Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Nigerian Customer Service Playbook: From Problem to Resolution

Transcript

The Nigerian Customer Service Playbook: From Problem to Resolution · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayedi.
• 0:04
  I'm the host of the podcast and I'm making today's recording at
• 0:07
  an undisclosed location in Abuja.
• 0:10
  So I expect to hear some noise in the background.
• 0:12
  Now, the goal of this podcast is business problems, you know,
• 0:15
  with customer acquisition, marketing, side hustles, you
• 0:18
  know, whatever it is that is holding your business back.
• 0:20
  So if you are curious about these sorts of issues, then this
• 0:23
  is the show for you. So subscribe on Spotify,
• 0:27
  YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice.
• 0:29
  And if you'd love to connect, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me
• 0:32
  on 08064662140. OK, let me just spill the beans.
• 0:41
  I'm actually in Utako right now. Now for those of you who live in
• 0:44
  Abuja, I know that is a very busy commercial district, you
• 0:47
  know, markets, logistics companies, you know, stuff like
• 0:49
  that. And the reason why I'm here is
• 0:51
  because I came to pick up an order and let's put it this way,
• 0:57
  for those of us who are in business, lots of times you
• 1:00
  don't look at things from the customer's point of view.
• 1:02
  And that's one of the reasons why we give bad customer where
• 1:07
  we have bad customer service processes or we don't even have
• 1:11
  any customer service processes at all, in fact.
• 1:14
  So I say, I'll say that's what today's episode is about, the
• 1:18
  proper way to approach customer service.
• 1:21
  Now the reason why I'm thinking about that today is because over
• 1:24
  a month ago, my wife placed an order on Instagram and it was a
• 1:28
  dress that she was looking forward to.
• 1:30
  And you know, like some of these things that you trust the
• 1:32
  vendor, you send the money. And then one day my wife just
• 1:35
  woke up and realized that it's been a while, it's been like 2
• 1:37
  weeks. I haven't heard from this
• 1:38
  person. So she now buzz the lady to find
• 1:41
  out how far, like how far would the delivery now, you know,
• 1:44
  order number, order number, the location for pickup and all
• 1:50
  these sorts of things. And there was no response and,
• 1:54
  and another two weeks afterwards, you know, my wife
• 1:56
  now thought, look, this thing is, is now is now becoming
• 2:00
  somehow. So she kept trying to reach the
• 2:02
  lady and no response, nothing was happening.
• 2:05
  So I noticed that of course she was upset about the whole thing.
• 2:08
  So I took the phone number and then I tried calling the lady,
• 2:12
  no response. You know, I sent a message.
• 2:14
  And so just like with my wife, you know, no response basically.
• 2:20
  But of course, the usual thing she had all those automated
• 2:23
  response WhatsApp messages, you know, the one that you guys put
• 2:26
  up on your phones to show that you value the person's business.
• 2:29
  You're busy right now, we'll get back to you.
• 2:31
  All this automated BS. And you see, these are part of
• 2:34
  the reasons why I say you guys mean we're well, when you put
• 2:37
  automated messages on your WhatsApp channels, your WhatsApp
• 2:41
  my business channel, but you're better off not putting those
• 2:44
  messages at all and rather just doing your best to be responsive
• 2:47
  to customers. Because actually when people
• 2:50
  have a problem or they're trying desperately to reach reach your
• 2:53
  business, it actually is very frustrating to send a message to
• 2:56
  someone and then automated message saying, you know, your
• 2:58
  business is important to us. Another automated message saying
• 3:02
  we're busy right now, we'll get back to you when possible.
• 3:05
  And then automated message upon automated message.
• 3:08
  So just turn those things off in my own opinion, and then be
• 3:10
  responsive. Or if you must put an automated
• 3:13
  response message, let it be something like, sorry, we can't
• 3:16
  come to the phone right now. If it is an emergency, call
• 3:20
  Chukudi on so, so, so and so or call Janet on so, so, so and so.
• 3:24
  I think that's a much more useful prompts to have so that
• 3:28
  if it indeed is an emergency, you know, like in my wife's
• 3:31
  case, you know, she thinks it's an emergency, There's someone
• 3:33
  she can call and she can't talk to to say how far our place is.
