Do shop owners care about their customers ?

I have gone for so many times (and why am I keeping on coming back anyway?) to this famous and trendy snack shop located in Ambohijatovo and every time, it’s always the same thing over: my orders are wrong, I have to struggle to get the attention of the waitresses and I have to wait forever to get my change (unless they are wishing secretly that I forget about it so that they can earn some tips).

And indeed, I do keep coming back because they have good food but it would have been a thousand times much better if they cared about the clients. When will we understand that it’s not only about the food or about the products? it’s also about the smile, the warmth of the encounter, the atmosphere and the availability of the personnel to go the extra mile to serve the clients that they do keep coming back. 

Something has to be done and that is why sharing this article with you is very important to me; because sometimes, you really have the feeling that you are the one who needs the shop owner more than they do need you. In fact, let’s be honest and say we still have a lot to do in order to improve the quality of customer care and services.

We should all understand that the encounter with a client must always end with a win-win situation, where we have secured business and where the client feels that we have taken good care of him and he has received the product he was looking for. And that is the basis of all relationship; indeed, we are looking for a relationship with the client so that he keeps coming back and spend more and more. 

I do work in the hospitality industry and the first thing i was taught on the very first day I started this job was: “smile and greet the client in his own language if known”. And when you say “smile”, aren’t the smile and hospitality of the Malagasy people legendary? aren’t we known all around the world for our spontaneous kindness? but we don’t seem to know how to use it efficiently. It’s time for us to realise that our smile and our gentle way are great assets that we should always combine with the way we serve people to give an outstanding service.

I invite all of us to go to the website www.upyourservice.com to start learning the culture of service, and I promise, we will talk about service again very soon.