Are you being served?

I returned from a business trip abroad a few weeks ago and I had taken the opportunity to bring a few spare parts for my car along, which were not available in Addis Abeba. Upon arrival and after pushing my suitcase through the scanner at Bole International Airport, one of the customs officials indicated to his colleague to check what was in it. I had no objections to open the suitcase and the official took out the spare parts for further examination. After a short discussion he decided that I had to pay tax on the parts, filled in a form and directed me to the customs window for assessment of the amount of tax to be paid. The amount of tax he calculated shocked me a bit as it added up to 65% of the value I paid for the parts in Europe. Asking him how he arrived at the figure the assessor patiently explained the breakdown to me as the sum of CIF (20%), custom’s duty (20%), VAT (15%) and Surtax (10%). I accepted that I had to pay the amount calculated but didn’t have the cash on me to pay immediately. So I had the parts stored in the warehouse and was told that I could come back anytime as the service was available 24 hours a day. So far so good. I decided to go back to the airport the next after lunch to clear my goods and it is at this point that things turned out differently. In spite of the assurance that service was available 24 hours a day, the cashier was not present and I had to wait, together with a few other passengers who had some goods stored for the same purpose. Asking some other workers where she was we got different answers like (1) it was lunchtime and she would be back after some 5 or 10 minutes or so and (2) this time the shifts are changing and the new shift is coming in any moment now. After 45 minutes I got impatient and complained to a supervisor that I had no time hanging around like this and after insisting he used his mobile phone to find out where the casher was. Finally she appeared and turned to her customers in a rather irritated manner. I paid, collected my spare parts and left. I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of habits had infiltrated normal work ethics here. Being on time and serving customers 24 hours a day was certainly not on display here.
The word habit refers to the way we normally do something. It is a tendency or practice, which has become routine. There are good and bad habits. While running a business or working in an organization we sometimes demonstrate habits, which negatively affect service, sales or image. The next few weeks we will look at some business habits I have observed and see how we can turn them around. In this first article we will look at habits in relation to customer care.
In the example above, I developed a negative feeling towards the way I was treated and I wouldn’t want to go back to if I could avoid it. In fact I could think of many other examples including of businesses in the private sector. What is actually happening here? It seems that business owners, workers or their managers are not really interested in their clients. In fact they don’t seem to care about their customers at all. This in my perception is more the rule than the exception. It seems that the business sector in Ethiopia has developed bad habits towards customers over the years, which can lead to critical business failure. Why is this so? In developed economies, customer care is an important part of marketing and is used to create a competitive advantage over others in the same sector. Customers themselves care about the way they are treated and the business sector knows it. In developing economies, people are occupied to a large extend by making ends meet and getting the basics for their lives. As long as they get the basics, they don’t care so much about how they are treated by the supplying company. But as the middle and upper classes grow, so do their expectations as how they want to be treated. Looking into the recent history of Ethiopia, we are coming from an era in which the basics were difficult to get and we are now moving rapidly into a situation, in which the market is becoming more competitive and in which customers have a choice. There are for example quite a number of supermarkets now with a wide range of products and soon international travellers will be able to fly yet another airliner into Europe. So while customer care was not really important some time ago, it is becoming an essential part of marketing now. Where customers have a choice, they check out the quality of service and the price they pay for it. They also take recommendations by others serious. The management of some companies are aware of this. Supermarkets and fuel stations are now open throughout the evening or even the night. But when it comes to serving customers we still seem to be stuck with the bad habits of the past, while we desperately need to turn them around in order to develop a unique selling point in a market which is becoming more and more crowded. Here follow a few suggestions for your own and your staff’s development in customer care:
1. Demonstrate a positive attitude always, paying personal attention and trying to provide immediate answers to the customer’s inquiry. Do not attend to others or the telephone at the same time.
2. Demonstrate courtesy and develop excellent communication skills, also on the telephone.
3. Walk your talk. Advertising in the papers and on tv has become popular. Make sure though that you deliver what you promise. You don’t want to sell “no” or “yellum”, not even with a charming smile.
4. Be honest. If you can’t deliver what the customer wants, say so and discuss alternative options. Don’t deliver something you think the customer might want. If you have bad news, tell it, don’t hide the truth.
5. As business owner, focus and check on the quality of your product before delivery. Do not leave this to your workers.
6. Make employees aware that their salaries in fact depend on sales and therefore on the goodwill of the customer.
7.Train your employees. Hospitality and customer care training is available.