Starvation at a wedding...

Yesterday I went for a traditional wedding. It was a very very elaborate one with almost four to five thousand guests and a lot of prominent citizens including governors and first ladies. Everyone was talking about this wedding; I didn't want to be the only one missing out. I wanted to see everything life! So I made a huge effort to look nice and be there.

My friends and i got to the wedding at about 4pm and were impressed about how nicely decorated and spacious the venue was, the planner took time to create enough passage space and the whole place didn't look over crowed. There were ushers beautifully dressed standing at every corner and already I was happy to be there. We got a nice table and sat there after we took a few minutes to say hello to other people we knew.

Ok so thirty minutes passed, we sat and looked, no waiter or usher had approached us to ask what we would like to eat or drink. One hour passed... No waiter still!. A few minutes after one hour a waiter came offering me a drink. I took a can of sprite reluctantly just because I wasn't sure when something else to eat or drink would come my way again.

Two hours later we were still sitting there no waiter no food! My friends and I were getting very hungry. This made me think back to when I was a little girl and my dad used to make sure I ate something even if it was a little before I went to a party. He would say "just in case you don't get offered any food there, at least you won't starve before you come back home". I don't know why I didn't take to this advice on this very day. I was very hungry

My hunger for something to eat caused me to begin to lose interest in the party. We finally found a waiter and asked if we could have some food. He told us there wasn't any more food. The food was finished, he explained. I was shocked! How could we be invited to a party such as this and 2 hours after we got to the party no one had offered us something to eat and when we finally found a waiter he said the food was finished!

The ushers just stood there looking pretty in their fancy outfit. The only thing they were good for was just decoration for us to look at. My friends and I started talking about parties and how people spend so much money decorating and getting fresh flowers, crystals and artists to perform but forget to emphasis on the fact that their guests must be fed. Why invite people to a wedding and leave them sitting there starving? The bride and groom's family spend so much on caterers but at the end of the day what happens? People end up not eating.

After about 3 hours of waiting and lamenting, we finally found a waiter who my friend gave some money so that he could bring us some food. And guess what? He brought us food! The food looked nice but wasn't all that tasty, but I was so hungry I didn't even have a choice. We told the same waiter that if he could get us some small chops we would give him more money, you can imagine what happened, the fresh small chops came rolling in piping hot, in fact we had more than enough to eat.
Imagine!

We had to pay a waiter to get us food at a wedding!

Most parties I have attended, ushers came to meet you and made sure you were okay, they try to get you some food and made sure that you had enough to eat and drink. They literally acted as hostesses (don’t know why they call them ushers)

But not this party, the ushers were just standing there looking like statues.

Honestly I am not sure who to blame, the family footing the bill or the event planner?
Some event planners take on events that are too big for them to manage. I honestly think that this isn't fair. At the same time some people give out five thousand invitations for their wedding then order food for only four thousand guests! What are the remaining one thousand guests suppose to eat, the fresh flowers on the table?

I mean, I believe in cutting ones coat according to the available fabric. Only invite the number of people you can cater for or instead of ordering those extra mood lights or chandeliers why not put that money towards more food for the guests. Guests like to come to a nice place, but how can they even enjoy the nice place if they are hungry?

When a guest honours an invitation, they must be treated well. They leave their homes and get themselves all the way to the venue; it’s only fair to give them a good reception. The event planner should treat guests like customers; give them whatever they want so that they are comfortable (as long as it is available at the party and for the guests). If for some reason the food finishes, then as a planner you can make other plans. Give the guest a drink, cake, fruits or something. Just act like you are doing what you were paid for.

What’s the point of being a smiley faced planner if the guests at the party you planned were unsatisfied?

The best thing is to eat before leaving your house you can leave a little space in your stomach just in case you get served something nice. But apart from that never go to a party that you or your family didn't organise, expecting to be fed.

