A bad shopping experience led entrepreneur Sandra Darrell to set up her own business.

Through that business ? Customers First-Bermuda ? Mrs. Darrell says she can help companies improve the level of service their customers receive from staff. Mrs. Darrell spoke on her own experience with poor customer service ? and the training that experience compelled her to offer ? after reading comments made by Bank of Bermuda CEO Philip Butterfield in last week on how Bermuda should not sit back and accept inferior customer service.

Mrs. Darrell agreed and said companies would be wise to make sure staff are giving good service as customers can exercise their consumer spending power by taking their money elsewhere if they do not get good service. Mrs. Darrell, who set up her business in 1998, recalled how some years ago she was in a shop weighed down with a heavy armload of the goods she wanted to buy.

"I would have thought the customer service associate would have wanted to assist me but instead I got attitude. It was almost like they did not want to even serve me." Having lived in Canada for several years, Mrs. Darrell said she knew customer service could be better. "I was accustomed to a different level of service. That encounter was a catalyst for my setting up my own business," she said. Mrs. Darrell said she thought problems with customer service existed everywhere but the problem may seem more pronounced in Bermuda because of the Island's size. Because the Island is in many ways a small community, she said owners and managers might also be tentative in being critical of an employee they have a relationship with outside of work.

"You may be supervising someone you know; a god-daughter, a nephew. If you are critical, you might think you will be ostracised for it. Or the person may say 'you're my auntie, how could you be like this to me'. But customer service associates need to know that in the workplace you are accountable and there are expectations. It is not personal, it is work."

Customers First- Bermuda offers customer service associate training as well as leadership skills development training.

An internationally-recognised certificate programme, offered in partnership by the International Customer Service Association and Rockhurst University, Kansas ? is also available.

At both the initial and certificate levels of customer service training, there are two streams ? one for customer service associates and one for managers. Training looks at a variety of areas including what is good customer service, how to deal with rude, disruptive and demanding customers. For managers, the course goes through how to give feedback and coaching to staff and how to counsel them when there is a problem, as well as ensuring staff have the customer service skills and tools they need to do their job.