A good day

I have very little excitement in my life at the moment, so bear with me.

I got a 'no'! I'm so happy. I finally got a reply for a job and it was a 'no'. Even though "Thank you for responding, however your application had been declined" is not the best news, it's progress. It's better than thinking my job applications are being sent into a void of unopened emails with CVs attached. I imagine a lot of my responses are floating around in space like the melodies of Will.I.Am  At one stage I thought I'd have better luck posting my letters, and then I giggled at how preposterous such a thought was - to put this into context you have to understand that the South African Post Office's sorting office in Gauteng has been on strike for weeks. I sent my boyfriend a Valentine's Day card and he has yet to see it.

I know a lot of adverts say, "If we have not contacted you by such-and-such a date, consider your application unsuccessful." Which I'm sure is the best way to save time when it come to hiring and recruiting. But if you're someone like me, who has had little, in fact, no success when it comes to job hunting, this was a serious turning point. It was just so nice to have a little bit of interaction, even if it was an unsuccessful application. The fact that someone took the time to open my CV, give it a read and then send a reply containing 'no' was so much more motivating than the never-ending silence.

On another completely unrelated, but happy note...

I had such a pleasant day as a consumer.

Last night, I made my easy and loved falafels for the parental unit and myself. When I was near finish, my dad started loading the pita breads into the oven. In my house, we have better luck with the lotto than we do with pitas. For the last couple of months, the pita breads we have bought and thrown into the oven remain flat piece of hard crust on the outside and a soft doughy-goo on the inside. They never rise and yet we continue to favour these unsuccessful pitas over wraps. After many weeks of perseverance we had a most wondrous night! My mum had picked up a pack of Global Wrapps pitas.

My mum and I are huge fans of the brand. When we can, we will frequent their restaurants and order a haloumi and avo wrap and a BBQ chicken and potato wrap for my mum and I respectively. And on this particular Sunday night, we had struck gold with puffed up pitas for our easy Carte Blanche dinner in front of the TV. This week, however, was an entirely different experience.

So as I was saying, my dad had started chucking them in the oven when he noticed some of the pitas had turned into hosts to some unsavoury guests. Green patches of mold had come up on the sides of the last three pitas in the packet. And I'm not talking about a slight case of mold you would happily digest if it was the last slice of bread.

Check it out! The green on the packet matches the green on the pita. Now that's branding.

This was a full scale invasion of an ecosystem. So we ate the three best looking ones.

The very next day, I walked into Checkers, not to throw a fit, but to politely bring to their attention the green facts. I told them we ate three - we had to, there was no other starch in the house - and that we had double checked the date of expiry. I think I was quite polite in asking them for a refund and the manager was happy to do so. He was so happy to do so, he also gave me a fresh new pack. So, thank you Checkers for your understanding and fabulous customer relations.

Too many times, as consumers, we are immediately on the defensive. Even today, I was trying to remember sections of the Consumer Protection Act on my way there in case I'd have to drop some law knowledge - what little I know - on the manager. I've been a cashier and had a woman spew the line, "I know my rights as a consumer," across the counter. I've also seen a woman demand petrol money for her travels back to the store where a packer had forgotten to include an item in her grocery bag.

We are far too defensive and sometimes a quiet conversation can be a far more pleasant experience than the one that can be riddled with accusations. Who knows? You might get a free packet of pitas for your manners.

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.