Aside from the glaring harsh business environment in Nigeria, brand experts have attributed the lull witnessed by business owners to their poor, inconsistent service delivery and failure to deliver on promises made to consumers.
The experts, who spoke with The Point in separate interviews, admitted that Nigerians’ tenacity was incomparable to other nationals’, but regretted that most of the brands could not build irresistible brands, “because they fail to offer what is required to attain that level.”
The Managing Partner, The Workplace Centre, Mrs. Bola Adeniyi-Taiwo, explained that the poor level of patronage of some local brands was connected to the ‘care free’ attitude of either the managers or the chief executives of the
brands.
According to her, when compared to some businesses that invest immensely in great customer service strategies, several Nigerian businesses still have a long way to go.
She said, “At the moment, the country is largely perceived as a nation where businesses/ factories are commissioned daily, without adequate plans to relate the sustainability of the business to customer relationship management. The latter has a big role to play in the sustainability of any business.
“There is no business that does not have its publics and that means it is compulsory for all to ensure they build excellent customer relationship.”
Adeniyi-Taiwo added that the best way to ensure consistent customer service was 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.
“An expert said that one unhappy customer would tell 12 people about his experience. But with the advent of social media, one customer may have 500 Twitter followers to spread the message to,” she added.
On whether the Small and Medium Enterprises operators could afford good service delivery, another brand expert, Mr. Seun Oni, said, “The importance of quality customer service training for all staff cannot be over-emphasised for businesses, regardless of their size, service or market
focus.
“There are certain skills, tools and priorities, which are not expensive, 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.”
