Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Nigerian Service Edge: How Great Processes Can Set You Apart

Transcript

The Nigerian Service Edge: How Great Processes Can Set You Apart · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show. I'm taking today's recording at
0:04
my desk but some of my in laws are in the house so you know
0:07
there might be some interruptions here and there.
0:09
Now the goal of the show is free business education, so if you're
0:13
just tuning in for the first time, you are at the right
0:16
place. When asked you a favour.
0:18
If by the time we're done with this episode, you get some
0:20
value, then please share, promote and talk about the show
0:22
so that your friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad
0:26
can benefit from the questions that we tackle.
0:28
They can do that by subscribing Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any
0:33
podcast player of your choice. And then if you in particular
0:36
have any sales and marketing questions, then bring them to
0:39
me. You can call, you can SMS, you
0:41
can WhatsApp on 08064662140. So today's podcast episode is
0:49
going to be one of those two in one, if I can mash it up
0:52
together. The main thing I want us to look
0:55
at actually is how to answer customer service enquiries over
0:59
WhatsApp. And of course, you know, the
1:02
reason why is because there are lots of you who are trying to
1:06
run your business and you're trying to use WhatsApp as a
1:10
customer service channel. And I've had some experiences in
1:13
the past, which makes me think it's about time again because I
1:17
know I've done lots of WhatsApp episodes in the past.
1:20
So it's about time to hop on the microphone again and run over a
1:24
few case studies and come up with a simple framework that we
1:29
can all agree to for how to use WhatsApp for customer service
1:34
purposes. So that's going to be the main
1:37
thing that I want us to talk about.
1:39
However, before I get there, I just want to make a general
1:43
comment because you notice I give up my phone number at the
1:48
beginning of every podcast episode and at the end of every
1:51
podcast episode, sometimes two or three times in the middle.
1:54
So lots of people reach out to me.
1:56
Some people have questions I do my best to answer.
1:59
Some people end up being clients.
2:01
You know, I'm glad for that. And for those of you who have
2:06
questions, So I mean, those of you who have general questions,
2:11
especially those of you who are younger and especially those of
2:14
you who are guys, I'm noticing a trend and I want to speak up
2:20
about that. There are lots of you who, well,
2:24
because before I reply everybody's message, I mean, you
2:27
guys know that anybody who reaches out to me, I first of
2:30
all, I take the phone number, I run it through Truecaller
2:32
because I want to know, you know, the name, the sex, the
2:34
location, the whatever of whoever it is and I'm dealing
2:36
with. So I've already made a broadcast
2:38
episode before about how that is my primal, that is my basic
2:45
stock that I run everything through.
2:48
Take the number, put it on Truecaller and I don't know who
2:51
I'm dealing with, man or woman, young or old, Yoruba, house,
2:54
IBO, you know, Cameroonian, whatever.
2:58
So take the number, get a name, paste it in Google, and I have a
3:02
sense of who I'm reaching out to.
3:04
And then and I'll get in touch with the person.
3:07
I continue the conversation from there, you know, just follow the
3:09
person they are. But then another reason why I do
3:11
that is because it's also a good way to weed out four Niners
3:15
because since I'm putting my phone number out there, you
3:18
know, I got to protect myself. So there's sometimes that I'll
3:22
take the phone number, I'll paste it and then true call, I
3:24
will say reported by, you know, 60-7 people as spam.
3:29
And then of course, I just block the number immediately and, you
3:31
know, just warm my life. So against this backdrop, now
3:36
that Nigerians are afraid of four Niners, you know, things
3:40
are insecure, you know, that kind of thing.
3:42
It doesn't make any sense for a young man who is in business
3:46
now. First of all, you have a phone
3:48
number that is associated with your business and then you don't
3:51
want to register your full name. It doesn't inspire anybody with
3:54
confidence. And I'm just being broke with
3:56
you guys, especially if you're going to be doing these kind of
4:00
strategies or reaching out to people over on WhatsApp.
4:03
So it's not a real name that is showing.
4:05
You know, the name that is showing is, you know, Sergeant X
4:09
46 or something like that. It doesn't inspire anybody with
4:12
confidence. Then on WhatsApp, where there's
4:16
supposed to be a profile picture.
4:17
Remember, I'm only talking to people who use this for
4:19
business. Now for my wife who doesn't use
4:21
WhatsApp for business, whatever she wants to do is her own
4:23
business. She can put her WhatsApp name as
4:26
Minnie Me. Mickey Mouse misses Hot 46.
4:30
No, doesn't matter because it's private use.
4:34
And her profile picture can be Mariska Haggerty or can be
4:38
Minnie Mouse or can be Michelle Obama.
4:41
It doesn't matter. So private use, but then when
4:45
you have a number that is a survey with you and with your
4:48
business, it does not inspire confidence if an air avatar
4:51
comes up and then you're not even making any effort to put
4:53
out your real name or to put out your business name.
4:57
So young men in particular, you're a business person.
5:01
You do different kinds of things, whether is you design
5:05
websites or whether you run car wash or what else, or whether
5:12
you're a bad meeting coach or maybe you're a music tutor or or
5:17
you teach forex or whatever it is.
