Zach Hendrix the Co-founder, GreenPal quoted this; “Listen to your customers or you will have none”
I was coming from a long meeting yesterday, very exhausted and quite hungry. My brain convinced me that I could not make it home with this hunger and more so hold it until I prepared a meal. So we agreed for a quicker solution and that being finding a food service provider to deal with my apparent problem. Food and I have a very intimate relationship and I like to believe this is so for everyone.
I was in Ntinda (this is a place here in Kampala, Uganda) and I chose to go to the nearest restaurant that I could find. This is about 19:00 hrs in the evening. I was with a friend and when we got in, the place was sparsely occupied, about 3 people were seated having the meal. We entered and chose to sit at the very end of the room. It looked the most comfortable of all the places in the restaurant. So we take our seats and I was very sure the waitresses would come and welcome us and take our orders. Five minutes into our arrival no one seemed bothered. (Mark you these ‘girls’, the waitresses were freely having their conservation about God knows what) Since I was the one in need I decided to beckon on one of the girls to come and take our order. She drags her feet and comes through. She takes our orders and I should say the food came quicker than I had anticipated, given the first impression we got. The quality of the food was not best but that is a story for another day.
When we finished eating, again I had to call out the waitress to get us our bill. At this time I am really irritated at the quality of service we are receiving. When the bill came back it was a receipt belonging to someone else but the cashier thought it wise to write my bill at the back. At this point I am confused at what is happening. So I call the waitress who at this point had walked off to somewhere better than being by our side. On inquiring what was going on, whether receipt slips were over, she belts “The receipts are done and that is what we do” I was in utter shock. She walked off again!!!!!! I was really disappointed at this point in time, and I chose to share this with the world.
Most of the time businesses do not die because of bad products but because of a poor service. Many businesses if not all survive off a referrals, but if someone is to receive this kind of treatment, why wouldn’t the business die. Many of the business proprietors do not take time to see what is going on in their business for as along as money is trickling in. We do not take time to invest in training our employees and at the end of the day all you are served with is a bad review. There is a reason as to why many Ugandans, flock places like Cafe Javas, it may not necessarily be because of the food, but when I go somewhere where I am treated like royalty, be sure I will be a constant guest.
Invest in your business, not only in the money but also in human resource