Now I understand why some of our mothers carry a big cooler of food to their friend’s party, at least if the food finishes, there would be something to fall back on.

What are your views on elaborate weddings but no food for guests? Who should take the blame, the wedding planner or the family footing the bill? Do you have a favourite event planner?

Mr Biggs...gone to sleep?

Mr Bigs is a household name in Nigeria, a brand that is very famous for it pastries and food. when i was much younger, Mr Bigs was where i loved to go. My parent wanted to give me a treat? they gave me money to go there and have a good time. I loved Mr Bigs as a young child.

What about now?

Nowadays, some people say they can never be caught dead at Mr Bigs, to them it is very low class and would be degrading if spotted there (rolling my eyes) i dont feel that way!

The only problem i have with Mr Biggs is it's many inconsistent franchises especially this particular one close to my office.

The food in this particular one is appauling, the pastries are sometimes stale, infact this type of franchise is the reason why people say the service and food at Mr Biggs has deteriorated.

On several occassions when i sent my office assistant there to get me some pastries he always came back with stories, either they had run out(which i knew was not true, they probably didnt make any that day), their generator was faulty or they were just simply not making scotch eggs for that day. Imagine! a franchise where rent has to be paid, utility bills and salaries too, why didnt they want to make money, what are they there for if not to produce pastries?

The other day i sent my assistant there again, he came back with a susage roll that tasted bad, that roll must have been at their resturant for atleast 2days, they had probably been re-heating and re-heating it till it got to me the final consumer and upon the hot state that it reached me in, it still tasted off. I was so angry, I spat it out and threw the rest in the bin.

Meanwhile i have had pasteries from other Mr Biggs franchises that tasted really really good. Infact there was one scotch egg i ate about a month ago from another franchise that was fantastic . It was honestly the best scotch egg i had ever had. Come back to the one close to my office, their slogan should be

"we deliver crap all the time".

Yesterday, i sent for scotch eggs and guess what they came in? serviettes!! they probably ran out of those white little bags so they sold them in servittes.

Two scotch eggs sold and wrapped in one serviette.

Why didnt they just wrap it in old news paper then i would have really gotten the message.

The horrible thing is; i love Mr Biggs's scotch eggs and this annoying franchise is the closest place to my office to get one. Like a typical Nigerian, i keep accepting crap and re-purchasing it. Anyway, i wont be buying any more pasteries from that Mr Biggs because at this rate they might really hurt not only my emotions but my stomach. So what i have decided to do now is, buy 10scotch egss from that franchise that make good ones then freeze it so i can take one to work everyday.

The Mr Biggs next to my office needs to shut down or wake up, they are a waste of space. Even the roasted corn seller down the road does a better job delievering good service, atleast she sells fresh corn.

What do you think about Mr Bigs? do you think they have really deteriorated? would you be caught dead eating their products?

Dana Crash...bad customer service?

On the 3rd of June 2012, the people of Nigeria lost so many lives. People cried a river as the news lingered in the air that a Dana airline had crashed into a residential area in Ifako Ijaye! It was heartbreaking, several days afterwards people who weren’t even affected by the crash were still having nightmares.
I got a message from my brother saying that his friend's wife was also on the plane, he said he cried and couldn’t sleep pondering on the day’s happening. The feeling was so bad and sad it was sickening; everybody seemed to know one person or the other on that plane.

Somebody said to me yesterday,” how does this relate to bad customer service? Would good customer service have been able to save all those precious lives?” I answered” Maybe!”

The number one problem I noticed in Nigeria is the irritating and annoying way that some service providers think they can treat their customers like mere cows. They do not consider or feel that their fellow Nigerians are worthy of getting good services and I don’t blame them because most Nigerians are just used to accepting rubbish service for their money. They manage bad services sometimes without even taking further actions to make sure they do not get that kind of service again.

