On Monday, November 6, I wished to purchase coconuts on the Santasi roundabout. It was nearly 9 am; the vendor was sweeping and choosing plastic from the bottom after I approached him. He walked to his desk and rinsed his hand in a bucket of water.
I informed him that he ought to use cleaning soap. He replied that I might go away if I used to be not glad. After I insisted that he ought to wash with cleaning soap as a result of he had been choosing issues from the bottom, he requested me if he had picked faeces.
I felt unhappy and numbed by the younger man’s heightened degree of ignorance. His obvious obtuseness about his appalling angle and the grave implications for the enterprise frightened me. There are about three folks at that station. The opposite two have been nice to me, however due to their acerbic accomplice, they’ve misplaced my patronage.
What number of clients will he lose for the enterprise? Good companies don’t drive clients away; savvy businesspeople strategise to take care of present clients.
“The shopper is all the time proper” is a enterprise line that stresses the “You-Perspective” versus the “I-Perspective”.
In different phrases, a enterprise should attempt to steer clients, and defer to the latter’s calls for even in provocative conditions. Assembly buyer wants is handiest in creating enterprise goodwill.
Mockingly, I acquired insulted for insisting on hygiene, however that isn’t the most important difficulty. The dealer is solely out of contact with Ghanaians’ enterprise tradition.
Many Indigenous merchants consider that making an early sale(s) upon opening a store bodes effectively for the enterprise day. Such merchants deal with clients who strategy them first in a particular means. They beg and cajole to steer the primary potential purchaser to half with cash.
They’re afraid that if the primary individual walks away with none buy, it would jinx enterprise for the remainder of the day.
The fallacious sentiment works by means of merchants’ pragmatic strategy to treating clients respectfully. The younger dealer in reference should be pitied for not figuring out play the sport. He didn’t invite me.
I went to his desk by myself accord to offer him early gross sales; he squandered the possibility. Some merchants wait until the night earlier than making meagre gross sales. Some don’t promote in any respect. The dealer above acquired an early provide however selected to let me stroll away with my cash. Is he business-minded?
Evaluate his angle with a hairdresser I visited in Ash-City the next day, November 7. It was my second go to. My first go to occurred in July. She readily obliged my request to scrub my hair with sizzling water. That motivated me to return. Her sink was soiled; I prompted her to wash it alongside my request for warm water. She did each; I tipped her effectively for courtesy.
I wanted to retouch my hair so I might have washed my hair at that salon; nevertheless, I selected to offer half of the service to a special enterprise which treats clients effectively.
Many businesspeople on this nation should not courteous. But, courtesy is essential in creating enterprise goodwill.
Worth
Pragmatic businesspeople know that getting patronage will depend on high quality items, surroundings, strategy, timing, and shoppers’ buying energy. Discerning shoppers insist on worth for cash.
They purchase what they want however may be persuaded to purchase impulsively. Smiling, environment friendly businesspeople have a tendency to attract good client patronage. Finally, dishonest companies pay the results by shedding enterprise goodwill.
Many small companies in Ghana don’t final as a consequence of poor customer support. House owners develop into complacent when the companies take off effectively. They cease respecting clients. They behave as if they’re doing clients a favour.
That is largely a buy-and-sell financial system the place the identical companies preserve arising daily. When new companies spring up, despised clients merely take their patronage away from ill-behaved businesspeople and provides to new respectful ones.
The coconut enterprise is a thriving one across the Santasi roundabout and the principle Patasi highway. Moreover, there are cell sellers who fill wheelbarrows with coconut and function the identical route from door to door. I had quite a few different selections. Regardless of the obvious heavy patronage of coconut, no sensible vendor ought to take clients as a right.
Was the individual in all probability drunk or on medicine?
Nicely, that is Ghana the place folks hardly analyse actions, however select guilty others for each woe. Finally, when this individual manages to drive away all the shoppers, he’ll go to a pastor who will inform him that the witches in his household are collapsing his enterprise. He’ll cry that enterprise is poor and request assist from the federal government.
Obtuseness won’t be factored into the argument, however poor social plus emotional intelligence and twisted widespread sense are submerging many individuals/companies in poverty in Ghana.
But, as a substitute of pragmatic evaluation, equivalent to singing and praying for divine intervention. God helps the diligent! In enterprise, one reaps the goodwill one sows.
The author is a Senior Lecturer, Language and Communication Abilities, Takoradi Technical College, Takoradi.