• 3:37
  Order over a month ago. And then for those of you who
• 3:43
  sell things that involve physical delivery, it will be a
• 3:46
  good idea if you actually have some standard processes in place
• 3:50
  just to notify people what's up, let them know how things are
• 3:53
  going. So back to my wedding
• 3:54
  photography days. For me, this was standard, you
• 3:57
  know, when the book was being designed.
• 3:59
  I'll send the bride a text message, you know, hope you're
• 4:03
  enjoying your honeymoon, you know, hey Logger, you guys have
• 4:05
  fun. We started book design today.
• 4:08
  I'll update you in another couple of days.
• 4:10
  When book design is done, I'll send them another message.
• 4:13
  Book design is done. The next step is while going
• 4:15
  into production, production to take three to five days.
• 4:18
  I'll let you know also when book production is done, when
• 4:22
  everything is done and everything is ready for
• 4:24
  delivery, I'll send them a text message.
• 4:26
  You know, everything is done. Are you guys back in Abuja yet?
• 4:30
  OK, cool. I'm going to be delivering it
• 4:32
  myself. Where would you like me to
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  deliver it to? We agree on the time and
• 4:36
  everything, but you see that I'll be updating people every
• 4:39
  single step of the way. This is the kind of thing that
• 4:41
  keeps our customers calm. I keep our customers cool.
• 4:44
  And just like I was saying in yesterday's episode, it's one of
• 4:47
  these things that make people think like this person is a real
• 4:50
  professional. And these are the things that
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  make it easy for people to now refer you.
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  But then let's contrast it now with this case that, you know,
• 4:59
  my wife has just experienced. See, I'm not doing this, you
• 5:03
  know, to shame any, anybody's business.
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  In fact, I'm not mentioning the lady's business name.
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  I'm just, I just think that this is a case where we can learn
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  lots of valid lessons about how to handle customer service
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  issues and how to carefully craft the user experience, you
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  know, or UX as people like to call it these days, carefully
• 5:22
  craft user experience. So every single business that
• 5:26
  involves physical deliverables, you should be on top of the game
• 5:29
  when it comes to these things. Thank you very much for the
• 5:32
  order. The money has been received.
• 5:34
  Your order is now in processing. Your order has been processed.
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  It is now at GBO port in Lagos, is going to be shipped off in
• 5:42
  another 24 hours. Order has been shipped off, is
• 5:45
  now on his way to transit. It's going to be in Abuja in
• 5:47
  another 24 hours. Order has arrived in Abuja, is
• 5:50
  currently in processing. Somebody should call you within
• 5:53
  another 24 hours. Order has been processed.
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  Expect somebody to call you within 3-4 hours today.
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  And then when on your own and then I'll tell you that they've
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  delivered the thing. Somebody should also make a
• 6:07
  call. Madam, we received a call from
• 6:10
  the logistics provider that this thing has been delivered.
• 6:13
  I'm just calling to confirm that you received your package.
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  Madam, have you received your package?
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  Is everything in one piece? We hope you love your order.
• 6:21
  Can you please give us a five star on Google?
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  But I really appreciate your business.
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  Is there any other person that you can refer us to who would
• 6:28
  love XYZ kind of service as well?
• 6:31
  Thank you very much Ma. Looking forward to more of your
• 6:33
  patronage then you now go and put the customer back in
• 6:37
  relationship nurturing sequence. You know, as per our birthdays,
• 6:40
  New Year, happy Salah, happy Christmas and all those things,
• 6:43
  all those automated messages. So this is how this is how this
• 6:47
  is how it should be done. We shouldn't always leave our
• 6:52
  customers all angst driven, you know, to the point of pulling
• 6:57
  the hair out, you know, wondering has my payment been
• 7:00
  received, Has my order been confirmed?
• 7:02
  Has the thing been sent? Is it now in Abuja?
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  Where is the thing? Who am I supposed to call?
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  What is the order number? As sales people and as business
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  professionals, we are the one who should be taking the
• 7:13
  initiative on these sorts of things.
• 7:16
  Now, of course, when my wife told me about this thing, I'm
• 7:18
  trying to reach out to the woman, you know, as per
• 7:21
  experience Decor, you know, as per me, I'm a business person,
• 7:23
  woman is a business person. So my wife is angry.
