It is the oldest axiom in business, the truest; yet in Ghana it is treated as just a saying, and not the foundation on which all successful businesses should be built.

I am referring to the saying ‘the customer is always right’. The saying is not meant to be taken literally, that’s impossible; but it’s supposed to be a guideline for business people, an admonition that the customer is a very important person to the business, and consequently should be treated as such.

And in any serious business it is taken very seriously. Often customer service personnel undergo rigorous training, whilst the staff are often encouraged to maintain a sunny disposition towards the customers. In our dear country Ghana though, the opposite is quite often the case.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t occur only on the micro level, individual shop owners and the like, though that takes up the majority. It sometimes occurs even at the very top of the corporate level, in institutions such as banks and the like.

This I believe occurs because the opposite of the saying is what we believe here in Ghana. Often the office personnel believe they are doing you a favour, and thus you must move at their convenience.

I have had several incidents personally where I have been dissatisfied with customer service, and heard several stories from friends. These often involve innocuous enquiries, which sometimes transform into yelling on them from the people supposed to be providing ‘customer service’.

I once went with a friend to the bank to pay her fees, and she made a mistake on the payment slip. Due to past experience, she was scared to go for a new one, so I had to pretend I was paying my fees too just to get her a fresh slip, even though I had paid a couple of weeks prior.

And the worst part is, after an incident where you feel dissatisfied, woe unto you if you complain. If you’re lucky you might be ignored, worse you would receive a lecture on how you think you are too important, and that you aren’t and should learn to behave like everyone else.

Aside yelling matches, most of the customer service problem relate to the slackness attached to responding to a customer. It is not a new thing to have to wait because someone is on the phone, or they’re just having some good old inter-office gossip and you’re just an inconvenience who would be attended to when they ‘have a moment’.

As I mentioned earlier it extends to those in the informal sector too, where it’s much worse. The Waakye seller sees you but would linger few seconds longer at whatever she’s doing, or the cashier at the supermarket would keep talking on the phone even though you’re standing right in front of her with your boatload of goods.

It’s a matter of attitude, methinks, which needs to be bled out of the system. Sometimes it’s not even conscious, but because the customer is not accorded that reverence, we attach our typical Ghanaian lackadaisical attitude to serving them as well.

It’s a little thing, but important as everything else in business. The customer must be kept happy so they keep patronising the product. Obviously it’s not having much impact here, as people complain all the time but continue to patronise; but it wouldn’t kill those in the service sector to adopt the one saying that is the oldest in the book and that even toddlers are aware of.