Mrs Nichol, who was on a Zoom conference with the Victorian Regional Chambers Alliance, said the Ballarat-based group held concerns for small business staff and operators, who had been subjected to a consistent flow of aggressive customers.
The VRCA was launched in November last year and has gathered momentum as a voice for a range of Victorian communities, along with the issues that are consistent to the individual business groups.
“The message from the meeting was that customers need to be aware that service levels aren’t going to be 100 per cent,” Mrs Nichol said
According to business leaders involved in the catch-up, from Shepparton, Ballarat, Bendigo and other regional centres, almost one in 10 customers coming into stores are difficult.
“Cafés and restaurants are short-staffed. They are not able to deliver the same level of service,” Mrs Nichol said.
“People need to lower their customer service expectations due to the impacts of COVID and be patient with businesses.”
Mrs Nichol said she was made aware of the “chamber catch-up” on the local news.
“You can always pick up something from these meetings,” she said.
“They had a speaker from the Victorian Small Business Commission and I picked up a few things from that.”
Mrs Nichol said she thought it was important that customers exercised patience with businesses while many staff were forced to isolate under COVID-19 regulations.
“We have always had great service from our cafés restaurants and hotels,” she said.
“We just can’t expect the same levels at this time.”
