New ventures…pay attention to first-time customers

By Sandra idossou

It started with Victor, Dalia, Matt and a few other friends who talked to me about this new restaurant at Nyarutarama that had a great ambiance and décor.

As always in need of new experiences, we decided to check it out last Saturday.

When we entered, the first impression was; “this place really deserves the name “Zen”. The decoration, lightening and the sound of the water cascade made us relax straight away and put us in high spirit and expectations.

Unfortunately, things started turning sour as we desperately waited for someone to bring us the drink menus. We realized that people who came even after us were already having their drinks.

This made us a bit excluded as at a certain time, we had the impression that the woman in charge (probably the owner) went round only to people she knew.

After 15 minutes of wait, we eventually called someone for the drinks menu. We ordered a glass of Port and an organic or oriental tea. The waiter came back 5mn later and said there was no port and that the only tea they had was “African tea”.

For your information, this was supposed to be an oriental restaurant. By now, we had been there for over 20 minutes and were still struggling to get just a drink.

Not ready for yet another stressful Saturday evening in a restaurant, we simply decided to go back home to eat our left-over’s accompanied by an excellent Rwandan green tea.

We don’t know yet if we will go back there especially for the “Dim Su” ( a Chinese specialty literally meaning touch the heart) we had wanted so much to try in Kigali.

While leaving with our pockets still full of the money we had planned to spend that evening, we pitied the owner. Maybe that was just a bad day for us but I wish business owners understood the importance of first-time customers in their new ventures.

It doesn’t make any sense to invest so much money in a business and not pay attention to customers especially those who come for the first time.

It is true that every new venture has its period test that is capital in creating a first positive impression. In a small town like Kigali where almost everyone knows everyone, comments on poor service will unfortunately spread quickly.

It is therefore very important to capitalise on the first impression that is given to new time customers. First time customers should be used as marketing and advertising agents.

If you have just invested in a new business, I will beg you to take time in fine-tuning your services. Make sure customers who come for that trial go back with a positive image of your products or brands.

Invest time, energy and training in your staff so that they can offer that “wow” experience to new customers. Be present there yourself and show to your employyes how you want them to do things.

Have real person-to-person contact with all your customers, avoid discrimination as a customer who walks into that new business probably has the means of becoming a loyal customer.

Treat each customer well with the same attention. That’s how you will make them come back. Even better, they’ll tell their friends too! And that is exactly the type of referalls that is important to your business especially at the beginning.

Pay attention to little details even at the begenning, be consistent and you will be surprised at the reputation and great customers referrals you would gain.

sidossou@theservicemag.com