Customer experience on the roads

Getting out of your house and back every day without an injury to yourself or scratch to your car or whatever means of transport you use is almost a miracle in Uganda. Okay, what about getting back without a fistfight, verbal abuse or a million bad thoughts of what you would do to these inconsiderate drivers, riders or even pedestrians on the road? It is just chaos, mayhem and outright bad manners.

I am sure we have all been in a traffic jam when all of a sudden there is this person whose work is so urgent and more important than the rest of you that they leave the lane and create one of their own. Before you know it there are three lanes and you who was in the right lane has now been edged out and you seem to be the one who created the extra lane! A friend of mine always looks long and hard at these people and says the shape of their heads says it all.

I cannot even start on the experience downtown, on the highways, parking on the sidewalks, throwing rubbish out of moving vehicles and the road rage. Hats off for you if you drive in Uganda and especially Kampala, you deserve an award. Hats off for you if you can cross Kampala Road without your heart stopping a little five times before you reach the other side. What we were taught in school “look right, look left and look right again, if it is clear then cross” does not work at all. Try it and you will spend the rest of your life at that spot. Then for our Zebra crossings, do not even dare our drivers, do not bring your “clever” here it is survival for the fittest.

Some of you have had the privilege to travel to countries where people say thank you to the bus driver, where drivers stop for you to cross in suburbs, of course the traffic lights are highly respected on the main roads and highways and oh yes, they work all the time. The law is the law, period! People will respect the seats for the elderly and disabled. The words please, thank you and am sorry roll off the tongue with ease. Now come back to our country Uganda, honestly why, why, why do we have such crappy customer experience on the roads? You can blame every one else including the state of the roads and government but have you ever thought about you?

We are consumers of these services and therefore are customers at most touch points on this journey. If we were asked to rate the customer experience on Ugandan roads based on a scale of zero to 10 (where zero is poor and 10 is excellent), I am almost sure our average score would not go beyond a four, meaning no one would recommend us. I am speaking about the manners we have and not the state of the roads here.

Changing a culture might take us a decade but we must start with a few baby steps as individuals and let our children and people around us see this. May be, just maybe they may copy this good behavior. Most people learn visually.

Purpose to be the considerate road user, don’t make a second or third lane.

Practice patience and let two to three drivers into the road every day. Do not fight to show your supremacy.

Breath slowly when that inconsiderate driver cuts in front of you. Do not start World War three.

Never litter from your car or on the street.

Learn to say thank you if there is a good deed by another driver.

Go back and learn what the road signs mean and try following a few.

Respect the law, at least try.

Some people and radio stations had started initiatives to call out bad road users on air. Some boda boda companies had riders that they tried to instill some good manners in. There were even talks of driving schools giving refresher training to all public transport drivers. I hope these can resume and keep at it until we learn. 

Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time. We can change the future for the better, it starts with you. 

Barbra Mehangye Kahima is a customer experience enthusiast. 
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