I have been, over the past few weeks, involved in a major refurbishment of a family-owned property.
This has required the services of a range of service providers, ranging from aluminium windows to catering equipment. I have frankly, been flabbergasted by the attitude, professionalism and general modus operandi of our local businesses.
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Responses have ranged from casual disinterest, to arrogance, with a lot of broken promises and unmet expectations thrown in for good measure. The pattern is the same, particularly for established businesses: Your request is noted, and generally a senior manager or owner calls on site and has a cursory look around.
You are then told that their ‘guys’ will make another visit to prepare a detailed estimate. This happens anything from a few days to a week later….or never.
In our case, it is a hospitality venue being prepared for the Christmas holiday season, so time is clearly of the essence, a fact consistently emphasised with them.
Then, if you are lucky enough to receive your quote, it is invariably incomplete in terms of pricing and detail, and in most cases received weeks after the job has been awarded to someone else.
Of course let’s not forget the dreaded ‘call out fee’ which is only pointed out to you well after the visit.
I have honestly felt as though I was being granted a huge favour by the potential suppliers’ presence on my site. Almost without exception, a follow up call or two was needed to elicit some sort of response.
The most alarming thing for me was that most of my first choice suppliers were well established businesses, who really appeared to take their customer base for granted. In a few instances, I was forced to resort to Durban-based service providers to source my products or goods.
In the context of the pressure and complications the Covid pandemic has wrought on businesses worldwide, one would have expected an absolute hunger and keenness to secure new work.
Not here though. The (S)Lower South Coast motto has seemed to be taken to heart by our local business fraternity.
Vijay Naidoo is the CEO of the Port Shepstone Business Forum. He writes in his personal capacity. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
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