Most of us would agree that the foundation of any successful long term relationship is communication - open, honest and continuous communication. However, a growing number of businesses and corporations like to think that their style of communication is an acceptable substitution for real customer service - I’m thinking banks, major property developers and our major political parties here. In the modern vernacular we refer to this as spin but Joe Public knows that it’s substance over style that really matters and that if you’re not happy with the standards of service provided you can always vote with your feet, hands or some other instrument of torture at the ballot box, as is your right in a free and democratic society, unless...

Your relationship happens to be defined as lessor and lessee or landlord and tenant. In this case the tenets of customer service are often completely ignored and, depending on the remaining term of the lease, a breakdown in communication may result in relationship metamorphoses into that of warlord and serf, and we all know that the first casualty of war is truth followed closely, in this case, by civility. I speak with some authority on this matter as both warlord and serf - it really is a Jekyll and Hyde existence!

Take, for example, an email I sent to our warlord at one of our premises in February this year.

Dear "Warlord"

You must be dead! I have been trying to contact you by earthly means, without success, and am now endeavouring to contact you through the spirit world. Are you receiving this "Warlord"? If you are, please ask a spirit guide to contact me and I will explain what is happening with the lifts now - they are possessed "Warlord" - and only those with divine understanding will be able to exorcise them. The doors close but the lifts go nowhere "Warlord". They have entered a parallel universe and you arrive from whence you came but 5 minutes has passed!

Kind Regards etc

No doubt, many of you reading this will be appalled, some will have unsubscribed to our Newsletter by now and others will have deleted it, dismissing it as the ranting of a madman but a few will read on, intrigued at what possibly could have incited such an outburst. We have two lifts that service 8 floors within this particular building which we have tenanted for the past 12 years. We occupy the 6^th floor and share these lifts with other tenants, including a child care centre and a number of medical and aged and disability care service providers. These lifts were never designed to cater for the volume of traffic or the pushers, prams, shopping trolleys and mobility devices used by the customers of the businesses that deliver services from within the office building and, as such, constantly breakdown, sometimes with people trapped inside for hours and sometimes have remained out of service for up to a week.

Between May 2006 and June 2008, I wrote 38 letters of complaint and made dozens of phone calls to our warlord, advising that the performance of the lifts was unacceptable and was putting the health, welfare and safety of our staff and customers at risk, especially the elderly and infirmed who were often required to walk up and down 8 flights of stairs.

Eventually, our warlord agreed to meet with the tenants and subsequently agreed to replace the lifts’ mechanical and computer operating systems, which commenced in November 2008.

The refurbishment process took three months to complete during which time only one lift was "operational", which inevitably would break down leaving those who could, the only option of legging it up and down the stairs and for those who couldn’t, the indignity of being carried up and down the fire escape stairs by security personnel.

Nevertheless, we dare not complain because substance was a happening. Once completed we were all accepting of minor teething problems as our newly refurbished lifts settled into their crawl spaces but alas, and although the problems subsided, the resident evil did not go away. By December last year, we were once again experiencing constant lift entrapment and breakdown. During the 15 months to January 2010, we demonstrated enormous restraint and patience in the face of significant business inconvenience - and did not complain once. But in February this year, we wrote and called to discuss the on-going lift problems with our warlord, on four separate occasions, who ignored every request to discuss the matter, hence the latest communication reproduced above.

During the period May 2006 and March 2010, our warlord sent two emails only, both at our bidding, to the tenants of the office building, admitting that the performance of the lifts was not acceptable.

In business, communication is everything and substance matters over style, your customers satisfaction depends on it.

Unfortunately, customer satisfaction does not always underpin long term relationships - lack of competition often does. There is plenty of opportunity in South Australia for people with passion to build hugely successful businesses based on the delivery of great customer service - so, go for it!

Gary Hatwell Executive Chairman

PS. don’t to forget to register for our free Status Footy Tipping competition this year. Round 1 kicks off on Thursday 25^th March and there are great weekly, mid year and end of season prizes to be won, including the grand prize of your choice of holiday travel to the value of $2,000, and it’s absolutely free to join! To express your interest click here.