When arrogance pushes opportunity aside

A careless first encounter can cost businesses dearly, as an international delegation discovered when dealing with a major transport group. JIM WARD discusses the priceless perception of service, and behaviour that influences first impressions. 

Good service is a fragile, fleeting thing. It is hard to quantify, but good impressions and an organisation’s reputation can be created or destroyed early in a relationship – even by something small or seemingly insignificant. 

A waiting guest might be handed a worn mug with a plastic teaspoon sticking out of a tepid mixture of teabag, milk, and sugar, with no other option offered – or a clean tray, with a pristine cup and saucer, milk, boiling water, and the requisites for making a fresh cup of tea or coffee. On the surface, these offerings might seem to be similar, but they send very different messages about the level of service you can expect moving forward.

If your first encounter with an organisation differs from your expectations, you might wonder whether all subsequent interactions will echo that first experience. If someone is late for an appointment, clearly unprepared, or becomes unavailable because they have double-booked, one may question their planning skills.

A disorderly, messy meeting venue – strewn with paper, dirty cups, crumpled flip charts, and broken chairs pushed against the walls – speaks volumes, as does a bitterly cold or unpleasantly hot room. If the host’s screen or data projector doesn’t work, or if a vital adaptor cable or remote is missing and no technical assistance is available, one may start to wonder about standards in other areas. How long have things been like this? Is this the organisation’s prevailing standard? 

In and of themselves, these things may seem trivial, but the received message and what it implies leaves a lasting negative impression. 

Likewise, inaccurate directions to an event or outdated corporate letterheads reflecting an invalid address may delay and irritate prospective clients. If essential logistics like where to park or which specific security gate to use aren’t properly considered and communicated, visitors will wonder about internal communications and the operation as a whole. How come no one knew that potential new clients were arriving? Does new business not matter? Is that how customers are treated generally? First experiences often set the tone and imply a pattern likely to be repeated for much more sensitive and critical things. 

The visitors themselves may also make naïve assumptions and behave arrogantly. For example, we were invited to meet a visiting commercial delegation from a leading tyre manufacturer – one of the top six producers worldwide. Well aware that most businesspeople from that particular country love their coffee – and keen to welcome them properly – my colleague brought in his personal coffee machine, went out of his way to source the right type of coffee, and arranged for creamer instead of milk, quality snacks, and suitable crockery. The meeting room was carefully set out for what we hoped would be a fruitful and valuable session. We had prepared a comprehensive presentation on group tyre requirements and information packs specifically for this delegation.

Some 40 minutes after the appointed time, having had no word from their high-level team, we received a garbled, irate text from an overseas number, explaining that they had not anticipated the Johannesburg traffic and were running late, asking to reschedule to 10am. 

Someone overseas had booked an absurdly optimistic itinerary including an unrealistic series of rapid appointments visiting coach fleets, transport groups, dealerships, and franchises, without any local consultation. It might have been possible in a compact European city with efficient public transport, but was completely unrealistic in Gauteng’s peak traffic, even ignoring potential accidents and power outages. Furthermore, in Mzansi, businesses take pride in hosting visitors warmly, and enjoying a meaningful lekgotla*. 

The visitors’ proposed itinerary was based on a supposition that they could simply crisscross the megacity from east to west and north to south in a matter of minutes, at freeway speeds. Not only that, but it would have necessitated spending just 20 minutes at each visit – barely enough time to collect a list of requirements, enquire briefly about business, drop off product details, and leave. There was no thought given to greetings, walkabouts, discussion, or any other niceties (or, indeed, traffic). More than anything, it felt as if they were doing us a favour; that’s not how we do business here. 

Overall, they had allocated a paltry one-and-a-half days for their Gauteng visits. This is South Africa’s economic powerhouse – the centre of most business – and even if they’d taken to the pavements and driven down the wrong side of Jan Smuts Avenue like taxis, they could never have made it to half the meetings they had planned.

As it happened, I was chairing another important meeting starting promptly at 11:30am. When the misguided entourage called again (25 minutes after the rescheduled start time) they were still somewhere near OR Tambo airport – once again surprised to be delayed in westbound traffic and running over an hour late. Unfortunately, I was forced to pull the plug and cancel our meeting. We never met them, and they did not apologise. The following day, someone half-heartedly attempted to reschedule their missed appointments, although they made it clear they were flying out at 2pm. We were left with an overriding impression of arrogance and thoughtlessness; when they tried to make arrangements with us again a year later, they were informed that we were unavailable.

Had they made the effort to plan their visits properly and honour our appointment, they might have been interested to discover that our total tyre spend (then) was around R400,000/day, and that our combined fleet** was forecast to cover 219 million kilometres by financial year-end, across 10 operating countries. We were seeking a critical service provider and a strategic partner – potentially a worthwhile meeting for any tyre company. Our coffee was pretty good too… 

* Lekgotla is a Sesotho and Setswana word for a traditional meeting, council, or gathering where important matters such as decision-making, problem-solving, or planning within a community or organisation are discussed. In a modern context, lekgotla is also used to describe strategic planning sessions or high-level meetings – often within government, business, or community groups – where participants come together to debate issues, share ideas, and reach consensus. The essence of a lekgotla lies in its emphasis on collective decision-making and inclusive dialogue.

** Combined fleet includes mining, offroad, and agricultural plant and machinery.