The customer’s perception is your reality- Kate Zabriskie
You walk into an office to do business and the first welcome you get is a chewing-gum-smacking or nail-filing receptionist who’s more interested in the Nollywood movie showing on African Magic or the office gossip she’s engrossed in over the intercom than anything you have to say. I am certain that many people can relate to this. Whether it is a Supermarket, Hotel, Bank or Customer Care Center of a Telecoms operator, bad customer service has become the hallmark of businesses in our society. It almost appears as though we have accepted the status quo as we only complain but hardly ever do anything about it, which I personally blame on the unnecessarily sentimental nature of our society. Take the case of my encounter with this particular lady who is responsible for receiving payment for parking at a popular mall on the mainland and who I found to be tacitly rude on a couple of occasions when I had cause to deal with her. I can recall mentioning to my friend that I would report her to her employers on one of such occasions and the response I got was “Lolade, please don’t do that because she may lose her job as a result.” That of course laid the issue to rest as I immediately had a rethink over the matter. I however made sure to let my friend know that it was due to such sentiments that people in customer service jobs continue to get away such unprofessional behavior!
When businesses start in Nigeria, more often than not the service is very good, the representatives of the organisation are polite and gain many customers as a result of good service. Fast forward to a couple of months down the line and things change drastically, the once polite staff are suddenly aloof and the service delivery becomes nothing to write home about. The example of a small chops catering business in Ikeja which a couple of my colleagues and I used to love to patronize readily comes to mind. When they started out, you were guaranteed to get hot well prepared snacks but now it’s either you are presented with stone cold snacks or for some inexplicable reason one or 2 pieces that should make up the pack are missing, yet the price remains the same! This is the story of many businesses and brands in Nigeria, the customer is taken for granted especially when the company appears to be at the peak of their success and we wonder why businesses are dying everyday.
I don’t know who’s more guilty of poor customer service, whether it is the bank where the front line staff are obviously nicer and would in the speed of light attend to a customer who is perceived to be wealthy or influential while the haggard looking market woman saving her pennies daily is left on the queue for ages, or the Customer Care Representative of a Telecommunications company who perfunctorily thanks you for choosing her company as your service provider after leaving you more confused and annoyed and without solving the problem you complained about, or the security guard of a large corporation who talks to you brashly or almost totally ignores you because you have committed the grave sin of not showing up with a car at his gate. He forgets that even if you came job hunting, if you eventually get the job, you automatically become his boss. At that point he has the “power” over you and will wield it as he likes. This is one of the reasons why I personally don’t subscribe to giving a tip unless a Customer Service Personnel has treated me very well or offered exceptional service.
Being in the business of client service myself, I know that the Client Service Executive is just like every other person who has personal problems and moods. I am also well aware that some clients/customers can be very difficult to deal with, but isn’t that where professionalism comes in? After all Broadcasters, News Anchors and Presenters have to show up everyday with a smile on their faces regardless of what may be going on with them behind the scenes. It’s the nature of the job! The over flogged sayings “The customer is king” and “The Customer is always right” have become broken records but should still serve as daily reminders for anybody involved in customer service. Organisations (no matter how big) should realize that they take huge risks by employing incompetent, ill-mannered and untrained personnel as Customer Service Officers and will most likely pay dearly for it in the long run if appropriate steps are not taken to remedy the situation.
Hi. Thanks for sharing this oo. I think we (customers) should carry placard to see things change.
Like you rightly pointed the dedication to the customer isn’t top notch any more unless there’s something significant to benefit. The personnel that is over looked in training by these big organisations most times are the security…they have in some cases evolved into some kind of uniformed beggers.
With that said, I think we should salute those that are on top of their game. I dove my heart for them and want to encourage them by saying well done & keep it up.
Thanks for sharing sis.
Haaa, true….forgot to add the begging part. A security guard who hasn’t offered any assistance is still shameless enough to beg for money. Thanks sir.
Hi. Thanks for sharing this oo. I think we (customers) should carry placard to see things change.
Like you rightly pointed the dedication to the customer isn’t top notch any more unless there’s something significant to benefit. The personnel that is over looked in training by these big organisations most times are the security…they have in some cases evolved into some kind of uniformed beggers.
With that said, I think we should salute those that are on top of their game. I dove my heart for them and want to encourage them by saying well done & keep it up.
Thanks for sharing sis. God bless
Lol..I remember how being unprofessional as a customer service executive cost me my job some years ago…I was trained and until that day,offered excellent service! Although i was frustrated and extremely tired on that fateful day and the customer was one of those difficult and unruly ones…lol, my employer did not spare me oooo..
It was a big blow plus good lesson for me, and i believe,as you have said,if organisations (like mine that time) will demand total professionalism from personnel,whether or not a customer is crazy,rude or proud, our nation’s businesses will gain finer perceptions from other reasonable customers..Weldone Lolade.
Thank you so much for sharing your personal experience concerning this Idowu. Trust me, I know the customer service job isn’t an easy one. But if we have chosen to do any job at all, we must try to give our best at all times.
Customer service very essential. Every staff of an organization should be able to give good customer service whether they r internal or external clients.
True that Tee! Thanks a bunch.
For as long as corporate institutions continue to regard customer service functions as “cost centers” and as such play down on the importance of these roles and lower the bar of recruitment criteria for personnel to perform these duties, the eventuality will always be poor customer relations. Banks and Telecom outfits are most notorious for this practice. Their forntliners (tellers, concierges, customer service officers, call center agents and other related personnel) have been outsourced to personnel management firms who pay meagre renumeration for the discharge of this very essential service. I have been a direct “beneficiary” of this embarssment and I was not so surprised when it actually happened. How does one explain a scenerio where two bulk tellers of a bank like GT bank are actively gossiping in Yoruba about a colleague’s allegded infidelity right in front of a sitting customer! The need for organizations to place the customer service function on a higher ranking is increasingly becoming more pertinent. And until this is done, the customer shall remain constantly dissatisfied and frustrated as clients of certain organizations.
I couldn’t agree more with this submission. Thanks a lot.