Francis Egbuson

The beef in the stew was very chewy so I told the Chef who happen to be inspecting the Buffet at that time, and his ready response was ‘’Ha it is Ghanaian Cow, African meat’’. And He went on to explain how you are supposed to know that Beef from Ghana and Africa for that matter is supposed to be this chewy. I promptly apologised and thanked him for taking the time to educate me. Yes, like a number of things you run into in these parts, the ready explanation is ‘’this is Naija’’ or ‘’This is Africa’’ and we get comfortable not minding the fact that this references now mean poor service, mediocrity or part of the process of ‘’nation building’’. Consider the ‘’nation building’’ excuse provided by Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, the Ghanaian Minister of Communications for the brochure that was printed to commemorate the Ghana Independence Day celebrations last month. According to one of the Ghana newspapers, ‘’the brochures were characterised by incomprehensible grammatical expressions, p...

I went to a face to face meeting with the Head of Human Resources of a large telecommunications company in Kampala a couple of years ago. After waiting for about thirty minutes the receptionist told me that my meeting had been rescheduled due to a previous meeting that ran over. The following week I came back and the same receptionist, to my surprise remembered my name. It is true what Zig Ziglar said that the ‘’sweetest sound in anybody’s ear is the sound of their name’’. Now on this occasion I was impressed that the receptionist took the time to notice and remember me the next time I showed up. I don’t know if it was part of their customer reception training or experience but it felt that way. Now As I go through each day, it has become customary for me to make mental notes or take pictures of people or places or products that deliver extraordinary service. It brings great relief because there is no shortage of the opposite – poor, thoughtless or flat out bad experiences. H...