Customercentrix

We seek protection for our money, time and effort when we seek recommendations to inform our decision to procure goods and services. Our usual sources of recommendations are : family members, friends or sometimes friends of friends whom we feel share our interests and would recommend only the best or those they have tried or tested. We rely on the safety nest we build for ourselves in their recommendation(s). This might sometimes not work because our preferences might not be replicas of theirs or their judgment of our preferences might actually be wrong. Subjectivity comes to play most times and I dare say how many people are 100 percent objective when buying? We are often times buying from someone because the seller is our friend, the seller is courteous, the seller also bought from us and we are returning the patronage, the seller will get offended if we are seen buying from someone else, the seller needs help, and buying from them might be a boost, the seller was recommended ...

Left-handers are a group of customers who are seldom catered for in our righties world. Even though they are considered a minority, they exist and they count as customers whose satisfaction should be priority for any business. Customercentricity is in the details - paying attention to the needs of your customer and structuring your business processes to accommodate their unique needs and preferences. Right from Kindergarten, left-handed children are forgotten by most schools. They are conditioned to write with their right hands as desks are designed for righties. Even while playing games the needs of a left-handed child are not factored into game rules. This forces a lot of them to be introverted; no one loves to be the odd one out.  Service areas in most companies  are designed for righties. Attempting to sign a document with the pen hanging on the right, write in a note pad stringed on the left, cut with a right handed scissors all pose challenges for a left-...

Businesses can lose their sense of customer appreciation just as some lovers lose their first spark over time. Whether in business or love relationship, it takes work to show appreciation in a way that the other party recognises and values.  The only difference however is that in business, only one party is saddled with the responsibility of not just communicating but showing appreciation, and that party is the business. Customers also show appreciation to businesses that value them in somewhat subtle ways, this includes: repeat business, loyalty and advocacy. I'm a bit tempted to say businesses are like men and customers like women but, I would rather not say so. Many businesses put in more work to win new customers than to keep old ones. They would rather increase their Customer Acquisition Cost (cost of advertising, marketing, free samples, hiring employees etc) than invest in their Customer Appreciation Cost which more often that not is way lesser than the Customer Acquis...

Have you ever wondered what the CE mark you see on some products means?  No, it doesn’t mean Customer Education. It’s an acronym for a French phrase (Conformite Europeene) that means European Conformity. It is a symbol of product quality and safety.  It is a manufacturer’s declaration that the product has been assessed and it complies with the essential requirements of the relevant European health, safety and environmental protection legislation and is therefore legally fit to be placed on the market within the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein . It is like the United States’ FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and  Nigeria’s SON (Standards Organisation of Nigeria) markings on products. Customers should make it a point of duty to check if the products they are buying bear these markings to ensure their safety. While you might be saying “but some manufacturers put these symbols on their sub-standard products without bein...

It’s a new year, and as expected, businesses are re-assuring customers of their renewed commitment to serve them better. This, as you would know, includes businesses who have unresolved issues with customers from the just concluded year; but this new year statement of commitment is a trend, so, we all play along. It’s quite sad that in over 6 months of transacting with businesses of different sizes in different sectors in Nigeria, since my return, I am yet to come across excellent service. This is not to say I haven’t noticed any improvement in service delivery but, the customer-centricity factor is still lacking. Business owners brag about how sophisticated their products and services are, and even liken them to what obtains in western countries. They encourage customers to patronize Made in Nigeria products (I support this because it helps the Nigerian economy) but, I still maintain that they still don’t get it. The Nigerian business environment is different, presen...