‘Do you know who I am’ card

Kevin Mokento | Monday April 11, 2022 06:00

In a trice, the desperate senator had flashed that super card of convenience, which in his view, was the magic wand required to guarantee him special treatment.

What exactly is the ‘do you know who I am’ card? It is an intimidating technique that is employed by important or self-important attention-seeking folks. Closely riveted to this unfortunate practice is the unsaid sense of entitlement that is often accompanied by namedropping or the excitement that comes with shouting out one’s name or title as if that is the passport towards a special type of service that is denied the general populace. This sad culture that has enveloped all countries, from the low-level poverty-stricken ones to the high-level affluent ones, tends to ignore the principle captured in the saying, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. This beautiful saying disparages the disparity in service offered to people based on class distinctions, particularly where the best service is only reserved for the affluent or title-possessing individuals.

What would happen if this saying was religiously observed by all service providers? No doubt service delivery would improve, and client satisfaction would hit the roof. Each person would be treated as a VIP and all would benefit from exceptional service standards offered by well-rounded committed teams. Regarding customer service, we cannot afford to be down in the weeds, and neither can we be seen to be stoking the flames of mediocrity in service delivery. From your experience, in talking to people from different countries, what have you found to be the common thing they decry about our beautiful country? Wouldn’t you agree that it is lack of commitment to service excellence? And this has absolutely nothing to do with the government as a collective. It has everything to do with the nature of people engaged to serve.

Oftentimes, their view on the rendering of service is skewed, thereby perpetuating the myth that, in this country, service excellence will always be comparable to a slippery eel. They tend to believe that they have been engaged to find a reason, whether good or bad, to deny one a service. Their mindset is often flawed even before the service is demanded.

Let me share one example with you. My sister is married to a South African bloke. While her entry into Botswana is always smooth, my brother-in-law is always given a rough time. His view is that the majority of immigration officers who have served him are, for want of a better phrase, a hectoring cold piece of work. He has complained about ignoble and diva outbursts of downright rude immigration officers who would shout at him for no good reason. And the impression he gets from the shameful service he is normally subjected to is that some immigration officers’ view is that by allowing him to enter the country they are doing him a favour he does not deserve. Doesn’t this run against the grain of the Botho pillar that we have embraced as a nation? And how does this reconcile with the spirit captured in the national tagline, Botswana, our pride, your destination?

There is an added poignancy to this - how does this unfortunate conduct help organisations that have been tasked with the arduous responsibility of luring foreigners to set up business establishments in our country? Isn’t it true that when they go out on targeted investment promotion missions, they consistently assure foreigners that Batswana are accommodating and welcoming? Can we afford to have these committed compatriots accused of weaving grandiose hoaxes that can only spike the needle on a polygraph? Do immigration officers appreciate they are an important part of the state machinery that keeps the wheels of trade and investment turning and that it would be impish to betray that noble cause? More than anyone, these officers must set the gold standard for service excellence, they can’t afford to be at the southside of this important attribute. Lest we forget, from the prism of foreigners, especially those loaded with capital to invest, service delivery speaks volumes about us as a nation, particularly our moral timbre and work ethic.

Here is the absurdity, since first impressions last, what would motivate foreigners to believe investment promotion officers, if their first experience at our country’s ports of entry is a harrowing ordeal of baptism of fire? For most people, upon arrival at ports of entry, before they join the immigration queue, their first stop is the bathroom? What do they tend to believe about our values and service standards, when they find toilets without toilet paper and hand washing soap, as is often the case at the Tlokweng Border Post? Wouldn’t you agree that by every possible metric, this lapse in customer service is recklessness and a travesty of human dignity? This is disconcerting.

The truth is, people with the clout to drive change are often shielded from horrible customer service, particularly at airports where the practice is to whisk them off to VIP lounges where the best service is rendered in welcoming and pleasant environments.

Businesses that are highly committed to upholding high standards of customer service normally engage mystery shoppers. The objective of mystery shopping is to assess the nature of service offered without the knowledge of the parties offering that service, and to hold them accountable for any customer service gaffes. It is one of the best ways of ascertaining whether parties engaged to offer service measure up to the standards they have signed up for.

This also helps to improve the personal bandwidth of officers involved in service delivery. When this initiative is beefed up by independent customer service surveys, the results have been a revelation to many entities and have helped them to refocus on their commitment to service delivery, reaffirm and double down on their commitment to excellence. This is what we should live and breathe. We cannot afford to leave service delivery, something that must be inviolable, to the random twists of fate, neither can we allow uncommitted individuals to drag the nation into the reputation-shredding zone through their smug complacency.

If we were all committed to service delivery, the national trajectory will be plain for all to see, not subjected to the sine-like curve sporadic highs and lows one would associate with deftness and ineptness. This is a call for us to play our part and hopefully eliminate the need for playing that, do you know who I am card.