SA Wines keep scoring off 2010 tournament

While pundits continue to calculate the material value of South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, one of the sectors to have derived a tangible benefit has been the wine industry, with packaged exports still on the rise, despite the continued strength of the rand and the protraction of the worldwide recession.

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Signals remain a mixed bag

On the economic front, the South African outlook continues to be mixed: gradual recovery from the recession in some spheres with several key economic indicators recording improvement, but offset by other indicators and developments with a negative bearing. The latest unemployment figures remain disturbing, and economists and the government have tempered recovery optimism; now, slower or strained growth is the word.

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Is the real crisis one of morality?

Is the world indeed experiencing a financial crisis, or are the troubling times in which financial markets continually have found themselves since 2008 a mere symptom of the real crisis – a moral crisis? A recent article asserted that “the American business world that has emerged from the financial crisis is rife with unapologetic amorality”. And in South Africa, the fired chief executive officer of a government-owned utility company - who in that position earned an annual salary twice that of the president of the country - claims "the benefits due to him in terms of (his)… contract" are worth a massive R85 million.

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“The only way to know how customers see your business, is to look at it through their eyes.” – Daniel R. Scroggin

Service means different things to different people.  Service is also a tangible experience, which can range from poor to excellent. In the financial services industry, service is critical to retaining loyal clients. It is largely the foundation on which a partnership with the client is built, and it is this partnership that is crucial for long-term client retention.  With a partnership, communication is enhanced, which builds trust. The greater the trust, in turn, the more information the client will disclose and the more accurate the adviser’s advice will be.

Read more: Service excellence: a balancing act

Recent years have seen various developments changing the financial services and consumer landscape. The global financial crisis amplified changing consumer expectations of their financial service providers. Recent surveys have shown that financial service consumers have altered their service expectations and are more demanding and specific about the service they require.

Read more: The consumer landscape changed