Creating the Right Service Culture
Raheem Akingbolu writes on the need for business owners and employees to promote good service culture to enhance the corporate image of the country.
The clamour for ideal customer service in Nigeria has been on for a while among stakeholders in the business environment, who consider impressive service culture an imperative for Nigerian businesses. Often times, reports of how customers are humiliated by service providers and customer service personnel of various companies attract condemnations. Customers are always wishing to be treated as kings in line with the popular aphorism but what they get is rebuff and unfriendly approach.
In recent time, the call has attracted debates and seminar with the aim of sharing global best practices with the country’s business class.
The Workplace Centre Limited (TWPC) is set to organise a similar customer service training that is scheduled to hold in the last week of September. The training, which is tagged The Customer Amazement Revolution Master Class, is designed for managers, supervisors and client interfacing executives for them to gain insights into consistent service delivery strategies that will revolutionise their customer service culture.
General perception It is believed in some quarters that many corporate and public organisations lack a coordinated and consistent model for excellent customer service delivery.
This is evident in the unsatisfactory level of service experienced in many sectors of the economy today, resulting in low levels of patronage when compared to those who view customer service as a major source of competitive advantage.
For a country such as Nigeria that is seeking to diversify her economy, following the sharp drop in revenue caused by the fall in oil prices, there is an urgent need for organisations to invest immensely in building customer relationships in order to make their brands more irresistible and to make their goods and services competitive in the global market place.
According to experts, Nigerian brands potentially stand as the biggest beneficiaries of any arrangement that would usher in an era of an amazing customer service culture.
Expectation The Workplace Centre Limited (TWPC), a human resource and information technology consultancy firm that offers unparallel quality of service in these areas of expertise, is set to engage Managers, Supervisors and Client Interfacing Executives on how to make strategic decisions to transform their organisations’ customer relationship management and to emotionally connect and add value to every interaction.
This forum will ride on the platform of TWPC and participants will learn from the wealth of experience of world known speakers anchoring the event. Some of them are Shep Hyken, a customer service expert and the award winning author of several books including The Amazement Revolution, and Benjamin Ola Akande, the 21st President of Westminster College, Missouri, U.S.A and immediate past Dean, George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology, Webster University among others.
TWPC is promoting the much needed amazement revolution in the nation’s customer service delivery. Co-founder and Managing Partner of TWPC, Bola Adeniyi-Taiwo, expresses optimism that if all business managers and chief executives in Nigeria heed the call for a consistent amazing customer service, more consumers of our goods and services within and outside the country would increase their demand for our products, which would in turn improve the unemployment situation in the country. This, she noted, would help the nation transit to and gain global competitive advantage.
Networking opportunities According to the organisers of the forum, which is scheduled to hold at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos this month, decision makers from companies across various industries would converge to share ideas. The event tagged: The Amazement Revolution Master Class is said to be an opportunity for business managers to brainstorm on how to attain and retain customers and develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset.
Founded in February 2013, TWPC is a state of the art skills development centre that provides employability and entrepreneurial skills development as well as human resources and ICT services to its clients.
“We work with our individual clients to build their knowledge and develop a career road map, which gives them a competitive advantage in their chosen field of endeavour. Our knowledgeable and experienced consultants provide our corporate clients with unparalleled quality of service in six broad areas: HR Consulting and Outsourcing, Recruitment, Soft Skills Development, ICT Professional Skills Development, E-Learning/M-Learning and ERP Applications and ICT Consulting” she stated.
Adeniyi-Taiwo emphasised that TWPC is guided by strong values and high ethical standards. According to her, the mission of the company is to provide innovative solutions and excellent services that maximise our client’s return on investment.
The best way to do that is not to view customer service as a cost but rather as an investment in building future and long lasting relationships that would create customer evangelists.
Quoting Shep Hyken, she stated, ‘Hitherto, one unhappy customer would tell 12 people about their experience. Now, one customer may have 500 Twitter followers so spread the message to.’
Feedbacks Industry watchers stated that the importance of quality customer service training cannot be overemphasized for businesses regardless of their size, service or market focus. In view of the managing partner; “The most successful companies take customer service farther by applying it directly to their employees. When a service or sales team regards and treats one another with the same consideration and respect that they would offer the customer, amazing team spirit is created and the overall work dynamic of the establishment is improved.
“Additionally, there are certain skills, tools and priorities that are essential to the growth and development of amazing customer service. There is no gainsaying the fact that we must have the technical knowledge, financial and material resources as well as the required infrastructure and up to date technology to attend proactively to our customer’s needs. The benefits that excellent customer care skills provide to every business are endless.
“Not only can it make the difference between an immediate sale or lack thereof, it can also make or break a potential long term client relationship.
And with everything else being equal, almost everyone will choose the company that recognises and meets their needs consistently over the one that does not” she added.
Meanwhile, some experts have opined that the most immediate and important factor when dealing with quality customer service is establishing an orientation of respect. According to them, that is one element that is immediately felt by the consumer.
To those who share this belief, this alone can lead a hesitant customer to make an instant purchase or cause them to walk right out of the door.
After the respectful attitude is established, it is believed that it is vital to anticipate and very importantly focus on the customer’s needs. This, according to them, is when active listening skills are essential.
Another important factor the organizers want Nigerians to note is that excellent customer service begins long before the actual purchase is made or the service is ordered. Some observers are of the opinion that customer service begins on the telephone, through on-line contact or as a customer is walking through the door and it should continue consistently thereafter. According to them, that’s the easiest way to ensure ongoing approval, repeat patronage and referrals.