Customer Service Week

Last Sunday I wrote about last week being Customer Service Week, an international event aimed at highlighting the importance of customer service. In a "catch them doing something good" spirit I asked you to look out for suppliers, traders, etc., who actually do something special to celebrate the occasion.

I also wrote that, apart from Maltacom and Maltanet, I was not aware of any other companies celebrating Customer Service Week. However, I expressed my hope that there would be many companies and I asked you to write to me about such customer service-oriented companies. Information about such companies is worth sharing in our column. If there are other companies which celebrated Customer Service Week, they are still invited to share information about their celebrations with our readers.

Gordon Dimech (manager, Commercial Services, Maltanet) and David Gatt (customer care executive, Maltanet) invited me to share Maltanet's experience. Indeed they have a customer care team and the celebrations were organised on their initiative.

What really impressed me was the atmosphere. I could feel the excitement and enthusiasm of all employees. It reminded me of my British Airways days when I was a customer service duty manager in the Eighties.

From a direct customer contact point of view, both on the telephone and face to face, all staff who normally do not interact with customers spent at least four hours assisting the regular front office and customer care agents.

This gave them the opportunity to take customer care helpline calls. They were assisted by a regular customer care agent to ensure that the customers' queries were appropriately dealt with. I saw the chairman Maurice Zarb Adami, who also participated in this initiative, including spending some time answering customer calls.

Maltanet also designed a special Website to commemorate this event http://www.maltanet.net/csweek where customers can find more information about the company and its employees, particularly about the front line staff, an online suggestion form and customer survey. I was given the opportunity to participate and I did.

I have been aware of Mr Dimech's and Mr Gatt's customer orientation for some time now as I also happen to be one of their customers. Indeed, after a great deal of shopping around, my son and I decided to use Maltanet's services for our forthcoming Website which will be announced here in due course.

I can see that Maltanet are genuinely trying to improve their staff's customer service awareness, with a particular focus on non-front line staff. The experience gained over this week should help enhance their staff's customer orientation.

In the meantime I urge you to give Maltanet important feedback about how, in your opinion, they can improve their service. You can contact Maltanet on 2148-9600 or customercare@maltanet.net.