Customer service finally getting a hard look here

By: Garland M. Baker B.

Exclusive to A.M. Costa Rica

Editor's Note: While this article was accurate at the time of publication, some information may now be outdated. We are currently preparing a comprehensive update. Sign up for our Alerts to be notified as soon as the revised content is live!

Having a business — despite the effort, paperwork, and bureaucracy — can certainly pay off. A small entrepreneur may dream about earning so much success that the local business goes global and becomes a landmark around the world.

However, do schools in Costa Rica teach future business owners that what pays them is their clients' preference? And if they do not go to school for business, do owners forget they have been keeping every business they have visited open by being a client there and that the success of their business depends on their customers' satisfaction?

Although it should be almost instinctive to consider customer service to be the most inherent component to any business, Costa Rica has a long way to go. Not only in providing clear and timely customer service policies, but also in educating its citizens to demand the satisfaction their money is paying for.

Latin American countries are not famous for providing customer satisfaction, and that varies from culture to culture (including exceptions), but they have always been a few steps behind developed nations. However, culturally, why do most Hispanic nations share the notion that when one has a business, suddenly one gets to run the show, and the peskier one gets the more business-like one appears? Well, some possible answers come to mind.

Preparation lacking for those inevitable earthquakes

By: Garland M. Baker B.

Exclusive to A.M. Costa Rica

Editor's Note: While this article was accurate at the time of publication, some information may now be outdated. We are currently preparing a comprehensive update. Sign up for our Alerts to be notified as soon as the revised content is live!

Even though it is common knowledge that Costa Rica is a seismically active country, not everybody knows that it is the third country in the world with the highest seismic activity. In fact, it is the most seismic nation in Central America. One would expect that in a country ranking among the first earthquake-prone nations, its government and population would be decently prepared.

However, Costa Rica might also be among the least prepared countries to deal with seismic disasters, which directly threatens not only its citizens but also its growing Expat community. They say the best way to predict the future is looking at the past. From the time important events started getting recorded as news (the beginnings of 1900s), Costa Rica has documented rough encounters with its seismic reality, from which the following events are the most significant: