Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Customer Service: Your Secret Sales Weapon
Transcript
- 0:00Today I want us to explore some ideas around customer service
- 0:06and this is the reason why because this is a sales podcast
- 0:10and once in a while we talk about things marketing related.
- 0:13So for those of you who are loyal listeners, you've been
- 0:15listening for a while, you know, weeks, months, maybe years, OK.
- 0:19Now those of you who've been listening for years, you know
- 0:20this will come as a surprise. But for those of you who've been
- 0:23listening for a couple of days or a couple of weeks, you're
- 0:25going to be surprised that why are we talking about customer
- 0:28service on a sales podcast? And this is the reason why.
- 0:32Remember that, you know, since it's a sales podcast, we're
- 0:36focused about the money. Any single thing that can help
- 0:39us get money, we will talk about it.
- 0:42So the reason why we're going to talk about customer service on a
- 0:46sales podcast is because customer service is tied into
- 0:51key, two key ideas. 2 main ideas that sales people are really
- 0:55interested in #1 is customer lifetime value.
- 0:59The idea behind customer lifetime value is every single
- 1:02time somebody comes and buys something from you, the person
- 1:05is not just worth that single purchase, but the person is
- 1:07worth several purchases. Let me give you an example.
- 1:12I did business with my business partner, one of my business
- 1:18partners, and we came into some good money.
- 1:20And now, because there's some excess cash rolling around, I
- 1:22figured it's time to get my wife a new phone because our phone is
- 1:26currently four years old. And yeah, you know, my wife can
- 1:31be rough when it comes to phones.
- 1:33So I think it's time to get her a new phone now because the
- 1:39place that I bought the phone the last time, that's her phone
- 1:42and my own phone. The salesperson did an
- 1:45absolutely stellar job. She did a good idea of figuring
- 1:49out who we were and recommending phones that work for our
- 1:52personal circumstance. Because in fact, the phone that
- 1:55she sold to me, that's the Xiaomi 13C is still, sorry, the
- 1:5912 C is still the phone that I use for Business Today.
- 2:02In fact, that is what I use to. I've used to record every single
- 2:06podcast for the last maybe like 4 years.
- 2:09So it's a pretty damn good phone now because she has done a very
- 2:14good job. We're going to come back and
- 2:17we're going to buy more devices from her.
- 2:20So the value of me as a customer to the lady who sold the phone
- 2:26to me and to my wife, it's not just that's first purchase when
- 2:31we bought the phone four years ago.
- 2:33So four years ago we bought 2 phones from her.
- 2:36I think my phone was just short of 100 and I think so short of
- 2:41200. And I think my wife's phone was
- 2:44just over maybe 120, maybe 140 or something like that.
- 2:50Yes, some of you will be shocked, you know, but like I
- 2:52said, this was four years ago, so the economy was in a
- 2:54different state and you could get good phones then for, you
- 2:57know, 100 grand, 150 grand, you know, now things are different
- 3:01anyway. So if this salesperson only just
- 3:04looked at us as the value of that single transaction then,
- 3:08and she didn't do a good job of not only selling us the phones
- 3:11but of keeping in touch, then she'll be losing out on future
- 3:15revenue, which is the purchase that we're going to do soon by
- 3:19getting a brand new phone for my wife.
- 3:22And then who knows future devices that we're going to buy,
- 3:26tablets, laptops, you never know.
- 3:30So in a business context, whenever you're having a
- 3:34conversation with someone and you're selling a product, you're
- 3:37selling an item, the value of the person is not just that
- 3:41single item that they're buying from you.
- 3:43So if you're in real estate and you're talking to someone and
- 3:46the person buys the plot of line from you, let's say 63,000,000,
- 3:50the customer is not just worth 63 million.
