Where’s our Customer Service?

POPYENI KAXUXWENAA FEW WEEKS AGO, I had lunch with a friend at a café in our capital city, Windhoek. We were both astonished at the high level of customer service we experienced at this establishment. This steered our conversation into Namibian customer service in general, and how bad it is.

My friend, who is not Namibian, mentioned that when he first came to Namibia, he experienced two major cultural shocks.

Before I share what those two things were, let me explain culture shock in layman’s terms. Imagine going to a country for the first time, and you end up at one of their local markets. Out of curiosity and wanting to experience their culture, you approach a crowd of people around a stall. Once you join the crowd, you manage to look through, and see snakes on a grill. The seller is cutting pieces of meat from the snakes, and everyone is eagerly shouting their orders, paying and eating pieces of the chopped- up snakes, the way we do when it comes to our delicacy, kapana.

Seeing this for the first time would shock you, even though it’s a normal thing in that country. In fact, they don’t understand how that can be a shock to you. The fact that it seems normal and people accept it, is a culture shock to you. So, the two culture shocks my friend encountered upon arrival in Namibia was the price of food (expenive), and the lack of customer service. Let’s focus on the lack of or poor customer service: How can that ever be a cultural shock? For a country with a growing tourism sector, how can customer service be as bad as they say it is? It is so bad that even those in the service industry admit that we lack customer service in Namibia.

Namibia is ranked as one of the top countries to visit in Africa, mainly because of its landscape, its national parks, and its peace and stability. It is known for ecotourism, which features Namibia’s extensive wildlife. It is estimated that over one million travellers visit Namibia annually.

Surely, with these facts, we would have changed our focus to offering great customer experiences to everyone. It’s sad to walk to a service support organisation, and be serviced without a smile. How can we expect to increase sales, make people come back, or be remembered as the country to visit if we are not welcoming –– neither in posture nor gesture?

The problem has now grown to such an extent that I feel teaching great customer service should be part of our school curriculum.

Of course, this is a general feeling, and not to say that all service providers in Namibia lack customer service.

But it leads to questions:

• Who’s responsible for ensuring customers receive what’s due?

• Do managers instil and enforce non-negotiable measures to ensure customers actually want to come back, or feel they have been served well?

• Do our staff know what’s expected; do they understand the need to be nice and friendly; do they see the benefits?

• Do they know the cost of losing one customer because of bad service?

Perhaps a body that regulates and visits service provider sites to rate them, is necessary now more than ever!

It is said that bad news spreads faster and more efficiently than good news. The truth is, this is a reason why most businesses close early, while at an infant stage. It is sad that we read or hear about cases of bad service, yet we are slow to act in order to fix the problems. Customer service should not be a culture shock for our visitors, nor a topic of bad conversation.

Namibian society at large has an urgent responsibility to fix the attitude and norm of its people if we ever want to see our local businesses booming. It’s not too late, we just have to act now. And it starts with you. #LetsWork #CustomerServiceNamibia

• Popyeni Kaxuxwena is a training facilitator at Lets Work Commercial Group, where he trains people on customer service, sales and interview preparation skills.

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.