MAKING THE CONNECTION: UGANDA

BY TAYLOR STEINBERG – CORPORATE SALES TRAINER, KNAPHEIDE

Making connections is an extremely important require-ment to achieve your goals in life, business, and broadening your horizons.
It was January 2020 when we returned from a 45-day experience in South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania. This once in a lifetime experience told us, at our age in the late 70s, we must plan another adventure.
January 2021
Deep into the chaos of a pandemic, we felt the need to plan our next African getaway. We connected with our close friends and international traveling companions to select the desired goals for our next journey and settled on experiencing the great apes. Research told us The Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda were the destinations of choice. The more we studied, the selection of Uganda was an easy choice as it had the products and the features we desired. The primary language was the Queens English, a very friendly and primarily Christian society, and home to approximately 50% of the great apes remaining on earth.
Connections required to achieve our goals could be overwhelming for some and a welcome challenge to seasoned travel veterans enjoying over 60 countries and counting. Establishing the connections to fulfill our needs began by researching suppliers used successfully on our previous African adventure. Their consensus was unanimous: use local, in-country vendors of value with excellent ratings. The research for this journey began by using over 55 years of customer service experience. Any vendor worthy of consideration must illustrate their excellent product knowledge, passion, and intensity to help the customer succeed in achieving their goals and objectives. Coupled to this requirement is effective and timely communication.
After researching four different suppliers for the needed features and benefits, the selection of Encounter Africa Safaris Ltd was easy as they provided the expected level of service. The selection of their products to achieve all of our needs took well over a month of review by connecting with Monica, their seasoned solutions provider. Once the four travelers agreed upon all of the features and terms, we purchased their products.
History tells us after 30 plus years of intensive domestic and numerous international travel experiences, we always select and deal directly with the air carrier. We normally purchase international air in advance as many carriers offer international tickets up to one year ahead of travel. We always cushion our travel dates with a few extra days both prior to and after scheduled tours and activities.
Travelling during a pandemic requires one to remain very flexible as we experienced five air schedule changes before our departure to Entebbe, Uganda. This sounds like selling a new work truck in 2022 as supply chain chaos impacts availability of products and equipment. Monica, our ever-efficient product provider, quickly made all of the necessary changes, not in hourly changes but in multiple day changes of arrivals and departures.
In today’s business environment, every Ford Pro must have an in-depth understanding of the business environment in which we are working. For the seasoned pros, dig into the successful connections and experiences utilized in previous tough times. For the future pros, work hard and utilize all of the resources you can muster.
For those of you with the desire to learn more about the world and all the creatures therein, broaden your horizons, move out of your comfort zone, and start exploring. A few images follow for your future explorations.