The Bell Boy
Trae has written a wonderful piece on customer service in Nigeria on his blog and I got wind of it when I got tagged on the note on Facebook. I rarely read posts that are long. You either get my attention or lose it within the first two or three paragraphs but after reading the first two paragraphs, I could easily identify with the stories and I was hooked. I do recommend reading it.
Truth be told, the customer service rendered by a lot of Nigerian companies is really poor and the possible reason behind that, Trae has done a good job of writing about. Nigerians are a tough people to deal with – it might be because of the previous encounters they’ve had with other businesses: they’re less trusting and want to be sure of everything all the way and once there’s a hiccup along the transaction, they’ll rain hail and fire.
Customer service (in a competitive market) is sometimes the deciding factor as to whether you’ll make it in the business or not. Effective customer service increases trust and like Stephen M. R. Covey says, when trust goes up, the speed of business goes up and the costs of doing business comes down. So if you run a business (no matter how small or big) doing just a little more of customer service and seeking the satisfaction of your customers will go a long way to improving your profitability and it can have a tremendous impact on other businesses as well. It’s essential that we start creating a society of trust.
August 24, 2010
