Customer Service Excellence and the Nigerian Culture

Hello good people, and welcome to my blog again. After my first post, a dear friend advised that I weave my blog ideas around real life experiences, and I agree with her. Some of the blogs I’ve read seem to have a bit of everything, and trying to tow that line may seem so ordinary. So, while I worry about the format my entertainment and sports gist will take; let me follow my friend’s advice to the letter.
I work in the Customer Service division of a multinational company. Prior to joining the organisation, my idea of customer service was limited to the fact that Iya Basira, a trader on my street, usually addressed me as ‘Customer’ whenever I walked past her shop. My job enriched my knowledge, and positioned me to always look out for the kind of customer service that will keep me coming back for more. I became very ready to offer excellent customer as much as I was ready to enjoy it, until an issue I never thought of arose- the Nigerian culture.
Read more

Nigerians are wonderful people when it comes to brand loyalty. Till date, many of us still refer to all detergents as Omo, and every seasoning as Maggi. Our brand loyalty was due to sentiment, and not customer service, for customer service was an alien word until a few years ago. But since its advent, it has generated some issues which made my job challenging at the initial stage. First, I had to do away with the idea that I was doing the customers a favour. My excuse then was that if bus conductors and traders could insult them and they never bothered, why would such customers want to lord over me? My feeble excuse only aggravated issues as I became more irritable to, and withdrawn from, customers. It was until I got the same treatment in a supermarket that the truth dawned on me.
Comparing myself with the bus conductors and traders is a ridicule to the education my parents toiled so hard to give me! If the management had reasoned that way, then the bus conductors would have been employed instead of me! So, I worked on being nice, warm and natural to the customers and it worked like magic. Even when their issues were not immediately resolved, the customers would still express their appreciation for the courtesy and empathy. From then on, I realized that customers’ demands for excellent service are not a Nigerian factor, but a human factor.
Like me, many of us use the Nigerian factor as an excuse for our failure in pleasing the customers who make money for the organisations we work for. If systems were perfect, the term ‘customer service’ wouldn’t have been created. So, the first thing we need to know is that when customers come to us, it’s not because they are bored and need someone to gist with, but to get their issues resolved. Excellent customer service entails that we make the customers feel good while we resolve their issues. When we do this, we are not only making money for the organization, we are retaining a customer’s loyalty, satisfying our conscience and justifying our earnings.
The Nigerian factor may be the reason for the high level of corruption and moral decadence in the society; the Nigerian factor may be responsible for the level of indiscipline the country currently experiences. But when it comes to excellent customer service, it’s not a Nigerian factor. It’s a human factor!
Be a good customer service ambassador, and let the human factor rubs off positively on the Nigerian factor.
NB: this is the abridged version of the edited version of my thought. Lol.