In Ghana nothing works logically. Nothing works according to established rules. And expectations of reasonable people never get met. If you insist on reasonableness, logic and scientific methods of doing things you will be damned! A good number of the successes that have been achieved in this country appear to have been by chance, rather than by planned, calculated and executed strategy. Probably, some few actions have succeeded through conscious planning and execution. The country itself does not appear to be well organized. It does not look like it is managed on any perceptible established scientific rule, despite the fact that we have a constitution, and regulations to guide actions. It is the same with most businesses in the country. Some businesses in the country are successful, not because they offer satisfactory and efficient primary goods and services for which they were established, but simply because they have the numbers. It therefore appears that some crafty business people have realized that is how to succeed in Ghana. Start well, treat your customers nicely in the beginning, build a good brand and then when you get the numbers you slack. And for most Ghanaians, once they are hooked onto you, they will never change their minds. When you fail to deliver, they would only complain and complain, but still stick to the business. The businesses that have the numbers are considered successful. These are companies and businesses that have the numbers in terms of the customer base and the huge profits they rake in on daily and monthly basis, but offer less than desirable quality of the basic services and goods customers pay them for. It is disheartening to see cell phone companies, radio stations, TV stations, transport businesses, freight forwarders, wholesalers and retailers who render close to nothing respectable or satisfactory and yet they care less, but because they make the numbers they are respected and deemed successful. I am a customer to a number of services in this country. And as a citizen, I am supposed to be protected and assisted when the need arises, by the Ghana Police, and most recently, the Community Police, but my experiences in dealing with them are appalling, to say the least. In all circumstances, including when I was attacked by robbers in a moving taxi who snatched the handbag hanging around my shoulders and drove on, which resulted in my being dragged on the streets but I miraculously escaped any serious injury because I fortunately didn’t cling to the bag, the response of the police when I went to them was nothing close to what I expected even if I was the perpetrator of the heartless crime. In the end I regretted making a report to the police. Because I had to go back home more hurt because the police didn’t show any interest in neither my person as a citizen nor my predicament as a victim of a robbery that could have snuffed out my productive life. At least, I am alive today to write what you are now reading and other stories you might have read before this one and the ones you might read after. I am a subscriber to MTN, the leading cell phone service provider in the country, but I am getting nothing close to anything that resembles the expensive service I am paying for. The consistent drop of calls, interruptions and break down of service unannounced, and sometimes the excessive charges for calls I have not even initiated. But because MTN has the numbers, they are the country’s number one company in the ‘prestigious’ Club 100. I literally spend 24 hours working on the internet. While in the office and at home, I am constantly on the internet and so I decided to subscribe to Broadband4U at home so I can be online for all the necessarily things I have to do. But now I feel like ‘a prisoner of necessity’. Because within 30 or minutes or less of connecting to Broadband4U, which is a business of Ghana Telecom, the national telecommunications provider, the service can go down four or more times. That is on a good day, when I am lucky to even get connected. For the most part, the service hardly connects. It could go down for as long as one week without any explanation from Ghana Telecom. But the company is expanding its customer base. Ghana Telecom is taking Broadband4U nationwide. So, what kind of service are these ‘poor victims’ going to get, especially, when the service is even prepaid? And even though, the company claims one can get lost time restored, the process is long and cumbersome, and if one wants to go through it, then the customer would have to be prepared to put in some extra time and resources which they hardly have enough of to get back lost service. In some instances however, after going through the processes, the lost service is not even restored. Some radio stations in the country are simply hoodwinking Ghanaians. They have built a brand and have the numbers, but are now simply churning out pure nonsense into the airwaves in the name of excellence in radio and freedom of speech. Some regular hosts including their guests on some talk shows are mostly ill-informed, uninformed, shallow minded and poorly prepared individuals who spend hours on radio spewing out twaddle, further deepening and reinforcing the ignorance of our already disadvantaged masses who have come to believe in the power of radio. Some newspapers do the same; they are selling mediocrity and bunkum in the name of good old noble journalism to Ghanaians. But who cares anyway? Gone are the days when one could learn so much from reading newspapers and or listening to radio. I did in the past, but not these days. For you who care to know, I have never been to secondary school. I only completed elementary school – a 10-year basic education comprising six years of primary and four years of what used to be the middle school. This system was replaced by the JSS and now JHS system. And I guess some of you who have heard me deliver motivational talks before might have heard me recount it - and for those of you who have read my book on personal development know about it. I built my vocabulary through reading and I did read the newspapers a lot and I listened to radio as well. The basics I built through reading; including the reading of newspapers spurred me on to discover my knack for writing and to pursue further education. And thankfully, I have so far acquired five years of university education and still counting. But I can hardly recommend these channels these days to anyone who wants to improve on his or her vocabulary – they just don’t cut. The service providers that have managed to build on their numbers and have attained a certain amount of leverage and visibility are still in business, whereas, some really outstanding businesses don’t seem to have any of the limelight that they should have, because they are doing the right thing but don’t have the numbers. Indeed, it appears those who provide excellent services do not succeed and if they are lucky to succeed, it is often modest. While, we are at it, we have regulators whose duty it is to monitor these companies and institutions and they are being paid to do that, but those of us who are at the receiving end of these crude treatments are hardly benefiting from their services. It is sad, right? It looks as though we are doomed! We are simply prisoners of our own attitude, as much as we shout on the rooftops and yell around about excellence, it is only patchiness that we get. It is being pushed down our throats and we can’t even scream, because we are choking. But to assuage their consciences, these businesses incessantly engage in a ritual they call ‘social responsibility’, because they are aware that they are not giving value for money to their customers. In my opinion, a business’ or organisation’s success should be based on a customer or people focused service which thrives on efficiency and satisfaction. The goal of customer management is to exceed your customers’ expectations, or it isn’t anymore? I am confident, though, that we can change these things if we push harder and insist on what must be done. We must demand excellence from our service providers – nothing more, nothing less. This would come at some price, and we must be willing and able to pay the price. But until we do, we will always remain victims of the system, a system that thrives on the secondary rather than primary objectives for which it exists. Authored by Emmanuel K. Dogbevi Email: edogbevi@hotmail.com