Bravo Tours has Lost Luxury Status
I think we can agree that traveling can be a pretty gruesome experience. Growing up there was only one luxury coach, the Blue Arrow. That was such an upmarket traveling option that in my mind it was no different from flying. The road travelling experience for the elite who understood that time and comfort are more valuable than saving a couple of dollars on a ride. The rest of us would be six-year-olds woken up in a daze at 4am, bathed and dressed in our sleep and bundled into our uncle’s station wagon en route to the intercity rank.
Naturally sooner than later, entrepreneurial minds saw the gap in the market for affordable luxury coaches for the average Zimbabwe. Very soon we heard about Pathfinder, CityLink and Bravo Tours.PPIt was quite refreshing to see the competition come through fresh new(ish) buses and timely travel. For me personally, the biggest value proposition for the luxury coaches is that they travel on somewhat strict timetables. When you take the 7am bus from Harare you know you’ll be in Bulawayo by 2pm and if you take the 2:30pm bus you are on the other side by 8pm. You see, for me, this is the sort of the traveling arrangement I can plan with which is perfect.
You must be wondering why I haven’t spoken about the in-transit meals that were a feature of the three main competitors when they came in and how they fueled business for Chicken Inn and Chicken Slice. It was encouraging that they thought to return some of my fare back in the form of cheap takeout while taking me to my destination in time.
Bravo quickly became my favourite. Not too sure why really but as far as brands go I think I associated better with them. Maybe it was just the red a black color scheme. Oh, I don’t know! To be honest my experiences with Bravo were amazing for the first few years. This could be because I didn’t expect too much on the luxury side and the bus was the least costly of the three. Also when I travelled, I got where I was going on time and in one piece.
Lately, Bravo hasn’t been the same. It’s like they’ve gotten comfortable like your partner 3 years into a relationship when the wig can come of without warning or he leaves his shoes at the gate, his shoes at the door and his tie in the kitchen. The buses look and feel unmaintained, the same bus that comes into a city usually leaves within the hour of its arrival which kinda gives the feeling that there is only one bus on the road. I pray this is isn’t the case because that would be very worrying. Bravo have lost the little bit of luxury they had left. To make it worse, the fast food we loved so much started to disappear, replaced by fruits and water. By fruits, I mean one apple and a couple of bananas (okay maybe not as bad but you get the picture.)
Then the breakdowns started happening. Every other Bravo trip now seems to have a breakdown. Sadly, being Zimbabwean I am almost compelled to forgive them for the break downs and say zvinowanikwa (these things happen), but that’s not true. When you are a luxury coach these things don’t happen. If I wanted a trip riddled by breakdowns and forced recesses on roadsides I would have woken up and gone to Mbare or Renkini. I would have gotten on a $30 bus and not an $80 one. I would have sat in one of those Iveco vans and let it do the rounds with me with the team of 10 random touts pretending to be passengers but slipping out every so often. No! Bravo, if that was the experience I was looking for I wouldn’t have come to you.
Bravo’s biggest problem seems to be the fact that their communication is horrible when they have breakdowns. There have been apparently no apologies from staff or bus hosts and hostesses. All that seems to happen is that the driver disappears for several hours and comes back with help. All the while there is no communication on no word on the status. Imagine, being stranded at the side of the road, watching the time pass by and you move closer to being late for the 4pm meeting you absolutely couldn’t have missed if you got on Bravo. Use Bravo they said. It will be safe they said.
I experienced this second hand when my mother and younger brother travelled using Bravo this past week. I need them to use a bus that would guarantee they arrive on time. My little brother was on his way to his first year of college, probably anxious and not sure what to expect. I couldn’t make the trip because of work and I was sure with Bravo all I had to do was wait for the “We’ve arrived” text from my mom with a decent emoji choice. Instead, all I got was, “stuck on the road, less than halfway to the destination and no word from the Bravo team.” She sent me their numbers, I tried to call but got nothing.
Social media feedback tells me that they aren’t planning on changing. It’s sad, they have had a promising service that could have evolved into what Blue Arrow was to us growing up. Instead, now we get to watch it become that absolute opposite. I got a couple of comments off their Facebook pages.
Bravo needs to learn to communicate. Most business challenges are solved by communicating. I have always believed that a customer who rants about poor service is giving you a chance to improve. I will most likely try Bravo a few more times before I retire. They should be more worried about the customers who don’t complain. In most cases, those are the people who just substitute. Bravo is not excused from competition, there are still players in the pseudo-Luxury coach class who are decent alternatives. Maybe I’ll write about that next.
Here at BBB I’m a big fan of continuous improvement. Customer feedback is a great part of product development and product improvement. I hope Bravo takes customer feedback (and not this rant) and uses it to get better.
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