Customer experience

I have decided that for every blog post where I want to moan about something, a compliment will be included. I don’t want sound like every other South African who has access to a keyboard and modem and reduce my blog to the workings of the News24 comments section. So instead, I’d like to remind us of the good in this country in the hopes of encouraging a better attitude about things. While at the same time, discouraging the acceptance of mediocrity - a point, I believe, Jenny Crwys-Williams touched on today during her show. 

We often get so caught up in the negative – like Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp – and forget about the positive – Ramphele’s new gang and finally everyone else is talking about a different Oscar. Sorry, the Agang joke is so over done.

So I will start this little post with my complaint and finish with a compliment.

Last Thursday night, I was reminded of how the customer experience isn't always at the top of every establishment's list. My dad and I went to Fishaways in Midway Mews. I loved the Fishaways in Grahamstown and figured I’d continue my patronage with the one in my area. But after my experience I won’t go back and I won’t stay quiet about it either.

As I greeted the woman who took my order, I immediately felt like my walking in there was the worst thing that could have happened to her that day. I felt completely unwelcome as I tried to substitute the salad in my hake wrap for coleslaw – it offers a crunchier culinary experience, where as the soggy tomato salad fails every time. I didn't get to enjoy the coleslaw and bit into a hake wrap swimming in tomato juices.

Now, I might just sound like some middle class arsehole pissed off about a stuff up to her order, but that’s not where I get angry. I get irritated when I'm made to feel like an unwanted presence in the room. And this is not a problem that is localised to the Fishaways at Midway Mews. It permeates every retail business in South Africa. 

I lived in the Eastern Cape for four years and I shopped at both Pick n Pay and Checkers in Grahamstown. I have also shopped at both of those stores in Gauteng and the customer experience is lacking. I’m not asking to be treated like the Queen and her corgis. I’m asking to be treated like a customer who's patronage is good enough and valued. I hate feeling like I don’t belong in a shop. The problem is many South Africans don’t have the option of waltzing into Woolworths where a simple ‘Hello, how are you’ is a given. Even as an unemployed youth, I don’t have the option to shop at Woolworths – the only time I’m there is to swap a gift someone has bought for me, usually for a larger size after the Christmas season.

Don’t think that my gripe is just with Checkers, Pick n Pay and Fishaways, it’s amongst all retailers. And it's time to stop accepting mediocrity.

I know being a teller is tough – I've been there, done that & I still have the t-shirt. I understand most of, if not all the pressures that come with dealing with customers. You can get some real wankers who deserve a kick in the teeth to remind them they aren't the Queen – but of course you can’t do that. But there is the misunderstanding that a teller or cashier's job is unimportant and one mustn't forget that they are the last stop before the customer leaves with their goods.

On the plus side, I’m still loving my customer experience with Mango. It’s almost three weeks later and I’m still thinking about my return trip.

A perfectly sublime trip with Mango. I imagine this picture was taken while gliding over the Eastern Cape. This picture was, of course, taken in flight mode. Thank you, Mango!

I can be an anxious traveler and this was the first time I’d be given the responsibility of a hire car. I worried about checking-in and whether I had the correct documentation and if my bag was going to arrive on the other end – listen to me, I sound like I jet across the country. Hardly.

I was taking my brother to Rhodes for his first year and we were cutting registration a little fine, considering we were only going to be there on Sunday afternoon. Everything went fine and I dropped my brother off and I was back at PE airport the very next day. I remember walking in and seeing a large tour group from Ghana here for the Afcon. They were on my flight to Joburg and were a pretty large group. I was about to get into the queue with the avid supporters, before a woman in an orange Mango top intercepted my trolley and was guiding me to the express queue. I guess they figured they’d try and speed things up by keeping the tour group to one teller and the rest of us to another teller. The woman at the counter, also in orange, was very polite and chit-chatted while handling all my checking-in particulars. The previous woman offered to take away my trolley once I’d checked in my bags. Boarding was quick, I had a whole row of seats at the back of the plane to myself and I made a new friend, Alex, from Ghana.

I know it was something so small, but I felt like I was treated to the business or first class experience of SAA and BA travelers. It was great and that flight still puts a smile on my face three weeks later. Thank you, Mango.