Service providers should at all times aim to provide the best service to their customers whether it will cost them their lives or not. For instance, If Coca-Cola decides not to repair a leaking machine and some kind of dangerous oil keeps leaking into the already mixed drink, would it be sensible to still sell it? No, I doubt it very much that if they are aware of that they would still sell the product no matter the quantity. But guess what? Some Nigerians might still offer to buy those contaminated products at very low cost though they know it is damaged and bad for consumption. This is why most service providers treat us like crap.

Another example, if a drug company had some kind of default with the machine mixing the chemicals that form a drug. Let’s say each time this machine is mixing the chemicals something drops into the mixture let’s say a type of rat poison, would they still sell it? No! If they are aware of it they wouldn’t dare!

So why should an airline company decide to fly its plane if it’s not air worthy?

Thinking about this gets me confused. if it were a private jet and the owner insisted on flying the plane even with it being faulty then that is his own business it would be a risk he would be willing to take with his own life, but not a commercial flight that people have paid for and a service that involved human lives.

If people pay for a service they should get the best and not death in return

This is why I am still very perplexed about what was said about the airplane being faulty. Did they really know that the plane was faulty or was it just a rumour?

If they knew their plane was faulty before the journey even started, didn’t they owe it to their customers to deliver to them good quality service especially because they were paying for it? (and even if they weren’t paying for it) It would have still been good customer service if the plane was delayed for a replacement plane and the customers were compensated in a way later. In this case, it wouldn’t be a matter of getting a customer to his/her destination on time but a matter of getting them there safe and alive. The customers might complain but they wouldn’t lose their lives and the airline its license and an unforgettable stigma on their name and image for a very long time if not forever.

Let’s assume that a company is trying to be greedy or self centred which then leads them to not caring about what the customer gets in return as value (thinking about only the profit they would make from the sale). The cost of being a careless customer service provider is very high, higher than what customers pay for the intended service. Most times they end up paying compensation to all affected parties. Like the airplane that crashed, though their insurance company will be paying a lot of money in compensation, the airline will still suffer a lot of loss because the government revoked their license a few days after the crash so their airplanes will not be flying. As long as their airline’s license remain revoked they will continue to lose money until they are allowed to fly again if ever again. And talking about customers, they have lost a lot of customers already and have caused grief in so many homes. Now, how much does a ticket to Lagos cost?. They will be paying back more than what their customers paid for a flight to Lagos.

Speaking about compensation,I felt even worse when I visited somebody whose dad died in the crash. What sort of compensation can bring the dead back?

I mean, when you hear Dana now you think “Plane Crash”

The brand name is now associated with sorrow and loss.

In response to the question I was asked concerning bad customer service being a related topic to the crash? Yes! Good customer service might have saved this particular plane crash and many lives.
Good customer service almost doesn’t exist in Nigeria and when foreigners come, sometimes they follow our steps and treat us the way we treat each other since we don’t think we deserve good services.

Service providers need to pay more attention to the services rendered to their customers. When somebody pays for a certain service, they should get value for it. Every customer deserves to be treated right and they also have the right to demand for the best.

It annoys me so much that people (customers) don’t know what they should be getting for their money but settle for less.
I wonder when Nigerians would stop accepting bad services. When would they start delivering good services? When would they realise that treating and rendering poor service to their customers will cost them more in the long run.

Arabica my love, why hast thou deserted me?

My heart broke for real the day that i learnt my favourite cafe Arabica was closing down. it was one of the saddest news I heard that year. I almost cried!

Arabica was a beautiful cafe in GRA, Lagos right on top of Barcelos, it had comfy chairs and a very large window that i sat next to and watched whatever went on outside. Sitting there sometimes made me feel like l was in a different world.

Arabica was a home away from home, a place where you could relax when you wanted a break from the stress associated with life. It was just a pleasant and peaceful place to sit and meditate.

My favourite thing on the menu was their club sandwich, Oh Lord! it was amazing, amazing is actually an understatement, i ate it with so much passion and compassion and I simply forgot all my sorrows and worries.

