Of good service

I am a sucker for good customer service. I would rather spend expensively if I was given ‘Customer is King’ treatment than receive a heart breaking service and be treated like a charity case. I have experienced several cases of terrible service with the recent incidences having my toiletries packed alongside my edibles and another where I took an item that needed a minor adjustment only to return hours later and nothing was done and this happens whether you have fully paid, deposited half the amount owed or nothing at all. Ar times I would give the benefit of doubt and conclude that they might be having a bad day, don’t we all? but your bad day shouldn’t run from January 2010 to January 2016. I  do not like to tell people how to do their job or scold someone for doing something wrong but I must admit I have been pushed of the edge on several occasions to do so but it’s amazing how some of these service and product providers do not care.

The look you get when you ask for packaging

A few months back I went to a grocery and ordered for a sachet of yogurt and a medium sized cake and had the items placed in front of me by the attendant who had an irritated attitude, I stared at her surprised and to which I asked, ‘Are you going to package the items for me?’ she replied,’You can put them in your handbag, they can fit there or buy your own packaging(kavera).’ then she swiftly walked away to take her seat at the back of the counter and stare out the window without a care in the world. I was in utter shock like the shock Americans had when Trump became president. I just couldn’t fathom that statement and I proudly walked out without purchasing anything thinking to myself ‘Who does that?’ On another occasion, I needed a flash disk and set out to the ‘computer shops’ around where I was working  to get one, I was at the University by then. I walked into the shop, the young man who was the only one in the shop took a glance at me and turned back to his dusting. I was raised to greet people I come into contact with and clearly someone here was either raised wrong or naturally ill mannered. I greeted the man to which he reluctantly replied. I then asked him about the sizes of flash disks and how much he sells each one of them. He replied, ‘Just tell me the one you want, I give it to you.’ I told him I needed more information about what he had available. He looked away and went back to his business like I had wasted several hours of his time, I called out to him again but he didn’t budge without nothing left to do, I left. In both of these instances I told the attendants or operators or whatever you choose to call them about how their conduct and attitude is not good for business as you expect to draw in customers who, depending on how they are treated will offer good reviews and this builds your market but all in vain as they ignored me and here I was being polite.

Bad service drives me crazy

Now with analysis I realized most of these businesses are owned by my fellow country men. Have you walked into Cafe Javas or Caffesserie and felt more welcome than you even feel at home? Your welcomed, greeted and shown where to seat and if you do not like the suggested seat you can take a pick from the available ones, the menu is then brought to you, your given a few minutes to decide and then the waiter or waitress is back to take your order and even when your meal is brought, they keep checking on you to make sure everything is okay while in a typical Ugandan owned restaurant the waitress is like a customer, shes seated in one of the customers seat most times slumped in the seat or sleeping on the tables your supposed to have your meal. Here you make your own order and in some places your called to come pick your food from the counter where you placed your order, only two out of the hundred  items on the  menu are available and you have to keep reminding the waitress or waiter that you need a fork to eat your meal or  the drink you ordered for 20 minutes ago for the tenth consecutive time hasn’t arrived.

Do not get me wrong there are some Ugandans who have good service but most are disturbingly terrible at it.We want to support our peoples’ businesses but we need a reason to. I have worked in Service before, I have days when I was feeling angry or had been disappointed by someone but I knew that wasn’t supposed to reflect in how i treated the customers, they are the reason your getting the salary anyway. Sometimes its not just the workers but their bosses too believe me when I say I have experienced this too.

I have a few questions. Are business owners not training their staff? Do they know how their staff treat customers? Are employees and employers not aware of the impact customer service has on business? Is this something we need to address time ad time again? As a consumer I have a right to correct information, fair treatment, access, redress,complaint, quality, to mention but a few. If you read this and deal with customers everyday, treat them like they deserve, make them come back for more and be assured they will come back with others for more. Train the people you work with and see how well your business market will increase. Have you experienced bad service? Leave me a comment down below about what it was.

Enough of my rant I wish you all a better service week!!