Customer Service - An Inadequate Investment

Any smart company intending to make a lasting profit knows that good customer service is the lifeblood of any business that wants hopes to survive.

So, contrary to popular belief and misconception that customer service duties belong in the soft skill section that requires little no attention and that anyone can learn and perfect their art on so long as they are adequately trained, customer service employees deserve to earn as high as a lawyer or medical doctor as they are actually saving your business and giving it a positive.

So doing anything apart from pampering your golden egg layers will be a disastrous move, which several companies either do not know or simply do not care.

In fact, it makes it ridiculous when companies give low budgets to their customer service dept or even outsource a whole customer service to another organisation that couldn't don't care one bit on the impact of a poor and non-chalant customer service team so long as they get their pay check at the end of the month and dish out a miserly part of the cash to the “unappreciated staff”(I have worked once in an organisation that did this)

I even find it immensely disturbing that companies do not scrutinise shrewdly the kinds of talents they invite into their companies to handle their customers directly since they are the lifeblood of any all business(es).

I have watched some “candidates” being recruited into the customer service section of some companies and I turned to the interviewer and say “like seriously?, is the company aware of this mistake you are about to make by hiring this person that is not even confident enough to look into your face least of all handle a high net worth customer?”

Fine, I didn't say that but I definitely thought about it.

I mean, if you do not have the right amount of passion and dedication to attend to different level of craps, compassion that may not be felt for the first few minutes of an angry customer's rant, patient energy and ability to keep quiet when someone is screaming at you over the phone while the tone of your voice remains the same when you finally get to chip in "I understand how you feel", (even if you are wondering and fuming silently whether Harry Potter can swing his magic wand and turn the customer into a stone, or a melting lava) why would you consider working in such unit that demands your pliancy, consistent smile and positive energy at all times for little cash exchange?

Customer Service jobs in Nigeria is actually one of the most challenging jobs which is why the turnover is very high as few people can actually tolerate insults being rained down on them when they don’t deserve it. But you can’t blame them as most companies are not willing to invest in their customer service unit and train their employees adequately on how to deal with different levels of egocentric frustrations and how to pet the golden goose that will lay the golden eggs and increase their revenue.

So in a bid to cut cost, several companies disregard the most important department of their company and focus on other departments that would not even be in existence or have anything to do if there are no customers.

They forget that in Nigeria, it's not what you say or even the quality of product you offer but how you actually say it and present the products and inflate their egos as you kiss their feet and tell them how grateful you are for the N500 they have invested in your company. 

Here in Naija, you have to rub every spender's underbelly even though you feel like puncturing the spleen while smiling like you are aiming for a Close-Up award. 

I mean, does it even make any sense to anyone? We blame foreign companies for treating us harshly in our country and yet the few indigenous companies we have end up giving out the most important unit of their company to another profit making company to handle with little no care so long as the data shows that the calls coming in are being handled.

Whatever happened to satisfaction and retention? Whatever happened to going the extra mile and sacrificing to make a customer happy? I mean, I have done it before; travelled to Ibadan to deliver an order to a customer who I empathised with as the product was something he needed to get to his son in Ghana the next day.

Because I was determined to give a good impression, I had to beg Hubby to drive me down to Ibadan to customer's house. There was no monetary reward but the stunned look on the customer's face when he saw me was my reward and I smiled throughout the drive back to Lagos.

I will give my customer service effectiveness to my previous employer who gave us world class training. (trust me, it was world class. We were embarrassed with all levels of training. Any little break or space was filled with a training session so I know training has a lot to do with one's performance in one's job)

That is what customer service is about and if one does not have that passion, then it is the wrong unit to work in. However, I also understand the compensation needs to commensurate with the effort which is where my stance is.

I believe the term “lifeblood” simply means “without it, there is no hope of survival”. So why do companies ignore that department and practically employ cretins anyone that is so much as ready to settle for an embarrassingly low peanuts income?