- 3:54We want to do a good job and hopefully the person will come
- 3:57back, you know, in a year or two, maybe five years and buy
- 4:01another plot of land maybe worth 500 million or worth, you know,
- 4:087 million or whatever. But The thing is, we're looking
- 4:11for, we have a concept of a customer lifetime value, that
- 4:15the customer is not just worth a single purchase, but the
- 4:18customer is worth an aggregate of several number of purchases
- 4:22that we can expect them to make, that we can expect them to buy
- 4:25over the course of XYZ period of time, depending on what your
- 4:31business is. So customer lifetime value #1
- 4:36sales people are interested in that because customer lifetime
- 4:39value means we're making more money not just today or making
- 4:42more money over time. Then another thing that sales
- 4:45people are preoccupied, preoccupied about is repeat
- 4:48purchase. Repeat purchase just means
- 4:51somebody buys something from you today and the hope is the person
- 4:54will come back and buy something from you tomorrow or next month
- 4:57or next year or in another five years, but want people to come
- 5:01back again and again. So sales people or at least
- 5:05traditional sales people, traditional business people are
- 5:07preoccupied with customer lifetime value and repeat
- 5:11purchase. We are preoccupied with how many
- 5:14times people come back to buy again and how many people
- 5:19customers refer us to. That is the reason why we pay
- 5:23attention to customer service, because customer service is
- 5:26directly tied into something called customer retention or
- 5:30client retention. That just means of the customers
- 5:33we have, how many of them are we going to keep?
- 5:36Because if we do a really good job of bringing in 100 customers
- 5:42into the business this year, so whatever business it is that you
- 5:46do, let's say you get 100 new customers this year, you clap
- 5:49for yourself, you're doing good. What if next year eighty of
- 5:53those customers leave and take their money someplace else?
- 5:56It shows that there's serious problems in your business.
- 5:59You're hemorrhaging money and you're making your life
- 6:02difficult. Because if you get 100 customers
- 6:04this year, in 2026, a hundred clients and next year, let's say
- 6:0980 of them remain with you, that is easy income that you're going
- 6:15to make next year, in 2027, that you won't work as hard because
- 6:19they did business with you the year prior.
- 6:21They already know you, they already trust you.
- 6:23So closing the deal is going to be a lot easier.
- 6:25So you have to spend less money and you have to spend less time
- 6:29running after new customers in the coming year.
- 6:33So these are the reasons why we pay attention to customer
- 6:36service, because customer service is directly tied into
- 6:40customer retention, is directly tied into client retention.
- 6:44And if you have good customer service processes, it means
- 6:46you're going to be able to maximize customer lifetime
- 6:48value. How long are people going to
- 6:50stay with you? You're also going to be able to
- 6:54maximize repeat purchases. They stay with you.
- 6:57How often do they buy? How frequently do they buy?
- 6:59And then of course, customer lifetime value also tied into
- 7:04referrals as well. So it's not just how many times
- 7:07they buy from us, but it's also how many people that they bring
- 7:09our way. So that's the reason why those
- 7:12of us who are traditionally focused on sales also like to
- 7:15pay attention to customer service because these ideas help
- 7:18us to make more money. Now before we continue, if you'd
- 7:21like to connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message
- 7:24or WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
- 7:30If you're interested in the 15 minute sales audit, you can
- 7:33WhatsApp me on the same number, 0806466 2140.
- 7:41And if you'd like to join my WhatsApp channel, you can
- 7:42WhatsApp me on the same number and then we're going to hook you
- 7:45up. So now let's do a little bit of,
- 7:47let's handle some definitions. Now in Nigeria, whenever we say
- 7:53customer service, unfortunately, the idea that we have about
- 7:56customer service is very reactive.
- 8:00In other words, we only remember customer service in Nigeria.
- 8:03Wendy's problem, we only think about customer service.
- 8:07Wendy's busy. We only think about customer
- 8:09service when people are dissatisfied with us.
- 8:13We only think about customer service when the brand promise
- 8:16of the business has fallen short.
- 8:18You promise somebody one thing, the advertising says one thing
- 8:22more people experience something else when they work with the
- 8:24business. So in Nigeria, that is only when
- 8:26we think about customer service. I mean think about it.
- 8:29I had an interaction with the bank last week and I had to
- 8:33reach out to the customer service department.
