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28 March 2024

Dubai’s most customer friendly (and unfriendly) firms

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By Vicky Kapur

It’s high time someone did it. If you’re shopping in Dubai, you’ll soon be able to decide on where to buy that iPad 3 or the Nikon camera from based on the customer-friendliness of the retailer – and you won’t have to bank on just word-of-mouth for it.

In yet another move aimed at protecting the customer and enhancing our shopping experience, Dubai will soon launch a business classification index based on customer-friendliness of the retailer.

Dubai’s Department of Economic Development (DED) said in a media statement today that it will be launching the index during the second half of this year.

The categorisation will be based on four welcome criteria, all in the favour of the customer, and each criterion will have a weightage assigned to it, which will then be calculated to arrive at the customer-friendliness of an organisation.

“The classification is based on four key criteria: the number of complaints received from consumers against a business establishment (20 per cent), the time taken by the business to resolve complaints within four working days (20 per cent), the product pricing in the business establishment in comparison with competitors (20 per cent), and customer satisfaction levels (40 per cent),” said Omar Bushahab, CEO of the Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection Division (CCCP) in the DED.

The index aims at improving service quality and competitiveness for stronger relations with consumers, and protecting their rights in line with DED’s strategic objective to enhance the ease of doing business, the statement said.

“The business classification index will focus on a number of key sectors such as automotive and electronics along with major retailers in Dubai. The index specifically targets to classify businesses that have a substantial stake in the local market so as to benefit the maximum number of consumers,” added Bushahab.

DED will hold introductory workshops with the owners of companies and establishments covered by the classification to introduce the criteria, and elicit their views in order to make the process as accurate and comprehensive as possible. The final results of the classification will be announced during the last quarter of 2012.

“CCCP is co-ordinating with a specialised international company for the development and supervision of the index to keep the classification process independent and transparent. Businessmen and shop owners covered by the classification will benefit from this process as they will have a reliable benchmark to work towards achieving the highest degree of service quality and customer satisfaction,” said Mohammad Lootah, Deputy CEO of CCCP.

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)