Following the election, the press has understandably seen numerous suggestions from citizens concerning things in the government that are in need of urgent attention. The words in this space today, however, while squarely in the “urgent attention” category are aimed not at the government but at a private sector entity, namely GT&T. For the background to this, I take you with me to an experience this past week attempting to pay my telephone bill at the GT&T office on Church Street.
With the appropriate “amount due” documents in hand, I entered the area on the ground floor to make the payment. The place was truly a mob scene. There were approximately 30 GT&T customers in one long snaking line inside, another 11 in a separate “senior citizens” line, and more customers waiting outside. To cater to these persons, the company had 5 cashier positions; one of these is usually not manned. On this day four were operating, and while they were obviously doing their best, the payment process was painfully long. To make matters worse, in the midst of this congestion, the cashier in the “senior citizen” line, suddenly posted a very visible “Closed” sign on her window and abruptly departed, turning a bad situation into worse; we now had two cashier posts vacant.
No supervisor came out to explain this development. No announcement on a p a system was made. The increased wait was apparent to everyone, and although most customers said nothing (Guyanese are apparently used to such treatment), several voices were raised in protest. A tall gentleman at the head of one line was very vocal about having to come all the way from the East Bank, and spoke loudly about the need for more GT&T payment offices; several people supported his call. I told one of the security guards. “This system is a mess, madam. You all work here; you see what is going on; almost every time I come here it’s bad, but today is the worst. You all should tell the big ones inside; this should be fixed.” With a slight shake of the head, she said, “No, sir. We have no authority to do that.” My comedic mind often intervenes in such circumstances, so after the suddenly-departed cashier did not return, I said to the security guard, “How come she disappear just so? She must be suddenly get a job at Digicel.” The guard bit her lip, hiding a smile, and I turned back to the wait. Suffice it to say that along with most of the GT&T customers that day, I stood in line for almost an hour to pay my bill. I was left to wonder how persons of advanced age, or who are perhaps infirm, would be able to endure that ordeal.
Apart from the obvious poor public relations spectacle for them, it also occurred to me to say to my friends at GT&T that there must be a financial consequence for your company as well. Here you have over 40 customers standing there with money in their hands that truly belongs to you; they have journeyed here to deliver it in the middle of the day (I came from the East Coast; the tall gentlemen from the East Bank) and you are, in effect, saying “no” to your own cash flow. I’m no banking expert, but I know for sure that daily in the business world there are examples of frequent financial benefit accruing from simply being able to hold someone’s money for even hours at a time. To judge by that one office on Church Street, GT&T is missing the boat there.
But that is truly an aside; where the boat is really being missed for the telephone company is in the damage to customer relations that is resulting when people come with their hard-earned money to pay their bill and routinely find impediments in the way. Most striking to me is how Guyanese seem to accept this ill-treatment. I have witnessed, first-hand, huge uproars and shouting matches in businesses overseas for much less benign neglect. I have seen supervisors and even managers having to come out to deal with such matters. In Montreal, one time, I saw the manager emerge with his lunch-time coffee cup in hand to calm the natives. In Cayman, I saw a bank patron and a teller almost come to blows over poor service. In Guyana, we smile and shrug, and come back next month and spend another hour in the line, as I’ve been doing. This week, knowing I have a voice in a column, I decided to let my friends at GT&T be told (I know two individuals there well) that they have some business to fix.
By pure coincidence, in the midst of preparing this column, a GINA press release appeared in Stabroek News to the effect that our new “Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence, had spent a day visiting several post offices in Region Three in order to have a firsthand view of the working conditions of the employees and to interact with pensioners.” Following this, a perceptive citizen (the name escapes me) responded: “I heard that there was television coverage of Minister Volda Lawrence visiting a post office and expressing consternation at the way pensioners were treated. I think that this is a most welcome step for a Minister to take, and one that should be initiated by others.” From that very apt observation, I suggest that the “others” mentioned in that point by the letter-writer should include the upper echelon at GT&T. For a trial period of say two or three months, senior people in that company should be required to join the line at Church Street early in the month to pay their phone bills the way ordinary citizens do; in short order they will get a personal understanding of what their customers are enduring.
I remember this like yesterday: I was standing at the baggage claim of Eastern Airlines in Miami waiting for my suitcase, and I was gaping. Former US astronaut Frank Borman (head of the first mission to fly around the moon), and then CEO of Eastern, was shagging customer suitcases shoulder-to-shoulder with baggage staff at the carousel. The company’s CEO was out there in his shirt sleeves, dealing directly with passengers and Eastern staff and chatting with them to better understand the baggage problems at the terminal. This column and comments from other writers may have no impact, but the GT&T brass, following the Lawrence and Borman examples, should face the ordeal of paying a phone bill in person; it may result in improved service for those customers who are unable to pay online. Whatever the propulsion, for all those patient GT&T customers, it will be a heartily welcomed change.
