The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A newly-launched consumer information services company says it may have to “ramp up” its business review output due to an overwhelming response to its first publication, as it bids to drive greater customer service and product quality.

Business BlaqList (b.BL), which is headed by Nicole Burrows, released its first publication this week. “The original business model was to have the company be purely survey driven, but a combination of factors changed that, the biggest of which is that it doesn’t appear to us that our people are quite ready to respond to these things themselves,” Ms Burrows said.

“ I don’t think we have a culture that is very accustomed to giving information. We’re trying to get them into that mode. The original plan was to have the entire report driven by consumers, but that changed because we couldn’t solicit the type and the volume of feedback we needed from them, and they also made the comment that they wanted us to do it. Slowly but surely we will incorporate mass surveys in the equation.”

Business BlaqList’s first publication covered five companies/agencies. “Essentially what we decided was that, ultimately, the poor customer service that we receive is the biggest issue for us, and then comes product quality, which is also significant. We really started out focusing on the service aspect,” Ms Burrows said.

“It’s truly the market forces that determine what comes to the market. The consumer demand drives the supply. If we can get consumers to understand the power they have to force the markets to provide them with what they need to respond to consumer service issues with swiftness, then we could bring things into balance better than we have so far,” she added.

“We want to keep the reviews diverse in terms of the sectors that we look at. We will bring out our publication twice per month, every second Monday. We may have to ramp that up to weekly because we are getting a lot of requests for reviews for specific companies.

“We may have to ramp it up because after a year has passed we want to have comparative details to see whether a company’s ratings have improved and how the consumer feels about them. We want to do two reviews of every business that we review, so we may have to increase the frequency.”

Ms Burrows added that Business BlaqList will eventually provide a database service where the public can access each publication in detail.

The Department of Physical Planning received the lowest rating of all companies and agencies surveyed by Business BlaqList in its first publication.

According to the review: “The Department of Physical Planning is obviously a very important place in a developing country. Many important documents must pass through this office, particularly those that legitimise businesses and their approved operations.

“For this reason, it is fair to expect that the Department would be very rigid about their permit requirements and utilise thorough procedures to acquire information before granting approvals. However, this was not our experience. While we are pleased that we did not have to wait long for our permit, we found it a little odd that certain aspects of the process of obtaining a permit were so easy.”

The review went on to note: “The customer service in this experience was pleasant and fair, but it lacked in attention to details. Everyone was at least minimally courteous, though not necessarily professional.””

“Details of what goes on behind the scenes are not necessarily for us or the public to know, but we cannot help but think that there was too much missing in the permit approval process.

The Business BlaqList review said the Department of Physical Planning “could benefit from a technology upgrade, specifically with regard to document structure and workflow procedures”.

The Department of Physical Planning scored its highest rating of 6.67 out of 10 in the prices category, and its lowest rating of three out of 10 in categories such as presentation, development contribution and modernity.

The Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) received a 4.4 out of 10 from Business BlaqList, and the National Insurance Board scored a 6.07 out of 10 in the consumer review. The Dune Restaurant at the One & Only Ocean Club scored highest at 7.1 out of 10, with the high-end restaurant scoring nine in customer service. The Bridge Authority scored 5.93 out of 10 in the consumer review.