ah, tis all good. SERVICE. the lack of IT.

We complain, all the time about the lack of customer service in Sierra Leone. Ha! The lack of customer service can at times seem like an understatement. We can relegate this ‘attitudinal problem ‘ side note: attitudinal, a word commonly and often used in our daily vocabulary. Hell, even the President is pushing for an “attitudinal” change in our people. 

Look, we can speak about the need to strengthen the hospitality sector all we want, but until some very realistic steps are set out, I am not quite sure how else convincing people that been nice, punctual, meticulous, self motivated, patient and most importantly that pleasing their customers is off dire importance WILL uh HELP.

In the instances with business where one would assume that the owner’s have some level of…………( fill in the blank) it  still comes down to higher spending customers been prioritized over those who perhaps do not spend as much. Communication is zero, respect is minimal and worse yet, and the liberty to actually argue and belittle a customer’s opinion or agitation is fully exercised. I say this fully recognizing that customer service can be tricky and difficult.

I recently had an experience that I found to be so peculiar that in the moment, I was so fixated at the odd nature of the context that I could not be bothered to say a word.  

The first time I purchased items from the store; I paid and asked for more clothes to be made. The clothes were not made in addition to constant trips to their store with 1 hour waiting sessions just to receive my clothes I had already pre- ordered or  requested to have custom made. The second experience entailed me asking them, on very short notice, to make a dress for me for an event. They were gracious enough to make the dress, I loved it. I also paid for the dress upon retrieval. I then purchased a piece of material and asked that a skirt be made; I was promised that the skirt would be completed the following day. It was not. I was then notified that they were extremely busy (which I understand) and that the skirt would be completed on Monday. Wednesday I call requesting for the skirt, it was not completed. I of course got angry and communicated my frustration to someone who was close to the owner of the store because I could not get a hold of the owner. When I finally made it to the store to collect my skirt, in front of a customer, I was informed by the owner that she (the owner) was upset with my attitude because they had gone out of their way to make a dress ( that I paid for)  when they were extremely busy and they had made it very clear that they could not make my skirt as requested because there were extremely busy with other orders ( they had not). I said nothing.

 The funny thing is I have always defended this designer and whenever possible shown my support. I was disappointed and remain disappointed. Their arrogance was outstanding and as far as I am concerned, unnecessary. Nothing unique is been produced in that store to warrant such an outburst. When one is truly passionate and dedicated to their craft, ensuring that your customers are satisfied I think is of importance, or in this case, clearly it isn’t. 

The ramble is over. I just want to make it clear that as much as I support locally owned and created ventures in my country, especially ones owned and led by a younger generation, there comes a point where after countless disappointments   from a variety of vendors, one must take a step back and look at the bigger picture. The worse place to arrive at is, ‘what is the point of all of this really?”. Attitudinal change, hurry up please….because it is possible.                      

fambul dem, this is how we do...