I have been writing articles for Addis Admass about the poor services of restaurants, pointing out unfriendly, inattentive, and inefficient waiters, dirty menus, filthy toilets, absence of sugar pots on tables etc.

All these things after all are not results of customer-oriented restaurants. Such restaurants do not appreciate their customers. They do not care if customers are irritated or disappointed after dining in their place. They completely forgot that their business is sustained by the customers who pay, come again, and even more, bring more customers, recommending their friends and neighbors.

Fortunately, some restaurants, particularly in Addis Ababa, have started to work on satisfying their customers with better service, improved sanitation, seriously considering customers’ complaints etc.

They have begun to see their business from the customer’s point of view to win the ever-increasing competition from new comers. At the same time, I believe the increasing number of customers who demanded better treatment and service changed the situation. So I hope this customer-oriented mind will soon become a norm in the restaurant businesses.

However, is this only the issue of restaurants? No. Various businesses especially those having a direct contact with customers such as boutiques, beauty parlors, banks, sega beyts (small meat shops), even small suks (small grocery stores) and shoes shine businesses, all these businesses better operate in customer oriented manner.

Let me tell you something. One of the reasons why Japan is economically successful is not because of its skills to create all these Sony or whatever industrial products, it is with its customer oriented mind. For example, if people have to choose between Japanese and Ethiopian gas stations, they will definitely go for the Japanese one.

Because the Japanese gas station will greet you with smile, check the engine oil and clean your windows for free as quickly as possible and while your tank is filling up, they even check other part of your car and let you know if there is a problem and how much money and time it costs you to fix it. If you need to wait for something to be fixed, then they will let you wait inside a room in gas station serving you free tea and newspapers to read. Moreover, they will give you some gifts if you are their loyal customer! And of course, they will always say, “thank you very much” at the end of service.

Customer oriented mind is also related to how businesses display items in their store. The arrangement of stocks make it easy for customers to see and pick their preferences, btter stock management help you to avoid saying “sorry we don’t have a mobile phone card today”. Customer oriented mind makes us to follow strict business hours that we would not go out for tea at the wrong hour and let the customers wait. It also avoids, long queue like the ones you see in Ethiopian banks.

Businesses in Japan continuously come up with innovative ideas on how to satisfy their customers. They don’t copy some practices from other similar businesses just because they see others are doing it.

Let’s take the Internet cafes in Addis as an example. Such Internet cafés are seen in every corner nowadays. One of the reasons for the boom is because the business is easy to start up and operate. All you need is computers, the internet connection from the telecom, and the staff who charge the customers 20 to 30 cents per minute depending on how many minutes a customer was connected to the internet.

Customers choose one café over the other for reasons like convenient location, cheaper price, connection speed, better screen or computer, and perhaps availability of other services such as photo copy, scanning, typing, etc. It seems a very simple business. I believe that is why many grabbed the opportunity to start up. Unfortunately many of them are missing out on more profit making opportunities in the venture by caring less about their customers. Let me share you my experience in such “seemingly simple” business.

I entered into one such café and asked where I could sit looking at 10 open computers. The staff said “you can sit anywhere”. And when I chose one of them, I realized that the computer does not work so I told them “it’s not working”. Then they replied “that’s not working” and pointed at another seat. After I settled to another seat, I wanted to connect the flash disk but the space between the wall and computer is so narrow, so I asked them to help me connect it. They said “it’s in the back”. They wanted me to squeeze my body to this tiny space and plug in the flash disk.

I started using the Internet and realized the connection was so slow. It was not only because other customers were using, but the staff were also using it. The computer itself was too slow because too many unnecessary programs are running perhaps installed by previous customers. This is something they could be able to prevent easily. My eyes started to hurt because of the room and the screen lightening. The screen was dirty with the fingerprints.

My back starts to hurt as well because of the unbalanced chair. The mouse was difficult to use because there was no mouse pad, which is by the way very cheap to buy, and the mouse was dirty. My elbow was bumping to the person next to me whenever I tried to move the mouse. My neighbor also started to peep at my screen because the seats were arranged without consideration of customer’s privacy and comfort.

I could not get concentration to reply emails as the room was loud because of the chatting of the staff as they would not care how loud they were. In one café, I saw a sign forbidding the use of mobile phone and I was so happy until horrified when staff started talking on her mobile.

Many staff don’t seem to have any ideas on computer that even I ask some basic technical questions, they can’t help. They may try to fix, but what worse in this is that after spending some time, they end up saying “I don’t know” and they do not care to deduct my minutes they waste while attempting to fix unless I complain.

And what really bothers me is when the computer virus in the café infects my flash disk. If this happen in Japan, the staff will rush to me to apologize and will fix my flash disk because it is the fault of the internet café. Here, however, even when I complain, they just shrug their shoulders. Some even ask me to fix their computers. I hope you would understand the scenario in the internet café.

I have been roaming around Addis’s Internet café to meet one that truly cares about customers, but I haven’t found one. Instead, many cafes seem to have an attitude of “you are lucky we are giving you some service or products” not “we are glad that you choose our place and spend money on our service”.

I believe that Ethiopian culture of hospitality can also be applied to businesses as well for the customer’s satisfaction. Or are people ashamed of pleasing the customers? Does that affect their pride? If that is the case, they need to know that this is one of the qualities of being a professional. They are not degrading themselves when pleasing others. Moreover, this attitude towards customers is not something you get from going to school.

When people start to give high regard for their customer, they definitely earn more profit and the country’s economy will grow much faster. Isn’t it?