I stopped there for tea, to chill, to sit, to think, to relax and

a few times I managed to doze off on their wonderful sofa.

God bless the owner of Arabica! That small cafe brought so much light to my life and a lot of ideas and thoughts were birthed there.

It was my special lounge, I used to invite people over for a cuppa, a chat or even just to look.
I had Arabica friends, people that whenever I saw there, we said hello and smiled though we never crossed paths except during Arabica visits. I guess its not surprising that their faces are still stuck in my head.

The waitresses were amazing and beautiful people. They always welcomed customers with a smile and didnt mind or act funny when we ordered just water but sat in the cafe for several hours without buying any other thing. They knew most of our names, they were nice people.

This was why I was very shocked when I heard the cafe was closing down. "Why Arabica!?"

A place that brought so much joy and peace to ones heart and soul should never have the right to close down!

No explanations no consolations just words from neighbouring shops explaining that the shop was closed and would not be opend again. what a heartbreak!!

Spur Lagos spun me around. WOW!

Yesterday afternoon i managed to blackmail my sister into taking me out for lunch, she agreed. we went to spurs at the ikeja mall. my friend told me about his experience at the place and promised to treat me to lunch there, unfortunately my sister beat him to it.

Meanwhile on one of my trips to London, my Lil cousin wouldn't let me rest until i finally took her to dinner at Spur, i loved it so much, i remember going back there several times after then, their steak and garlic bread were just too amazing. lovely!

So when i heard Spur opened in Lagos i was excited but then skeptical hoping that it wouldn't be another case of Nandos in Lagos.

Anyway my sister and i got to Spur this very day and were welcomed by two very eager and enthusiastic smiley faced waiters who led us to our table. The waiter brought us the menu, my sister and i studied it carefully and asked the waiter for help when we were stuck, he wasn't really that helpful at explaining what the meal was but his eagerness to please us didn't give us the chance to get frustrated. All we did was send him to the kitchen to ask about the menu when we saw that he was trying a bit too hard. He came back with the right answers and we placed our orders!

The restaurant felt a bit hot but before we could complain we were told by one of the waiters that an engineer was working on their air conditioning unit. He assured us that it wouldn't take more than a minute. Soon after, the restaurant started feeling and looking a bit smokey by this time a white lady who we presumed to be the manager came to meet us and explained to us that the engineers were working on their air conditioning unit but it was taking longer than usual. she assured us again that it wouldn't take much longer.

We were very dazzled by this customer service, it was just amazing,

though it looked like the place was about to get burnt, we still sat there smiling and waiting for our food

Two minutes later, a man with a South African accent came to us and introduced himself as the kitchen manager(i think) he explained to us that the power was out so our food hadn't been fully made but the food preparation would commence in three minutes when the power was scheduled to come back on.

We weren't still mad(amazingly), we smiled and thanked him. By this time my sister suggested we go and wait outside because of my nephew (who is only 6months) at least until the power came back on. On our way outside we told one of the waiters to call on us when everything was sorted. To our surprise about four minutes later, we were called in by a waiter and we went back straight to our former table as soon as we sat down, the manager came back to apologise to us( by this time we had received so many apologies we were practically swimming in them). Ten minutes later, the food was out. WOW!!!!!!!!

We were super impressed, so so so impressed. Now, this is what i call GOOD customer service! i almost wanted to give all the people who worked there a hug. it was fantastic service. The food was lovely, i enjoyed every bit of it and every single minute we were there was pleasant. My sister gave the waiter a good tip, he was very thankful.
Our experience here was so lovely, i almost forgot i was in Lagos!

Lister Hospital... The hospital that listens

Lister hospital is a small hospital at Adeniyi Jones, a sort of place you would call "a small friendly family hospital". I love this hospital so much because of their passionate and caring attitude. The hospital is a very good example of a service organization with good customer service. Right from the security guy at the gate to the receptionist, nurses who take your vitals to the doctor himself.

