Lost In Translation

I was recently emailed a joke which goes like this:-

I became confused when I heard the word “Service” used with these agencies:

South African Revenue “Service”, South African Postal “Service”, Telkom telephone “Service”, South African Police “Service”, Civil “Service”, MTN / Vodacom / Cell C / Virgin / DSTV Customer “Service”.  This is not what I thought “Service” meant.

Ok, that’s (mostly!) a bit of a joke, but I know there are a few heads nodding ruefully out there and service, or lack thereof, is something that has become a source of increasing frustration for me recently.

I was relieved of my handbag a few months back and have since had occasion to spend some ‘quality time’ with quite a few of the agencies listed above.  It has, in most cases, been a memorable experience, but for all the wrong reasons.  Rude staff, documents sent to wrong places, offices closed without notice, you name it.

I also mentioned having trouble finding a saddle for my nag – what I omitted to say was that after protracted and heated ‘negotiation’, the store in question eventually told me that they were only prepared to sell me one specific make and model.  I’ll be honest – I’ve rarely been so surprised in my life.  I’ve always assumed that stock on shelf is automatically available for purchase, but there you go.  Apparently the shop dictates what you can and can’t buy.  10 out of 10 for novelty and innovation and I can attest to the fact that their ‘below the line’ strategy worked a treat – everyone I have even been remotely acquainted with has heard the story, so that’s the marketing rand at work.

Mostly bad service is simply annoying, but occasionally it can potentially affect your life.

I took my bakkie to a dealership for a routine service a few months back.  Nothing out of the ordinary, dropped it off, paid the money and collected the vehicle.  I then had to return the bakkie for a minor repair and was rather surprised to be informed that I needed some extensive (and expensive) work done to my brakes.  When I explained that I’d just had the vehicle serviced and queried why my brakes had apparently not been checked by their service technicians, I was informed that they only serviced areas specifically requested by the client.  WTF?

Being human, I have a tendency to verbalise my experiences and it is unfortunately human nature that the negative experiences get more airtime than the positive ones.  So I have pontificated at great length and to all who are prepared to listen to the trials and tribulations of reassembling my identity (still, I might add, a work in progress – both officially and unofficially!), finding a saddle and repairing my car.

We’re all human and we all make mistakes, but as pointed out in a previous column, it’s the reaction rather than the initial mistake which is so key.  If someone is proactive, friendly and above all offers to correct things fairly promptly, you actually end up with an even more impressed customer.  However, if not, the whole experience unfortunately detracts from the overall integrity of the product and the business.  And unfortunately mediocrity, like misery, just seems to love company.

The problem is that our experiences influence our consumer choices.  An unpleasant or difficult experience is unlikely to encourage us to return any business. So how do we fix it?

What all the above examples have in common is that the entire process would have been made significantly easier and more pleasant all round with a little thought and a little communication.

And so we get to the racing industry.  Racing is a leisure industry and as such we are competing for the leisure rand.  Which in the current economic climate we are all aware is increasingly scarce.  So you would think that our breeders, our trainers and our administrators would be going to any lengths necessary to make the whole experience more interesting and attractive.

And there are some fantastic initiatives.  I love the Summerhill foal naming competition which has been going for a number of years now.  I think the L’Ormarins team have done great things with the Queen’s Plate and love them or loathe them, the RA have spotted a customer need and are doing their best to cater for it.

But we still seem to be failing at the basics of the day to day routine and some days you could be forgiven for thinking you’re caught in the middle of a Fawlty Towers episode.  Trainers are in many ways the liaison officers of the racing world.  You source and look after clients and act as the intermediary and caretaker between us and our horses.  And yet, here, more than anywhere else, I find the lack of information and communication staggering and again, the potential for it all to go horribly wrong seems infinite.

The most obvious example is vet fees.

While I’m sure the service being provided is probably not being questioned, it is frustrating and a little annoying to be presented with a whopping bill, all neatly and conveniently itemised in veterinary jargon, with the only intelligible bit being the amount due at the bottom.  Oh, and the due date of course.  No veterinary report, no warning from the stable, no word that your precious investment may have come to some harm – nothing.  Which I take exception to.  I don’t object to paying (heck I’m a woman – I can justify spending money on just about anything!), but I do want something in return for my money, even if it is just an explanatory phone call or email.  Call me odd.

This communication falls under what I believe is called customer service and seems to be something of a foreign concept in our industry.  Communication really is the exception rather than the rule and sometimes it’s downright bizarre.  I know the punters suffer heavily in this department and we have regular stories of odds (and even whole horses) being incorrectly listed, races being called incorrectly, race distances being called incorrectly, you name it.  I don’t know whether this is simply because there is little choice and people know they have a captive audience?  If so, the proposed joining together under one banner leaves me a little nervous.  If this is what we get with competition, I don’t want to know what life will be like once the competition is gone and we’re faced with only one choice.

Whether it’s unhappy coincidence or just my bad luck, my experience has been that the bigger, more autocratic an organization becomes, the more cavalier it seems to be with the people it is supposed to ‘Service’.

And I guess in that whole ‘fat girls try harder’ thing, I am learning (the hard way!) to go to the smaller guys who are hungry for my business and make it their priority to look after me.

I’ve said before that I’m a fairly simplistic person and operate in fairly simplistic terms.  As far as I can see the trainer – owner relationship is one of service provider – client.  However, a lot of the time it seems to operate under some sort of communist state where trainers make all the decisions and clients pay all the bills.

Which seems nuts.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that like having a car salesman selling you a car, but then keeping it for his own use and billing you for petrol and services?  Not being difficult, just putting it out there….

I’m told I have ridiculous expectations and that I am a difficult owner and I have to say, I struggle to see why this is so.  I do this for fun.  And to me it’s fun to own horses.  However, racing necessitates that you spend an awful lot of money on something that someone else houses, feeds, rides and caretakes.  That’s not owning a horse – that’s a premium bond!  But those are the practicalities and I accept that – I just ask that I at least be included and informed and be allowed to ask the occasional question.  And then I’m perfectly happy.

But instead of normal dialogue (like you know, adults), racing seems to operate under this ridiculous culture of secrecy, subterfuge and assumption.  Instead of simply opening our mouths and asking for an explanation (which is usually pretty simple and straightforward) there is this silly policy of not questioning anything (and then of course having a whale of a time whinging about it all on the side).  And in this way, insignificant issues get blown out of all proportion.

I know that the local chat forums are something of a dirty industry secret, but there is nothing like checking the latest posts for a quick survey of what people are talking about.  A topic that recently caught my eye was another wrangle with the NHRA and the process and result does, from an outside, objective point of view, seem a little odd.

On the surface, it seems that someone has been brave enough to question the reasons for decisions taken.  Unfortunately, instead of the issue being met and handled head on, it’s been allowed to fester and ferment until it’s turned into a formal complaint and had to be settled through legal channels.  Which to my mind seems a little odd and employing a sledgehammer to kill a fly, but perhaps the answer can be found on the NHRA website which states:-

‘The core function of the NHRA Racing Division is to ensure that thoroughbred racing is provided with a competent and efficient racehorse and jockey control & monitoring service’