ARE YOU BEING SERVED?

Hello readers, I want to start this column first by introducing myself and a little about my background so people know what am talking to them about, I’ll also talk about what this column is about and what we will be talking about.

Let me first introduce myself.  My name is Sally Chiwama am a Journalist by profession, am a media consultant with a bias on gender issues, sexual reproductive health rights, women and children's rights, and sexual abuse against girls, but here, I will not be talking about that. I also have other interest such as traveling and eating good food and that is what this column will be focusing on.  

Some people call me feisty, some think am fussy, but am really just the type of person that likes to get my monies worth, when I pay for something, or a service, I expect to get a good service back.

You see, growing up as a little girl my mother always emphasized on manners, “manners count for everything young lady” she would say. My late Mother was a hotelier, she worked in big as well as small hotels and with this came the privilege of being accommodated in the premises where she worked. Fast forward to date, my job gives me another privilege of traveling abroad every now and then and this comes with staying in some of the finest hotels the continent has.

Maybe that’s where the taste for fine cuisine comes from…..  

Am sure anyone will agree with me that when we pay for a service, you all expect nothing short of a good service.  I will start by telling you a story have happened to me about two years ago, while the second happened only a few weeks ago.

About two years ago, I asked my friend to buy me a packet of French fries (chips) from a very well known take away along the famous Cairo Road, the chips were nicely packed in a paper bag and later in a carrier bag so obviously my friend did not see what they looked like. When I opened the bag to eat, the chips, half done, watery and looked sort of rotten. I was not going to take this lying down after paying my hard earned K8,000.00. I went straight back to the restaurant armed with my receipt demanded to see the manager and yes out came the manager. I showed him the chips and he agreed that indeed the chips were bad and to defend himself he said that his staff had used the old stock of potatoes , now what was laughable is that this man was turning sort trying to move me so that my back is to the other customers while at the same time motioning that I should lower my voice again so that other customers do no hear what the conversation is about.

So I asked him why he was motioning for me not to speak loudly. Now listen to this, then with his palms clasped together in a begging way asked if he could give me a fresh free packet of chips. I must say at this point I became very annoyed. I mean surely, did this man think I went to beg for a free packet of chips? I told him that that was why I was not there, I made it very clear that I came because serving those chips was stealing from customers and taking advantage of them, I also told him that he needed to do was retrieve the chips from the customers and made it very clear that they should not make profits from serving people rotten chips. The manager apologized profusely only after I threatened to report him and upon find out that I was a scribe. He restaurant manager has never has never forgotten me and gives me maximum attention when he sees me, but what about the millions of Zambian out there who are probably scared to report such issues or because the counter has a sign that says no refund or something like that.?

Before I tell you my other encounter, let me give a snippet of an incident that happened to another friend of mine. She went to a café at one of the malls with a couple of friends, according to her they were seated nicely and given menus to look at. In a few minutes the waiter came back and took their orders. The sat for thirty minutes and just when thought their food was ready the waiter came back and told two of the ladies that what they had ordered was not available on the menu that day. Surely!! Totally unacceptable!

Now back to my incident. I was attending an all day meeting at one of the five star hotels in Lusaka, and as we broke for lunch and seated by the waiters, another waiter came and took our drinks order. I politely asked  what juices they had, I was given the variety and settled for a pineapple juice. In a few minutes a young waitress came to our table, gave my colleague his drink and put a coca cola in front of me, I politely told the waitress that I did not order a coke, I felt the need to tell her the gentleman waiter had taken our orders, the young waitress quickly informed that the same gentleman is the one that had given her our drinks order. So the young waitress went back to change my drink order and this time returns only to bring me an apple juice. Honestly I was shocked I asked the waitress again, what my drink order was and she correctly said pineapple juice. So again I politely asked her why she brought me an apple juice, she was quite and then I took the trouble to find out why she what was wrong with her. I asked her if that was her first day at work, she said no she had been with the hotel for about eight months. I asked her then why she was trembling, she apologized. I said it was okay and thought …well she could be tired hence her mistakes. She took away the apple juice and this time (you will not believe this) she returned with a tropical juice. Just to make sure I asked my colleague if there was something that I had said that was not clear, he said all was clear. The waitress’ explanation was that there was not pineapple juice. Whatever happened to simply asking, what about being courteous and letting me know what other options there are instead of assuming I want a tropical juice.

The fact that it was a five star hotel riled me even more, now my question is, if you are faced with such an incident happened to you, would I be accused of being a difficult customer? My answer is an emphatic NO! I’m not asking for a free drink, so kindly give me the drink I ordered and if that is not available please let me know what other options there are and not make assumptions on what I would like to have-period!

Often times, we as customers are taken for granted when we are getting a service in most places. Most service providers tend to think they are doing us a favour when we are getting something forgetting that they would not be in business in the first place if me and many people do not give it to them.

My advice to all is that let us demand to get a service that we deserve, after all you are paying for it with your hard earned money!!

Till next time!

 Note* This column appeared in the Zambia Institute if Marketing (ZIM) Magazine in 2012.