Here is a blue print of one my visits to the hospital

On getting to the hospital that morning the security helped us find a parking space , greeted me very warmly and asked after my parents with a big smile. I entered into the hospital and was welcomed with a warm smile from the receptionist (though i wasn't feeling well I had no choice but to return the smile".

The receptionist invited me to take a seat in front of her asked after my entire family then went to got our family hospital file, not wanting to ask for my name, she asked if I was my sister and I told her my name, she apologized and quickly opened the file and took it to the nurse.I brought out a book while waiting; another nurse walked into the reception and greeted everyone waiting warmly and familiarly. I looked up and she recognized me and greeted me too asking after my parents, she assured me that it would soon be my turn to take my vitals.

A few minutes later I was called into the room where my vitals were taken (i wasn't very familiar with the nurses who took my vitals but they were still very nice to me). I was treated with respect and dignity right until I went in to see the doctor. Like always, the doctor was very kind and compassionate though I wasn’t in the best of health, I managed to smile a couple of times. I left the office, got my drugs, paid my bill and went outside with a cheerful farewell. On getting outside, the security helped us with the traffic and I just couldn’t leave without giving him a tip. He prayed that God blessed me and I said a good “Amen” to that.

I left thinking of the benefits a business can derive from having staff who possess wonderful attitude and a good customer service background. Though this lovely hospital does not have a unit where ultrasounds are done but has a relationship with another center(where scans etc are done) but that does not discourage me from going there. i love this hospital because I always feel at home and comfortable while I am there. most times i don't mind being referred to another center to get an ultrasound done.

Nandos Lagos Dozing Away?

I am a huge fan of Nandos (UK). I love their chicken, corn, garlic bread, their perinaise and the restaurant as a whole. Since the day I started a relationship with Nandos (UK) I have fallen in love with it over and over again and the love hasn’t failed, though sometimes I would have to wait several minutes to get a free table at the restaurant even that never affected my relationship with Nandos. This was why when Nandos opened in Lagos, Nigeria I was over the moon. Unfortunately, there was something about the Nandos in Lagos that wasn’t right, though I couldn’t place my finger on what it was, it was certain that the Nandos in the UK was far better than the one over here. I don’t know if it had something to do with the food being too expensive or the chicken served being too skinny, something wasn’t right and it wasn’t only me that noticed this because soon after they opened they started losing customers and the restaurants became scanty and scantier as we the customers were being served with not too fresh bun(I don’t want to call it stale). One day I saw metal chains on the front door of the branch that I visited the most, it was locked up for a long time until it finally closed down. Whenever I remember that branch I always wonder what happened there. Another branch closed down, then another branch.
About a month ago, I went to the cinema and was too early for my movie so I decided to give Nando’s a try. I walked in, ordered my food and was about to find myself a seat but everywhere was dirty and all the tables that were vacant still had used plates, cups and tissues on them. The cleaner saw me looking confused because I didn’t know where exactly I was to sit, he decided to wipe a table clean for me, I sat down and was irritated by the sight of the somewhat wet table in front of me in disgust I got up and went to another table. The same cleaner again came to wipe the table, this time it was manageable not clean but manageable (I still couldn’t stand it, I got some tissue and wiped it clean myself. I caught the cleaner looking at me with the corner of his eyes but i didn't really care). A few minutes later my brother brought to my attention that the same cleaner was the waiter, so at that branch and at the time we were there, the guy who was cleaning the table worked as the cleaner and waiter. As he cleared a table, he hurried to bring a customer’s order and before he could clean another table another customer’s order needed to be served. At a point, the man looked very exhausted. it was ridiculous that he was doing all that work by himself, no wonder the place was filthy.
I left the place not knowing what to think… is this a way to cut down on cost or are they trying to cut down on customers?