath,they had it coming when one of DHL delivery man with  wrong attitude came calling. 

The name DHL should sound like a reliable and respectable courier company right?

Well here’s my story.

Just before midday on Monday my phone rings, and it’s the DHL delivery guy, he had called to ask for directions to deliver a package to my home address and I was at work; I enquired from him, if he is already on my street he confirmed he is but can’t find the address. I said just give me a land mark what you see where you standing and I will direct you? with a raised voice tone he goes he can’t find any.

I said Ok, take this direction – pass the first junction to your right, keep going and by the second junction still on your right – you will see apartment blocks an (estate) directly to your left and as was talking, I got a very rather rude responses, he blurted out harshly, “ I don’t have call credit for all this direction, I have other delivery and he cut the call on me” I looked at my mobile phone, and said hello, hello in disbelief, my goodness imagine the rudeness! for all the money spent, HELL NO!

Now,I know it’s a permitted culture to swallow most forms or sorts of bad, horror like and very rude customer service in Nigeria especially from public sector/organizations, but this is a commercial giant, a multinational company in the private sector. I would want to believe that they maintain a certain global standard when it comes to customer service levels and this ought be localized in Nigeria-so why did Mr delivery man just go nasty on me for no reason?.

Well if this DHL courier delivery man is not aware and probably has not been trained appropriately or he fails to follow his training, he is about to realize that things are changing and most definitely times have changed I won’t take his “Rudeness” not after paying £30

I have said before on previous post, there’s a lot of power in the hand of a consumer's, if you know the power  technology, and the use of social media. At the same time rather unfortunately many brands,big,small, public or private are failing to navigate the use of social media properly at a peril to their brand image.  Anyway thats story for another day, in this case I was not going to take this to social media and do a DHL bashing,although I was surprised to see loads of it when I checked for a DHL handle on twitter.See the some good,many bad and ugly ones below.

The Dreadfully Pissed off Customer 

The Reasonable but Vexed Customers

The Shocked Customer 

Hmm,Rudely Treated Customer (we in same class)

The Equal Value for Premium Spend Customer 

The Extremist Customer (DHL you,lucky she dont have a gun,lol)

On this one I will take it up with DHL customer service, they are bound to have one, and yes they did when I checked out their website. So I filled out the customer complaint form, thanks to truecaller I had the delivery guys name and stated this on the form, once again the power of  having a useful techy app.  Though a bit apprehensive wondering if I would even get any reply from DHL customer service but for good measure and since they had a DHL Express compliant form as well that take customers complaints,- Straight to the Top to make complaints to higher authority, I filled that too. Talk about killing a fly with a sledgehammer,but forgive me,I have to see the end of this matter, not just because I got shoddy treatment for a service I paid for, but also because the package I was expecting contained very important and confidential documents.

A few hours later I got an email from Regional SSA Straight to the Top Office, apologizing and promising that the issue raised will be investigated, reviewed and a feedback sent before the end of the day, wow ! I was really surprised, I really did doubt if they would take my complaint seriously or act promptly enough but thankfully they did.  

The Email

Within the hour, I got a call from a manager within the Port Harcourt office, again apologizing and stating that DHL culture is one of respect and service to customers. He promised I will get my package before the end of the day, if it’s still not yet delivered by now that he is calling. I told him I had  tracked it and it says “ still with courier” he says this is my direct line please call me if you don't get it. Hmmmm,now I begin to worry just a tiny weeny bit, the Nigerian in me says, hope you "no go make them sack this poor Mr. delivery guy with all this your ITK" so I said to the Nigerian voice in me, I would pump the breaks on this issue even if I don't get the delivery today as promised. 

Well I dropped that call and in just a few minutes later another call from DHL customer service again,this time a lady with a third apology and some explanation about, the delivery man actually running out of credit and finding it hard to locate the address etc.I said,well simple courtesy would have saved the day, there’s nothing stopping him from asking me to kindly call him back, but rather he would raise his voice, complain about not finding the address  and saying he can’t waste his credit on just one call. He chose the high road not me,and respect is very much reciprocal since he didn’t show any, I was too busy with my own work to condone his nasty attitude. Hence I directed this to you good (customer service) folks to ensure I get value for the service I paid for.   

Not all BAD stories, some satisfied DHL Customers 

The very polite customer care lady, assured me my package will be delivered today. The driver had been instructed to ensure he delivers it, so to help him get directions she will get the delivery guy on the line for a two way call and have me give him directions again I said fine by me. Phone ring and Mr. Delivery man answers now sounding a lot more toned down, I gave him vivid directions again much like I had given him initially and the name of who will sign for the package.  

He made attempts to explain why he couldn’t find the place yad, yad ,yad.. but honestly it don’t matter now, just take it as a learning curve and move on. I don’t know how long you have been a delivery man, or maybe you got off on the wrong side of the bed this morning, but just learn and move on – never by nasty to a customer, if you don’t know what to say, say nothing. Anyway these were just my thoughts I didn’t say none of that on the phone.

7pm driving back home from work, phone rings and its DHL guy, he says the package has been delivered, I say thank you very much- deal closed.

Four minutes later  on the last stretch of road before my street a boxy DHL delivery van drives past me on the other side of the road, Mr. delivery man not knowing thats Mr ITK that gave him a hard day but for me all I could say  like Louie Armstrong sang, “ I say to myself, what a wonderful world”

 My complaint sent to DHL

I am expecting delivery of a package with waybill number 81XXXXXX30, today in Port Harcourt Nigeria. Your delivery man with Phone number 08X90XXXX79 Name Mr.F...,called for direction, I was explaining this to him, but he was extremely rude on  the phone,was not listening to my directions and eventually cut the call on me complaining he cannot be wasting his call credit.  I find this appalling coming from an organization like DHL and considering I am expecting delivery of sensitive documents from  TLS ( Teleperformance Nigeria) I will be making a formal complaint to TLS as well. Since this is not a free but paid for service, I would expect a certain level of customer service, the least I expect is being treated very rudely by a DHL staff.

Oga at the TOP, Talking that talk, but they walking it ?

While I am impressed by the speed of responses to resolve this issue, because I “took it to the top” as they say – I noticed online there’s loads and loads of complaints about DHL service. My 2cents for DHL Nigeria, is you probably need to  take it to the bottom by giving more training “to the bottom” the delivery men, and then maybe we won’t need to “take it to the top”.

Mr. delivery guy really is the customer /DHL interface on daily basis. If you deliver trust as your slogan goes, then I rather speak to a trust sounding respectable delivery guy, and not a rude one –  the right training can make just that difference.