5:21
It's anyway, let me not preach so much on this guys.
5:26
Just take care of all these small, small things and appear
5:30
reputable. At the very least appear human
5:33
or from the beginning so that people can calm down and know
5:36
that they can have a conversation with you without
5:38
being worried or whether they're going to be scammed or not.
5:41
So young men listening if you are running afoul of this thing,
5:46
the next time glow or MTN or Airtel or whoever sends you a
5:51
message saying come and verify your whatever.
5:54
I know you are also trying to protect your identity all right,
5:57
but this is how it works. Go there, when you do the
6:00
registration and you do the vitals and you do whatever, use
6:03
your real name so that when your number pops up or people decide
6:08
to search you, they will see that, oh, it is a real human
6:10
being that is associated with this.
6:12
If you think that that is violating your privacy, then
6:18
there are ways that you can take phone numbers and attach to
6:21
businesses only so that you're not trying to put yourself out
6:25
there. But what I'm just trying to say
6:26
is this, if you go ahead and you do this in the future, you feel
6:30
like, oh, this is something I should not have done, Just
6:33
destroy the same and throw it away with what happens in
6:36
Nigeria. Anyway, after a while, the
6:39
service provider will mark the number as being dormant.
6:42
When it's dormant, it will now go back into public domain and
6:45
somebody else is going to register it and start using it
6:46
in the future. So whatever violations of your
6:50
privacy that you think you're running away from, you know,
6:53
don't worry, it's not that big of a deal.
6:55
So if Glow says come and register your whatever, go
6:58
there, do your biometrics, do everything, submit your real
7:01
name then on your WhatsApp. Put a real picture.
7:05
Let it be your own face. Let people feel as if I'm
7:07
dealing with a human being and not as if I'm dealing with a
7:11
scammer. All right, so let me stop there
7:15
because there's a big issue that I want us to tackle, which is,
7:19
like I said, how to answer customer service enquiries over
7:22
WhatsApp. Now, first thing we have to
7:24
define what customer services. Now, customer service is one of
7:28
those things that is very hard to define because it's very
7:31
wide, but the definition that I'd like to give is, you know,
7:34
anything that you're doing that gives value to the customer or
7:38
satisfaction to customers, we can kind of look at that as
7:42
customer service. So if I'm on the phone with you
7:46
and I'm doing these analysis, trying to figure out who you are
7:48
and stuff like that, you know that is more sales, not customer
7:52
service, but you can see that because it's all driven towards
8:00
making you satisfied and giving you value.
8:02
You can say that, well, I'm taking a customer service
8:04
approach to that. So whether from the beginning of
8:08
the transaction, in the middle of the transaction, at the end
8:10
of the transaction, you know shall we can say on our customer
8:13
service because it's geared towards the value and
8:17
satisfaction that will get to the customer.
8:19
So before doing business, during doing business, after doing
8:23
business together on our customer service.
8:26
And this is the reason why customer service is difficult to
8:30
define. However, in Nigeria, we have a
8:33
very specific meaning when we say customer service, but I'll
8:36
get to that. But the main thing that I want
8:39
to say is this, customer service should be planned.
8:45
Lots of Nigerian business people, we're getting into
8:48
business and we don't come up with a plan for customer
8:51
service. We plan for every single thing
8:54
else. And then when it comes to
8:55
customer service, we just allow our people to freestyle.
8:59
When you you're on the phone resolving the customer service
9:02
matter, you, you're freestanding.
9:04
Your sales people who go out into the field, you leave them,
9:07
they're freestanding. Let's say you have account
9:09
management people back in the office and that's people who man
9:12
the phones or have proper customer service reps When
9:15
somebody calls in, they're freestanding.
9:17
Everybody is freestanding. You're not giving any thought to
9:21
making sure that there is a single unified customer
9:26
experience that people get when they call in.
9:29
And that's a mistake. Customer service should be
9:32
planned. Now, I'm not a customer service
9:35
pro, so I'm not going to be able to give you the principles
9:38
around how you would define, I mean, let's say define how you
9:42
will determine what your customer service processes are
9:45
going to be. But as you're listening, just
9:47
make a note down in your charter on your phone.
9:51
OK, This is something I have to do some research on, have to
9:54
talk to someone. We need to make sure that this
9:56
thing is planned, this thing is coherent And that no matter who
10:01
a customer talks to, whether they call me or they call the
10:04
customer service agent in the office or whether they interact
10:07
with our sales people in the field, there is going to be a
10:11
unified and coherent and well thought out and well planned and
10:15
well orchestrated customer experience, customer service
10:20
experience. So first thing, let's talk
10:24
freestyling when it comes to customer service.
10:27
Then customer service is supposed to have defined goals.
10:31
Now, if you go and check on the Internet or you talk to some
10:33
people, you find a couple of goals.
10:36
Number one is customer retention.
10:37
That is the one I mean I like the best because after all, this
10:41
podcast is about sales. It's about bringing in the
10:46
cheddar, bringing in the naira and Kobo, bringing in the money.
