NEDD workshop to enhance customer service delivery

File Photo: Wendy Phipps

Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 21, 2012 (SKNIS): In an effort to raise standards in customer service within the Federation, the National Entrepreneurial Development Division (NEDD), recently organized a four-day workshop for various businesses under the theme “Enhancing Customer Service Delivery for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)” at the Ocean Terrace Inn (OTI).

Wendy Phipps, Course Facilitator of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)-sponsored sessions, stated that there should be a paradigm shift in terms of how persons in St. Kitts and Nevis view customer service.

“What we are trying to do in this workshop is to tell you that based on the state of global competition, regional competition or even competition with your next door neighbour who is selling the same item as you, that there has to be a shift into the development of a service culture,” she stated. “This is where you focus on issues like the cycle of service; you focus on the things that drive your customers, the things that matter to them. You anticipate their needs, to meet their needs but there has to be an established protocol that you have set out in your business that says ‘I value customers, this is the standard operating procedure that I have in place to deal with the customer and here is my understanding of where customer service begins and ends’.”

She added that this new mindset requires commitment and people being empowered to make changes in the workplace.

Following formal sessions, Ms. Phipps will visit the 28 participants at their places of work to assess the progress being made. She stated that this will ensure that what the attendees learnt will be applied after the workshop.

NEDD is a division strategically placed within the Ministry of International Trade, Industry, Commerce and Consumer Affairs to implement Government’s commitment of assisting micro, small, and medium-size businesses.