For the records, I am a serial online shopper. (Trust me, that is actually laying it mildly & that’s a term to replace the title, lazy market goer that hates to step foot in a physical market).

I can’t remember the last time I shopped outside the screen of my cute red maroon laptop and why should I, when I can simply connect my Airtel BB Etisalat modem to my reliable laptop and log on to konga.com for household stuff, mrp.com for some fairly priced very expensive but a must have piece of denim clothing, or jaramall.com for grocery. If there is one person taking advantage and totally enjoying the new tech age, then it is yours truly.

Hubby has labelled me an extremely lazy shopper who does not visit Mile 12 market like other wives and is proud ashamed on my behalf.

Did I ever mention Hubby can be a traditionalist? (Erm, I know it sounds like herbalist but it’s not, just a refined name to mean “bush man”).

Anyway, to the issue at hand…

I basically have functional accounts with several online stores in Nigeria and overseas and I have been exposed to several customer service experiences within & outside Nigeria and I can categorically say that customer service in Nigeria is messed up and only very few companies (can count on one finger) get it right.

One thing is certain, few customer service professionals in Nigeria are adequately trained to handle irate customers.

And Nigeria is different because the average Nigerian is already angry by nature and coupled with the unfavourable condition of the country, we are upset with everything in Nigeria. So it is normal for a Nigerian customer to work into a store already angry and daring the shop owner to treat him less than the princely royal fawning he deserves. So being a Nigerian is already annoying enough but to now cap it with crappy services for a service they are about to pay for or have paid for will send any born and bred Nigeria into a huge rage.

This is something any existing company in Nigeria should know as we all have this entitlement mentality that we deserve to be worshipped wherever we put our money. So if I call an on-line store to complain about a service I want to pay for or have even paid for and the customer agent at the other end cannot rub my fanny in a soft way or ruffle my abdomen in a placating and soothing way to feed my already overblown ego, THAT COMPANY IS GOING DOWN.

Forget story, In Nigeria, every money spender believes he/she is a god and if companies are not willing to have their employees worship a customer every-time they as much as flash their coins naira, THAT COMPANY WILL HEAR FROM MY LAWYERS.

Watching a typical Nigerian assert his right over a service he paid for is downright entertaining. With spittle flying everywhere and wild arms gesticulating and screams over the phone that can be heard in a galaxy far away while he quotes an unexisting part of the constitution on how he can close down a company by just a phone call, one will think he has spent a million naira.

It doesn’t matter what he bought o. It could be just a roll of Durex or a sachet of expired Dettol soap. So long as money has exchanged hand, a Nigerian will bring down the roof to let you know he cannot be cheated in his father’s land and quick to mention “A customer is the king. You have no right to talk or shout at me, where is your manager?”

And this one that the book on constitutional rights is now being sold in traffic, we Nigerians are quick to shout “I know my right! I will sue you and I will bring down your company! I will show you who I am!”

Well, he is definitely the customer and he is a KING.(just without a visible crown, not even with that 700 naira Downtown perfume he just bought in 2014).

He is still a customer and he is the lifeblood of your business. He deserves to be honoured.

The sad truth however is that many companies just think they are customer service oriented but many are not. They just like the concept. Companies are not willing to invest on employees with soft skills, which is where customer service falls and until a company's training budget matches its engineering, sales, marketing or financial unit, the company cannot claim to be customer focused. Until a company can train hugely and properly its customer facing staff as hugely as its technical team, it is definitely not customer service oriented. 

Many of these companies are simply existing due to lack of better competitors.

However, times are changing fast. Emotional intelligence is becoming an important prerequisite to satisfying and retaining customers. Customers are beginning to see through the bulls**t of many companies and are no longer willing to put their money where they are not being treated as kings.

And for customers to be treated as kings, their main servants (the customer agents that deal directly with them) have to be treated like the golden chicken laying the golden egg.

If you value your customers, you will value the staff you have on your front line manning their interests.

Otherwise, it’s tick…tock….tick….tock…tick….tock