• 7:26
  But you know, from one business person to another, I know how
• 7:28
  these things can be. Now as per things happen, So I
• 7:31
  just wanted to call her and then just have a chat.
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  And then the lady of course is had a very, you know, effort
• 7:36
  kind of attitude. So I just told my wife, you know
• 7:39
  what, let's just flashy this thing.
• 7:41
  You know, how much was it? You know, the money was plenty
• 7:43
  sure, but let's just flashy this thing and I just reported the
• 7:47
  Instagram handle and of course wifey reported the Instagram
• 7:50
  handle as well. I see this is the problem with
• 7:53
  Nigerian businesses. Now that we have reported the
• 7:56
  Instagram handle, I'm sure that they have received notice on the
• 7:59
  other end. So that's how today, now their
• 8:01
  body is vibrating and they're reaching out to us that oh,
• 8:05
  somebody has the thing was delivered over a month ago.
• 8:09
  Somebody has been calling, no number was picked.
• 8:11
  You know, something, something, something.
• 8:13
  Anyway, physically I was able to get in touch with someone,
• 8:17
  excuse me, confirm the logistics company.
• 8:21
  I went there and you know what, it's a very simple something was
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  a wrong phone number. The lady who sent the
• 8:28
  consignment, the business person should put a phone, wrong phone
• 8:31
  number just by 1 digit. And these are simple mistakes
• 8:34
  that happen. But because this lady doesn't
• 8:37
  have processes and systems around customer service, there
• 8:40
  was no way that this thing was going to be discovered and to be
• 8:43
  flagged. Because this is the kind of
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  thing that if you actually have paid for logistics, sorry for
• 8:49
  delivery, you should be checking up on the company.
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  How far have you delivered? It's not just enough that you've
• 8:56
  collected money. You should confirm that the
• 8:58
  delivery has gotten to the end consumer has gotten to the final
• 9:01
  consumer and processes should have been in place.
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  There should be somebody in the office who is a customer service
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  officer or you know, I don't know, receptionist, somebody
• 9:11
  whose job it is to trace these sorts of things.
• 9:13
  And then logistics companies that you use, please use
• 9:17
  reputable logistics companies for your business.
• 9:20
  Use the kind of logistics business that will call you back
• 9:23
  to say how far this phone number you gave us.
• 9:26
  We have been trying the person all day.
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  Nobody has come. It's like two or three days, you
• 9:30
  know how far what's going on? We leave this thing in the shop
• 9:33
  or should we send it back to you in Lagos.
• 9:36
  So also make sure you're using reputable logistics outfits as
• 9:41
  well, because I'm surprised that the comp, well, at first I was
• 9:44
  surprised that the company didn't do that.
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  But then when they told us where it was in the Taco, and because
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  I'm familiar with Taco because back when we were a newly
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  married couple living in Zone 4, that's where we used to come and
• 9:58
  do all our market runs for for the week.
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  So when I got there, it turned out to be, how do I put it?
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  You understand now one of these logistics companies, you get
• 10:08
  like, it's just one desk and one room and no fan, no AC, no
• 10:13
  lights, no nothing. Everything is just there
• 10:16
  gathered on the floor. You understand the kind of
• 10:19
  company I'm talking about. So of course, those people too
• 10:22
  don't even have their own customer service.
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  Customer service game on point. So this was a very, very simple,
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  negligible issue that could have been resolved a long time ago if
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  people just had systems around customer service issues or just
• 10:35
  some simple business systems period.
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  As a logistics company, if somebody gives us goods, but the
• 10:41
  goods stay in the office for like 2 days, nobody has come,
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  what should we do? How do we track the person we're
• 10:47
  supposed to deliver to? If we can't track the person,
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  what is the process for returning back to sender so that
• 10:53
  we don't have liability for these sorts of things?
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  Because think about it as a logistics company, it's possible
• 11:00
  you might receive something, you're keeping it.
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  Nobody has come, the item spoiled, eventually they figure
• 11:05
  it out. The person who Lagos will say,
• 11:07
  look, it's not my responsibility, I give it to
• 11:09
  you, logistics company, logistics company will be saying
• 11:12
  but it's not my responsibility. Excuse me, I tried calling the
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  the person was supposed to pick up, nobody came.
