Skip to main content

Why Recommendations Might Not Help Your Decision to Buy (The Nigerian Context)


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 by a family member and is expecting us to at least buy from them once or we are just buying from them because they have been bugging us that we haven't patronized them.

Recommendations sometimes cloud our judgment and walk us straight into what we were trying to prevent when we sought them. We let down our guards, ticking all necessary buying consideration boxes without actually verifying them. Alas! We are thrown into the cold hands of less than acceptable products and services and only then do we remember all we failed to do. Reality check - family can't be blamed, friend can't be held responsible, friends of friends can't be reached. Even when they choose to step in, they really can't do much, as they are not the customers who transacted with the business you have a problem with.

Take it or leave it, do your necessary checks regardless of who recommends anyone to you. Many people and businesses ain't loyal these days. We are in the age of false customer testimonials, false reviews, bought ratings and whatever else is false. All you have is you, your money, your hunches and may be social media to rant with a 0.00001 chance of redress. So, why not scrutinize as much as you can and let your conscience and purse give you some pats on the back should poop hit the fan. 

You can let go of all these jargon if it is not hard earned money.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Customer Experience Starts with Customer Courtesy

The way you make a customer feel about you and your business or the company you work for determines if they would buy from you. We really cannot do business without the right impression. Customer courtesy is a vital component of customer experience and a determinant of customer satisfaction. It is the respect you accord customers as recognition of their value to your business. Many businesses display beautifully worded and framed service charters but act contrary because they lack the knowledge of customer courtesy and its benefit to their business or just choose to be non-chalant. Regardless of what side of the coin a business belongs to, customer experience stands a huge chance of being distasteful without customer courtesy. The common practice in non-customercentric firms is that the service charter remains the dream of management while the employees do as they please. Right from the very moment customers start seeking a business to patronize in your niche, or get attracted t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Customer Experience: HARDWORK WILL NEVER BE A REPLACEMENT FOR PROFESSIONALISM

A Sim card marketer approached me yesterday at Shoprite, Randburg Mall, Johannesburg, South Africa while I was shopping. The following conversation ensued: Marketer : Hi pretty, what a lovely thing you have on you, it's too long to be a scarf, I think the Indians call it Sari or what?   Me : hmm (some show of displeasure) Marketer: What network do you use? Me: Why do you ask and why should I tell you?   Marketer : I want to tell you about Virgin Mobile.   Me : (With an attitude of let's hear what he's got to say) what’s different about virgin?   Marketer : We charge 99c per second for international calls, I know you make lots of international calls   Me : So does my network, Cell C   Marketer : We charge 67c for local calls and run on MTN facilities which exist all over even farther than Cell C's   Me : Really? So Virgin doesn't even have its own facilities, without MTN you do not exist. I am glad I have Cell C as my network   ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Customer Education : CE Mark on Products

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...
Post a Comment
Read more