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On June 23^rd 2009, at the naming of the George Lamming Pedagogical Centre at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, Barbadian author and 2008 recipient of the Order of the Caribbean Community George Lamming said, “It is a bold perception that has allowed the market to kidnap the society, convert the society into a service station and evaluate every human activity as a commodity for sale.”

Some might say Mr. Lamming is part of an old school from a different Caribbean that does not understand the alternate reality being created by new technologies, knowledge and innovation.  But I believe his words carry such weight I’d like to break them down in the context of a real-life encounter I experienced this month.

Some time on January 6, I realised my Internet connection had stopped working.  Since the former Cable and Wireless, now rebranded LIME, is my service provider, I assumed the network was experiencing technical difficulties, as it sometimes does, and that my connection would be restored in a few hours.

More than 24 hours later, on January 7, still with no Internet access, I called LIME’s customer service, which, for Barbados, is now run out of a St. Lucian call centre.

I should explain that I own a strategic communications and consulting firm, ACB Knowledge Consultants Inc., which operates from wherever I happen to be.  I rely heavily on Internet connectivity to maintain contact with global clients and partners.  In addition, I employ no one.  I partner with others like myself, as needed, to deliver discrete high-end services.  As a result, there are two resources absolutely critical to my company’s success:  robust and reliable Internet connectivity and time.

Back to my recent encounter with the ‘new’ LIME.  On January 7, after being kept on hold, I was connected to a St. Lucian customer service representative to whom I explained my technical troubles.  He walked me through several steps that included checking my modem’s configuration.  When nothing worked, he asked me whether I had taken it to be upgraded.

That was the first I had heard of this.  Perhaps I was out of the island when LIME sent that particular memo.   What I do know is that a LIME rep came to my house some time back to change my modem to the new one required by the network.  Upon checking my device, he indicated it did not need to be changed and that I should have no problems with the company’s planned upgrades.

But the St. Lucian rep insisted the modem needed to be checked.  I told him about the previous visit of one of his colleagues.  I explained I was an independent service provider who relied on Internet access to do business with the world, a privilege for which I have paid LIME quite handsomely over the years.  I added that I did not have the time to disconnect the equipment, drive to LIME’s Windsor Lodge offices, battle for parking, and stand in what would undoubtedly be a long line for a significant period of time to get the equipment LIME was using to provide me with its service to work.

The young man apparently understood my reasoning and indicated he would put in a request to have a technician come to me to fix the problem.  However, he cautioned he could not guarantee this would happen before three working days had passed, meaning I would be cut off from my business contacts for almost a week.

An inconvenience but not a disaster … I could live with that.  I had experienced similar frustrations with LIME in the past but the professionalism of its service representatives always made the inconvenience seem inconsequential … until my telephone conversation the following day with one of the rudest individuals I have encountered while doing business in Barbados, which is saying something in a country not known for its exemplary service ethic.

Check out my next blog to find out what happened and the lessons I learned about our market-based decision-making models in the Caribbean.  I’ll also have some advice for the ‘new’, rebranded LIME, so stay tuned!

--acb

PS:  Remember to say a prayer for Haiti, and mobilize to help them restore once the damage has been assessed!