When Service Providing Fails

How to react and how to deal with it

Sitting last year on a terrace in Durban – in front of a 4-star hotel – I was exposed to a tsunami of red wine that drenched me up to my underwear. The waiter, who managed not to break even a single glass, just stood there as if he had just won the lottery. I was happy being familiar with his reaction, as most other people would probably have exploded on the spot. Am I a forgiving human being? It depends.

Training

For many Africans the tourism industry is a blessing. It creates employment, it reduces crime and it empowers people.
But there is a problem: many, many Africans work in the growing tourism industry without any form of schooling. So how does the industry cope with this? The question is as simple as the answer: there is a lot of on-the-job-training. A new employee (maybe) gets a short training, maybe a mentor and off he goes. This occurs especially in the lower skilled jobs like gardeners, waiters and dish-washing staff. But even those who were fortunate enough to have some sort of schooling are not always jacked up, as schooling systems, although improving, are still not what you as the westerner are used to.

‘Bad’ service

So now we have the situation where you spend a fair amount of money to go to Africa to experience all its beauty and you think that the service in your accommodation sucks. There are a few scenarios here. Either you think: ‘the poor’ Africans can’t help it and you are forgiving and keep quite (but become grumpy in the process), or you address the lack of service right there and then and blow off steam or ( and this is what you should do) you keep quiet, live with the situation and see a manager at a later stage.

‘The grimace’

Now something went completely wrong, you breathed in and out to control your anger and you are ready to file a complaint with a higher ranking staff member. Now, as is often the case, the higher ranking staff member is also an African. I am sure that very soon you are going to see ‘the grimace’. This is an expression of the face, that to us westerners, looks as if the person in front of us is laughing about the situation and if you are not familiar with this, it can drive you up the wall because it emits an attitude of ‘non-concern’. But be aware, it is most of the time not what it seems.

Understand the situation

An African is in general a person that is very hospitable and likes to please. He is proud of his country and wants to make you feel comfortable. But there are three things that he finds difficult to deal with and those are failure, shame and making the wrong decision. Combine this with having felt like the under-dog for decades and it might dawn on you why you get a reaction you don’t understand.

Relax

To avoid getting winded up, feeling confused or angry and having a feeling you want to pull that guy over the reception, do the following.
Don’t blame the person in the lower position, as he/she is often not to blame. File a complaint with a superior and leave that person to deal with the situation without you waiting with him for the result!!
So leave and give the superior room to breathe and to handle the situation not according to what you think should be done, but according the way what he thinks should be done. You will see that more often than not things work out fine.

To briefly come back to the wine tsunami. What I did is go to my room in my hotel next door, change clothes, put all the wine drenched garments in a plastic bag and headed to the reception of the 4 star hotel where I got soaked. The receptionist gave me (after the waiter) the grimace and I knew that very little help would come from him, so I kindly asked that he called the hotel manager. The receptionist was only too willing to, since the problem was out of his hands. The next morning all my clothes were spotless clean and ironed to perfection. Had I caused a huge stampede the evening before, everybody would have lost face and my clothes would now still smell after Sauvignon.

Have you had to deal with a problem and thought that nobody was taking you serious? Let us know…..