• 11:19
  It's not my responsibility that the thing spoiled.
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  I know that this is Nigel. Who do you think the person will
• 11:25
  hang the person will hold. They can't go all the way to
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  Lagos and Jack somebody do Jack you here the logistic company
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  because they can see you face to face.
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  Now you're very before. So even for those of you who run
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  logistics outfits, you need to be thinking about these sorts of
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  things. But the sad thing is, excuse me,
• 11:42
  now we've reported this lady's Instagram handle to Instagram
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  handle to Instagram, regrettably, because to be
• 11:51
  honest, I regret that I that I've done that, you know, on top
• 11:55
  of a very small issue like this, excuse me, that one phone number
• 12:00
  was wrong. But really the lady went about
• 12:03
  it the wrong way. And now I hope you guys can see
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  the reason why I keep advocating over here on the podcast that if
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  one of the ways that you can stand out as a Nigerian service
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  provider is when you start taking response, when you all, I
• 12:16
  put it, this is the attitude that I advocate over here on the
• 12:19
  podcast. And people who have tried it
• 12:21
  before, they're always shocked because believe me, it calms
• 12:24
  everybody down. No matter what the problem is,
• 12:26
  it calms everybody down because Nigerians are not used to being
• 12:29
  spoken to that way. So first of all, you say, Madam,
• 12:34
  I'm terribly sorry that you have not received our order.
• 12:37
  You have not received your order.
• 12:40
  This is not how we like to do business, Ma.
• 12:41
  I'm terribly sorry about that. My name is Nikeshi.
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  I'm the customer service Rep and I'm going to take full
• 12:47
  responsibility for making sure that we resolve this issue.
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  I apologize on behalf of the company, ma, I'm going to take
• 12:54
  full responsibility to make sure that we resolve this issue.
• 12:56
  And if it's something beyond my control, I will escalate it to
• 13:00
  my auger. I will escalate it to my Madam.
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  So please Madam customer no Vex, can I ask you a couple of
• 13:07
  questions so that we can figure out what happened?
• 13:09
  Let me see how I can resolve the issue.
• 13:12
  That is the simple approach. All the people that I've told
• 13:15
  and who have tried this approach, they always give me
• 13:17
  the same testimony. Everybody calms the hell down
• 13:22
  because nobody is used to being spoken like that in Nigeria.
• 13:25
  People will calm down. You will not have a simple
• 13:27
  conversation. Now, see, especially in this
• 13:29
  case, that was a simple thing of just one phone number.
• 13:32
  This thing could have been discovered in one conversation
• 13:36
  because the customer service Rep, those are the basic things
• 13:38
  you were asked. OK, thank you very much.
• 13:40
  Ma, what is the order number? OK, What is the name of the
• 13:44
  package? Where is it supposed to be
• 13:46
  delivered to? What phone number did you put on
• 13:48
  the package? You know, all these sorts of
• 13:51
  things, you know, now discovered that.
• 13:52
  Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Ma. The problem was the problem was
• 13:56
  from my own and we delivered the wrong number to the logistics
• 14:00
  company. We're really, really, really
• 14:02
  sorry, Ma. You know, Madame Novaks.
• 14:04
  And then of course, you know, these sorts of things.
• 14:06
  You can even like I've seen some companies do some throw in some,
• 14:14
  some how I put it. What's it called?
• 14:17
  Loss Leaders. Abby lost.
• 14:19
  I think that's what they call it, loss leaders.
• 14:20
  I think you give something for free, you lose money on it, but
• 14:24
  you're hoping that you're going to, excuse me, make it back
• 14:27
  later on in other orders. So it seemed the kind of thing
• 14:31
  so oh Madam, really, really sorry.
• 14:33
  It was our fault. We've rectified it now.
• 14:36
  The thing will be delivered to you in about two days.
• 14:39
  And just to show how sorry we are, please Madam Novak, we're
• 14:42
  going to send you 2 free bandanas or we're going to send
• 14:46
  you 2 free earrings. Or you know, just something
• 14:49
  small. Nigerians are not used to being
• 14:52
  spoken to in a very polite manner.