- 8:35I wasn't reaching out because I was happy, I was reaching out
- 8:38because I was terribly upset about something.
- 8:40So in this part of the world, in Nigeria, when we say customer
- 8:43service, unfortunately we still have very reactive ideas.
- 8:47Customer service are the people who pick up the phone when
- 8:51people are angry with us, when this busy, when people are
- 8:54unhappy, when this quarrel, when this issue.
- 8:57Now, if you look towards Western countries, they have a much more
- 9:01wider conception of customer service, much, much broader.
- 9:05But then again, you know that I'm a sales specialist, I'm a
- 9:09business development consultant, I'm a sales coach, I'm not a
- 9:12customer service specialist. So because of that, I'm not
- 9:15going to bother looking at the wider definition of what
- 9:19customer service is. So if you want to, you can go
- 9:23and do that research on yours by yourself.
- 9:26So excuse me, but there is something that we can do better
- 9:30though in Nigeria. We need to be much more
- 9:34proactive with our customer service functions.
- 9:38Now, customer service is also related to two other business
- 9:42functions that we should pay attention to.
- 9:44Number 1 is customer success and then #2 is customer
- 9:48satisfaction. So let me repeat, yes, I know
- 9:51we're hearing customer, customer, customer.
- 9:53But just remember, every single time we talk about all these
- 9:55things, the reason why we're discussing them is because it is
- 9:58going to help us make more money.
- 9:59It is going to cause people to stay with us longer.
- 10:03It is going to cause people to buy from us regularly.
- 10:06It's also going to cause our customers to send their friends
- 10:10and their family members and their associates to buy from us
- 10:12as well. So I focused on the money here.
- 10:15OK, so don't worry, we're using too many fancy terms now.
- 10:20Customer success just means when somebody bought from us, were
- 10:25they successful? Were they able to achieve
- 10:28exactly what it is that we promised them?
- 10:31So if you sell solar panels, the customer success function of
- 10:35your business just means you sell them the solar panel.
- 10:38You promise them they were, they were going to be off the grid
- 10:41for 24 hours every single day for 365 days of the year.
- 10:45So you don't just deliver the solar panels and then you don't
- 10:49keep in touch again, you deliver the solar panels.
- 10:51And then like my client in Lagos, because what they do is
- 10:54they also install remote monitoring capabilities.
- 10:58So what they do actually is they install today, let's say they
- 11:00install on a Saturday, Monday morning, they give a call and
- 11:04that's one of the things they want to find out.
- 11:06The remote monitoring that we put up is the thing working over
- 11:11here in the office. We can see that the panels are
- 11:13working. They're working at this capacity
- 11:16and this one is working and this one is working.
- 11:18Mr. Customer, can you see that The thing is working from your
- 11:22own end as well? If it is not working, let us
- 11:25know. Let us send a team out so that
- 11:26we can rectify these things. Sharp, sharp, sharp.
- 11:30These are the kinds of things that we will do in a Nigerian
- 11:33context, in a Nigerian environment that will help us to
- 11:36stand out and will make us seem more professional and then we
- 11:39will maximize customer lifetime value.
- 11:42They will stay with us longer. When the system is old, when
- 11:45they need replacing, when they need upgrading, they will call
- 11:49us because we are the ones who seem like we are the superior
- 11:52alternative. Then we'll also get referrals
- 11:57because if somebody asks and says Odugu Mazi, Chief Alhaji,
- 12:03so, so, so and so I like this. Your solar, whatever, how much?
- 12:08Where did you get it? Chief or Alhaji will confidently
- 12:13say, call these my guys, they're the ones that hooked up the
- 12:17whole thing. Since they did it, we've not had
- 12:20any problem. In fact, the time that we had
- 12:22problem, I called them 9:00 at night.
- 12:27By 5:30 in the morning, engineer was already on site trying to
- 12:32solve the problem. These are the things that you're
- 12:34going to do that will help us to maximize customer lifestyle
- 12:37value and get lots of repeat purchases and get lots of
- 12:41referrals. So we have to be proactive.
