Customer Service (Again!)

I have just come back from two weeks travelling round South Africa. Slightly work related as I visited one supplier’s factory in Johannesburg and spent a fantastic evening with another in Cape Town. The main purpose was a well-deserved holiday with the highlight being a three day safari in the Sabi Sands / Kruger Wildlife Park. If you ever get the chance then do spend the money and go – it is an old cliché but really is an experience of a lifetime.

South Africa is a vast country and almost several countries within a country with a disturbing juxtaposition of affluence and extreme poverty, but throughout there was outstanding customer service. Not only giving the customer (us in our case) what we expected but going well beyond that and actually delighting us with superb little touches. A couple of times I found myself giggling with joy with the amount of trouble that had been taken to ensure that we were not just served – but delighted. This was completely across the racial groups within the country - Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa and Sotho. Nothing was too much trouble. To give one example to cope with the incredible amounts of food we were being served we decided to cut down and share a starter. In this country in some restaurants I have been to you are made to feel either guilty or embarrassed if you ask to share a starter and require an extra set of utensils. Not in South Africa! They actually plated up the one starter on two different plates and brought them out separately – the waiter saying that they “preferred to share it out in the kitchen” – well I suppose it made sure we both got equal halves!

Touches like this were evident throughout this tremendous nation and made me long for customer service like this throughout the food business in the UK. If our staff were as considerate, humble, gracious, caring, and good-humoured then all our businesses would be a lot more profitable – I am sure. Coincidently I was reading Richard Branson’s new book, “Business Stripped Bare” whilst I was out there. His businesses are built on delighting the customer and offering the “best” within their category. Let’s do the same – even on Monday mornings!