In a way it is sad, frustrating and irritating though: this country has so much to offer, to everybody, and then they don’t grab the (full) opportunities – or they rip each other off, making everybody’s life harder. And (as a foreigner) you can scream until you are blue in the face, but you are the only one that seems to care…

Welcome to SA – we all rant, in and about every country, but at the end of the day this is a beautiful place. My unsollicited advice: go with the flow, adapt to (try to accept) the ‘hasta manana’ mentality of others, but do never become sloppy like that yourself – that way you keep your edge – it will pay off.

BTW: can’t find your blog – is it so private that they were not allowed to include a link? Not much link-love, my love LOL

And then their ‘friendliness’: we now come to the conclusion that it is easier to do business with a Colombian coke-cartel: you pay, they deliver. AT SA banks you’re not wellcome as a foreigner, distrusted (xeno-phobic) and charged for putting money in your account….

Overchraging and underperfoming seems the national creed. Or should I say greed?

Multichoice was hell as well. Discovery and other insurance companies are legalized and institutionalized theft-syndicates. Anyway, the big corps.
Now the SME’s. They suck. Too. They have 2 cellphones (male ego, you know), have major phone bills, but don’t seem to be able to inform clients: whether they will be late for an appointment (“Africa time” – sure, looser: if you can’t manage your own time, why would I spend my money with you) or simply return calls from a prospective client.
Asking for a quote, same story: 2 or 3 times is no exception. But if you hear them: complaining business is slow bla bla.

I think it is their inferiority complex: big mouth about service, delivery etc. But being boycotted for years (12 years is too little to adopt to a new world – the ANC suffers from that same disease), never been overseas, it is perhaps too much asked to gear up, to benchmark yourself in a globalizing world. But then, braai and rugby are their measure for success.

Makes it easier for us foreigners, though: opportunities, overtaking them left and right. But that makes them even more xenophobic…

Eish, so much to conquer here

It is inevitable to slip up once in a while (often even), but true commitment to service delivery and the management of these slip-ups is what seperates the good from the bad.

What you’re trying to highlight is maybe that ‘people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’. As a service-oriented business ourselves, World Wide Creative has a proud track record of going above and beyond for our clients, notwithstanding the fact that w3 standards are second to our client’s profitability. World Wide Creative is a marketing company, not a technology company.

That said, W3 standards has been on our radar for the past few months now, and one of our team is focusing on getting our sites w3 compliant.

I think the point I’m trying to make is that this is it’s not the first time I’ve heard a visitor to our country talk about service. In fact, as it happens, South Africa has a reputation of delivering diabolical service.

I don’t want to get caught up in throwing stones – I want to uncover solutions.

As an example, the http://www.worldwidecreative.co.za/ website shows 240 errors in the html coding (according to the w3c standards). Many people would not notice it but some may complain.

Having said that I agree that the banks are particularly bad. Some are better than others especially if you have a good turnover in your account (this can get you personalised service that is globally competitive). SA telecoms companies are also renowned for poor service. My favourite is No Choice (they call themselves multi-choice).

I personally had an excellent FNB experience last week, but they have been under extreme pressure with major changes happening so I suggest that you give them another chance.

Why does this remind me of our rants (2 months in the UK – seven years ago) about “don’t English businesses want to do business”, and we asked ourselves many times over: “have we time travelled?”

Items 1, 2 and 5 really bring back bad frustrating memories.

On the other hand, it did taught us how to become a better business ourselves