- 12:44Customer success just means what we said this thing will do.
- 12:50Did it do it? So get into the habit of calling
- 12:53the person after you deliver, after you install, after you
- 12:58have your session, what we promised did the thing work?
- 13:03That is a customer success function.
- 13:05Then customer satisfaction goes one step beyond.
- 13:08It's not just a matter of did the thing work, it also moves
- 13:11into are you happy? Because sometimes, yes, the
- 13:16thing works for 100%, but then the person is not entirely
- 13:19happy. He said, Madam, what is wrong?
- 13:21He said, well, you know, I was also thinking blah, blah, blah,
- 13:25blah, blah. And then in that case, you
- 13:27realize that Madame had some expectations.
- 13:34She was hoping that there were a couple of things that should be
- 13:36able to get extra, but that she didn't get.
- 13:39So in this case, everything works 100% as you promised.
- 13:43You just didn't on earth some expectations that she had coming
- 13:48into it. This is what the customer
- 13:50satisfaction function of the business is about.
- 13:53The thing works very good. Customer success.
- 13:56Now customer satisfaction. Are you happy?
- 13:59Oh, Madam, you're not happy. We're terribly sorry.
- 14:02We must have missed something. Please just tell me, like,
- 14:05what's the issue? OK.
- 14:07How did this start? OK.
- 14:09Oh, what are you feeling? Oh, OK.
- 14:12You're also hoping for this. You're also hoping for that,
- 14:15see, so those things are important.
- 14:18So it's from doing having a customer satisfaction function
- 14:22in your business. Are you happy that we can
- 14:25maximize customer lifetime value, that Madam will continue
- 14:28to buy from us again and again and that she will also refer her
- 14:33friends and her family members and her associates.
- 14:35Madam will say that, you know, yes, I like them.
- 14:39You know, initially, you know, they mess up on one or two
- 14:41things, but they handle it well. I trust these people because
- 14:45they are professional. So these are some of the things
- 14:48you should be paying attention to and we should be proactive
- 14:51when it comes to customer service and not just reactive as
- 14:55we are in Nigeria. Stop waiting on today's basis
- 14:59and somebody picks up the phone to say where are you?
- 15:02How can you do this? You're useless person.
- 15:04Your engineer did this, your delivery driver did this, blah,
- 15:07blah, blah, blah, blah. This thing is broken.
- 15:09Something, something, something out of the warranty.
- 15:13Don't wait for all that basic to happen.
- 15:15Don't be reactive in Nigeria. We need to be proactive.
- 15:19And the reason why is not because we are forming UIBO.
- 15:23No, the reason why is because we're trying to maximize
- 15:26customer lifetime value and we're trying to get repeat
- 15:29purchases and we're trying to get referrals coming in through
- 15:33the door. So how can we be proactive?
- 15:38Now I know some of you are listening, especially if you've
- 15:40never heard things like this before, it's sounding kind of
- 15:43scary. That's not a problem.
- 15:45Applying these principles, yeah, can be tricky.
- 15:47So if you need me to look at your particular circumstances,
- 15:50just call me, send me a text message or send me a WhatsApp
- 15:53message on 08064662140. If you want a 15 minute sale
- 16:00audit or you want me to audit your customer service processes,
- 16:04I can do that from a sales perspective.
- 16:06Just call me, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on
- 16:1008064 662140. If you'd like to join my YouTube
- 16:16channel, just WhatsApp me on the same number.
- 16:19I will get you hooked up. So how can we be proactive?
- 16:23I've already hinted about a couple of things #1 after
- 16:26installation, after delivery, after finalization, after
- 16:30groundbreaking ceremony, after ribbon cutting ceremony, after
- 16:34whatever it is, after onboarding, after whatever it is
- 16:38that you do in your own business.
- 16:40Call the person and have a debrief.
- 16:44You call them, you say thank you very much for doing business
- 16:46with us. As you're aware, the team
- 16:49installed last week. Saturday morning, 10 AM.
