One of the key aspects of customer service is translating grand designs and ideals of serving the customer in an excellent way, into practical action implemented by your staff. We have commented on this aspect of customer service repeatedly in this column.

Recently my family and I spent a weekend at Mala Mala, a luxury game lodge in a remote corner of the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. I had bought a voucher for a two night stay and when I phoned to book, what I asked for did not fit in with some of the fine print on the voucher. The person taking the booking was polite, firm and clear, but said she would see what she could do about my request and phone me back. She phoned back within half an hour with a solution which I was happy with. I was not given time to become disgruntled.

This booking was made some four weeks prior to the weekend. A few days before we were due to leave I received a phone call at my office from someone at the camp at MaIa Mala saying that she understood we would be arriving on Friday and how would we be getting there. I said by car. Did we have a map? No. She would fax me one at once.

She did. On the map there was a note asking me to phone a given number when we had passed a certain point, and I did so. This was to enable the camp staff to have our room ready and waiting and to make any other necessary preparations.

When we arrived at a boom in the bush at the entrance to the camp, the man on duty there kept us waiting for a moment. This was while attending to some formalities which - it turned out - included phoning ahead to the camp a mere minute away so that as we drew up at the gate a reception committee of the people who were going to look after us for the next two days was waiting.

One of the game rangers had been assigned to look after us. He showed us to our room and explained all the dos and don'ts of the place. His message "I am your game ranger both in and out of camp and if you have any special request please ask me." This young man was attentive to us at all times and made our stay thoroughly enjoyable.

Assigning particular staff to look after the guests elevates their status. It becomes normal for each one to behave like a gracious host in a wonderful setting; instead of being a servant to all customers (the norm for the hospitality industry). There is a kind of social parity between them and the guests.

What we can derive out of this experience is of interest. There are three things the management of Mala Mala did in order to translate that customer service ideal into practical and deliverable reality:

From first-hand experience, I would say that Mala Mala is a paragon of customer service. In South Africa we need to be able to offer that service level over and over to make our inbound tourism really formidable.

I wish you all similar experiences of truly wonderful customer service, and hope this publication may help you to provide some to your own customers.

Leigh MCLEAN

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