LIVING AND LOVING IT: You get what you ask for

Good customer service is almost non existent in this country. I know that is an old song but fresh experiences just keep making me wonder when the tide will change. A few weekends ago, I was helping out at a wedding, being in charge of the bride and her entourage and all that.

We were at the salon and an hour before we could head to church, we decided to get snacks for our rather large team. There was a restaurant downstairs, so we went to get some chapatti and soda. The restaurant looked like one of those that is about to fall apart. But we ignored that and asked if they could give us what we wanted.
Yes, they said, but we would have to wait for about 15 minutes for the chapatti to get ready. They would cost Shs1,000 each and the soda Shs1,500 each. I frowned at this but the rest thought we could go ahead and make the orders. We did and decided to go wait from the salon.

45 minutes later, I went to check and the chapattis were not ready. What ticked me off was the laxity and nonchalance with which they dealt with us. They kept walking around us and going on with their business, as if we were not there. I went back to the salon to check on the girls and came back a second time. They were still not ready.

Fed up, I went to another food joint. I asked for chapattis and the woman was quick to help. They had many ready and she was very nice to me, packed them swiftly, and charged Shs800 for each. And I am sure they were bigger too. Happy, I went back to the salon and saw a place I could buy sodas. I got them for Shs1,000 each. I had managed to save quite a bit.

About 30 minutes later, the man from the first restaurant came to tell us the chapatti was finally ready. I was incensed. So now they were ready? Why hadn’t they worked faster on our order? Couldn’t they have been smart enough to say, bring the first batch and the second later? Couldn’t they have given us the sodas first to placate us when we were growing impatient? No. And because of that they lost out.

The problem with many of us is that we think we automatically deserve many things. As long as a customer walks into your premises, you treat them like you deserve their money and you do not prove to them that they are better off spending their money on you. At work, we think because we have been at the institution for five years, we deserve to be promoted. We do not think about if we actually deserve to be promoted, if we are giving it our best shot, plus some. In our relationships and marriages, we feel we deserve to be treated as kings and queens. We do not reflect and think about if we are treating our spouses and partners the way we want to be treated or if we are giving them reason to treat us so nicely.
Yup, many times, we get what we ask for.