- 16:53I'm just calling now to be sure everything is OK.
- 16:56Everything is smooth. No problem.
- 16:58This one is working OK. OK, good.
- 17:00We also discussed this. We discussed this.
- 17:02Should be. This one is working well.
- 17:03This one is working well. There's no problem, Abby.
- 17:06OK, We thank God. I just wanted to know that.
- 17:08But before I go, Madam Bros, you know, whatever.
- 17:14Are you happy with how everything is so far?
- 17:20Have the the conversation. So you call to do a debrief.
- 17:25You thank them for their business.
- 17:27You thank them for their custom. You confirm that things have
- 17:31been delivered. You confirm that things are
- 17:33working. You confirm that nothing is
- 17:36broken. You confirm that nothing is
- 17:38missing. After that, you want to be sure
- 17:42are you happy if the solar system that you delivered, It's
- 17:46not just a matter of are you happy, it is also.
- 17:49I hope Madame is happy now that you will have like 247, you say?
- 17:54In fact, since we installed that thing, Madame has not stopped
- 17:57watching Desperate Housewives. She has been watching her real
- 18:01Real Housewives of Lucky back-to-back to back.
- 18:04She has downloaded everything on the DSTV Compact.
- 18:09I shall just be watching it back-to-back to back.
- 18:11In fact, now, Madam, they enjoyed the solar pass.
- 18:14Not even the children. By the time you talk like that
- 18:18and the customer is saying all these good things and they are
- 18:21hearing themselves say all these good things about your product
- 18:25and about the quality of service that you have delivered.
- 18:27That is the kind of thing that will come to cause them to call
- 18:30you when the system is old and it's time for a new system or to
- 18:34call you when it is time for an upgrade.
- 18:37You know, maybe they have more children.
- 18:39They want to move from 10 kva system now to a 25 kva system.
- 18:44That is what we'll call them to call you.
- 18:45They want to upgrade. They want to change batteries.
- 18:48That is what will cause them to call you.
- 18:53That is also what will cause them to refer their friends to
- 18:58you because you've had this conversation.
- 19:00Oh, by the apologies for the noise in the background, the
- 19:02house is being cleaned. Today's a Tuesday morning, so
- 19:06and I've taken some precautions. So hopefully the noise that will
- 19:08come in won't be too much. All right, so you confirm that
- 19:13everybody's happy and you confirm that your product or
- 19:18service is delivering on every single thing that you promised
- 19:22them. Now, the reason why some of you
- 19:24don't want to make these calls is because you are scared.
- 19:27I understand, I understand perfectly because early on I
- 19:31didn't want to call and find out are you happy with the album?
- 19:35That's when I was in the event space because I was afraid.
- 19:38Then I'll call the bird and say, are you happy with the album?
- 19:41And then the bird would say no, I don't like page 5, I don't
- 19:44like page 12, I don't like page 6.
- 19:47That was my biggest fear. But see, you know what?
- 19:51We need to face this fear because if this customer is
- 19:54unhappy, they're not saying anything.
- 19:56It doesn't change the fact that they are thinking it and it is
- 19:59going to absolutely mess up our items to maximize customer
- 20:04lifetime value. It will mess up our attempts to
- 20:08get them to do business with us again.
- 20:11It will mess up our attempts to try and get referrals from them.
- 20:14Think about it, as a young wedding photographer, you
- 20:17delivered something. In your mind you think it's OK,
- 20:20but maybe the bride is not happy because on page 6 she sees a
- 20:24pimple, on page 12 she saw a mole, and then maybe on page 14.
- 20:28She thinks you make her. You made her bom bom look too
- 20:30big, but she didn't say anything.
- 20:33You are now asking her to refer you for her sister's wedding.
- 20:36Do you think she will refer? She will say no.
- 20:43She will want to give you her sister's number because as far
- 20:46as she's concerned, you leave pimple on her sister's forehead,
- 20:50you change her sister's color, and then you make her sister's
- 20:53bom bom look too big or too small as the case may be.