• 14:54
  You do this to your business people, people calm down and
• 14:57
  people are impressed. This is something that could
• 15:01
  have been really resolved very easily.
• 15:05
  So that's why I'm making today's episode and that's why there's
• 15:09
  noise all over the place because I'm still going to talk.
• 15:11
  I said let me just make this recording right now because if I
• 15:13
  say let me go home first, I might forget.
• 15:15
  And then I also wanted to make another podcast episode about
• 15:18
  something else. So I said, let me just hop on
• 15:20
  here real quick and make this episode.
• 15:22
  So please, please, please, please, please, please, please,
• 15:25
  please let's sit down with our business partners, with members
• 15:30
  of our staff, and we need to come up with some small, small,
• 15:33
  small procedures when customers are angry.
• 15:35
  What are we going to do? What is the internal policy for
• 15:41
  handling deliveries? If there's a problem with
• 15:44
  deliveries, deliveries are not getting on time, people haven't
• 15:47
  confirmed deliveries. What are we supposed to do?
• 15:49
  How do we follow up with logistics companies?
• 15:51
  Whose responsibility is it? You know, simple, simple, simple
• 15:54
  things. But please and please, I know
• 15:57
  you guys don't want to hear this from me, but I'm telling you,
• 16:01
  all of you that have all these automated response messages on
• 16:03
  WhatsApp, take those things down.
• 16:07
  They serve no use. They add no value to the
• 16:11
  customer. It makes you feel as if
• 16:14
  everything is all good. You'll feel as if everything is
• 16:17
  taken care of. But clearly not everything is
• 16:20
  being taken care of. Even if you want to create your
• 16:24
  own custom bot, you are going to need a lot of data to program
• 16:29
  these things adequately so that they can respond to every single
• 16:33
  situation. My own opinion, Please take
• 16:36
  those things down. They serve no value.
• 16:40
  If you must use them, then let it be a simple message that says
• 16:45
  thank you for contacting Chukwudi MRM and Sons.
• 16:49
  We are not available right now to take your call.
• 16:52
  However, if it is an emergency, call Kelechi on 080 blah blah
• 16:56
  blah or call Jennifer on 080 blah blah blah.
• 17:00
  That is the best kind of message to put up there because if the
• 17:05
  person feels like it's an emergency, at least they now
• 17:07
  know that this is somebody to call and they can get a response
• 17:11
  immediately. There's no point in putting an
• 17:13
  auto response, auto response message that responds
• 17:17
  immediately but that provides no value to the customer and the
• 17:20
  customer still has to wait another eight, 10/12/24 hours
• 17:24
  before they get an adequate response that resolves the issue
• 17:29
  anyway. We should be thinking clearly
• 17:30
  about customer service issues and trust me, trust me with the
• 17:36
  way that business people in Niger just mouth off.
• 17:39
  Anyhow, any small things, the mouth of the door to take
• 17:41
  responsibility. If you use this approach, it
• 17:44
  will make a world of difference in your business.
• 17:49
  You just say thank you very much Ma for reaching out.
• 17:53
  Sorry that this has happened. On behalf of the business, I
• 17:56
  apologize. My name is Jackson.
• 18:00
  I will take responsibility to make sure that this thing is
• 18:03
  resolved. If it is not something that I
• 18:05
  can resolve within my power, I will escalate it to my line
• 18:08
  manager or I will call my auger. So please Madam, don't vex.
• 18:12
  This is not how we like to do business here.
• 18:15
  So please Madam, I need to ask you some questions so that we
• 18:18
  can resolve. I can find out what's going on
• 18:21
  and I'll now know how to resolve it.
• 18:23
  Then you have your standard template questions.
• 18:26
  Start asking the questions. When did you place the order?
• 18:30
  When was the order confirmed? What are the notifications you
• 18:33
  received? When did you notice that there
• 18:35
  was a problem? What is the nature of the
• 18:37
  problem? Blah blah blah.
• 18:40
  It will make a whole, it will make a lot of a difference.
• 18:44
  So that's it. That's just the reason why I
• 18:46
  made today's episode. So that's it and that's all.
• 18:48
  Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call SMS or
• 18:51
  WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you for your time and
• 18:57
  attention. I will catch you same time, same
• 19:00
  place in your headphones or in your speakers.