- 20:58Be brave and call if there's a problem.
- 21:01We are better off finding about this problem now and trying to
- 21:05deal with it instead of letting this thing faster and faster and
- 21:08then we're messing up our reputation.
- 21:11They'll come to the house or say bring your album now let us
- 21:14watch picture. And then she says no, I said I
- 21:18was wrong. Now I said that guy just messed
- 21:20up my my pictures. He just totally messed up my
- 21:22picture. In fact, I don't ever want to
- 21:24see it again. She would not tell her husband
- 21:26take the album away. Go and put it away.
- 21:28See this is a real life something I have seen it.
- 21:30A friend of mine got married and my brother and I just keep come
- 21:35and greet her like you know happy married life that kind of
- 21:37thing. So see how far now we will see
- 21:40picture. That's what she did.
- 21:42She told her husband that if I only take that thing off this
- 21:44table, I've told you I don't want to see this thing again.
- 21:46These people completely ruin my day.
- 21:49That is what they said. Now assuming I was not in the
- 21:53event space and I was looking for somebody to handle my
- 21:56wedding photos and videos, do you think if I was, let's say I
- 22:01was a female like her best friend, now her chief
- 22:03bridesmaid, do you think I will ask her give me the phone number
- 22:07for those your guys who handled your stuff?
- 22:10No, because as far as she's concerned, she said only take
- 22:14this album away. I told you don't put this thing
- 22:17here. I don't want to see it.
- 22:19These people completely messed up my day.
- 22:22It happens. So even though it is scary call
- 22:29if there's a problem, let us know now and let us start
- 22:32working on it now. Because we're trying to maximize
- 22:36customer lifetime value. We want them to buy from us
- 22:39again and again. We want them to send people to
- 22:43us, their friends, their Co workers, people from church,
- 22:48people from mosque, people from village town hall meeting.
- 22:51We want them to keep doing business with us again and again
- 22:55and again and again. If you have the conversation and
- 22:59you on earth any problem, what you do is you thank them for
- 23:02their honesty. So Madam, I'm terribly sorry I
- 23:06did not know about this and thank you very much Ma for being
- 23:10very, very honest. We want to take the best care we
- 23:14can for we can for our customers.
- 23:17And so because of that, Madam, I'm going to take responsibility
- 23:20to make sure that we solve this problem and I won't stop until
- 23:24you're happy. So Madam Novak's, I just need to
- 23:27ask you a couple of questions so we can figure out exactly what
- 23:30the problem is and then I'll know how we're going to solve
- 23:33it. Once she opens up her mouth,
- 23:36once he opens up his mouth and they tell you what it is, you
- 23:39can use this information to put a new proposal on the table.
- 23:45So this is a much more proactive way for how we can handle
- 23:51customer service issues in Nigeria.
- 23:54And remember, the focus is not we're trying to copy Oyibo or
- 23:59we're trying to be like Oyibo. No, the focus is not with a form
- 24:05professional. No, the focus is customer
- 24:08lifetime value. We want them to buy again and
- 24:12again and again. In fact, as they're buying again
- 24:14and again, we want them to be buying more expensive, more
- 24:17expensive, higher grade, higher grade.
- 24:21Then we also want them to send their friends and their family
- 24:25members to come and do business with us.
- 24:27People in church, people in mosque, their friends want them
- 24:31to send people our way. So that is the focus and that's
- 24:34the reason why I pay attention to customer service.
- 24:37So that's it for today. If you've gotten value from
- 24:39today's episode, you can connect with me.
- 24:41You call me, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on
- 24:4408064662140. Remember, I'll file a 15
- 24:50minutes, they'll audit. Or if there's any business
- 24:52process you want me to audit, that's not a problem, Call me,
- 24:55send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on the same
- 24:58number 08064 662140. Or you can join me on my
- 25:04WhatsApp channel just by WhatsApp, ping me on the same
- 25:07number and we will get you started.
- 25:09So thank you very much for your time and attention.
- 25:11I'll catch you some other time.