10:50
So for me, customer retention, a perfect goal for customer
10:54
service. So whenever I look at customer
10:56
services, customer service lapses within the business or
11:00
with my client, that is precisely the viewpoint that I'm
11:04
looking at. I'm looking at you to say, hey
11:06
bro or Madame, you know what, this gap that we have here in
11:10
customer service, the way that you could answer this person or
11:13
the way that came answer this person or the way that Abu Kadir
11:17
handled this thing, it is going to cause lapses and breakdowns
11:21
in the sales process. And so we are not going to get
11:24
repeat business. We are not going to get
11:27
referrals. So that's the angle of me.
11:29
I come from Naira and Cobo, nothing fluffy.
11:33
So that's one goal of customer service offer me I think is the
11:37
best. I don't think you can run foul
11:41
looking at customer retention as a goal for your customer service
11:46
processes. Then next, this one is kind of
11:49
fluffy. One of the ones I do not like is
11:52
brand reputation. But yes, some of you listening
11:54
to this thing, brand advocates always want to make sure that
11:57
the brand is on point. So yes, you know, for the sake
12:00
of brand, we have to make sure that we plan the customer
12:03
service experience well. So yeah, it's a good guiding
12:05
thing. Then revenue generation, OK,
12:08
well that's close enough to what I said, customer retention.
12:11
So you know, all joint. So you already understand how
12:14
that works. So revenue generation and then
12:18
feedback and improvement, that is also another one that I like.
12:21
So for me, it's about customer retention and then it's about
12:24
feedback and improvement because as a business, we need data to
12:29
be able to inform how we innovate on our product or our
12:31
service and then how we improve our sales and marketing
12:36
processes because everything can always be improved.
12:38
You can always have a better understanding of your ICP,
12:42
That's your ideal customer profile.
12:44
The people you're you are targeting.
12:46
You could always have a better understanding of am I chasing
12:48
the right people? You could always have a better
12:53
execution on how you greet people or how you welcome people
12:57
or how you engage in conversation.
12:59
How you do need analysis, how you try and figure out what the
13:01
problems are, the options that you show them when you are in
13:07
the middle of sales conversations, how you make an
13:10
effective proposal. So with the things that we need
13:14
to improve all of these processes, we are going to get
13:17
them from customer service conversations.
13:20
If. 10 people call in and eight of them say, let's say you're
13:25
able to have your friend conversation with them and by
13:28
the time they calm down, they say that look, the way that your
13:31
boy spoke to me, I didn't like it or the way he greeted me, I
13:34
didn't like it. You now know that, OK, one of
13:37
the parts of the sales process or the customer interaction
13:42
process that you guys have to improve upon would be the early
13:45
stuff, the greeting. Is the greeting appropriate?
13:49
Are you building rapport? You know, all those sorts of
13:53
things. So we're going to get all that
13:55
information from customer service, from people calling in,
14:02
from interacting with customers. So that's why I say feedback and
14:05
improvement. Oh, and then even self the
14:08
product or the service that you provide, Let's say you're a
14:10
fashion designer. If people keep calling and
14:13
saying that look Madam, your dresses are on point, but your
14:17
zip keeps breaking down. By the time 20 people call, 15
14:21
of them say Madam, there's probably with your zips.
14:24
It's only common sense that we now know that when it comes to
14:27
feedback and improvement that we need to buy better quality zips
14:32
or change the supplier, the person who has been supplying us
14:34
for zips, or, you know, you get the whole point.
14:37
So that is also a goal of doing good customer service, feedback
14:42
and improvement. So you brand people.
14:45
I'll give it to you. Yes.
14:46
Brand reputation. Yeah, it's a good reason.
14:48
Well, for me, sure. Customer retention.
14:50
Are people buying from us? Are they buying again?
14:53
Are they increasing the amount of money that they spend?
14:55
And are they referring their friends, their family members
14:58
and their associates? That's the reason why we engage
15:00
in good customer service And then feedback and improvement
15:03
based on the conversations that we're having.
15:05
How we forget our problems with our product, let us fix it.
15:10
How we figured out problems with the process, the way that we're
15:14
delivering this thing or the way that we're having a conversation
15:16
with people, let us fix it. So for me, these are the main
15:19
reasons why we should engage in good customer service.
15:26
Brand is too fluffy in my own opinion.
15:28
Washa, let me give it to you. Brand people, yes, you can have
15:31
that one. So remember I said that customer
15:35
service is hard to define because it covers every single
15:39
aspect of the business where we're giving value to a customer
15:42
or satisfaction to a customer. However, there is a particular
15:47
Niger definition of customer service which all of us already
15:50
know and which we're going to explore right now.
15:54
Now the Niger definition of customer service.
15:56
Is. Wahala de or castle I don't bust
16:02
or the customer don't they provoke or all is not well with
16:07
the customer. That is the Nigerian definition
16:12
of customer service. So if there's any situation
16:15
where somebody can say Wahala de or castle I don't bust or the
16:20
customer don't they provoke or all is not well with the
16:23
customer, then we have a customer service issue.
16:27
And the reason why this is the Nigerian definition of customer
16:30
service is because the only time that Nigerians interact with
16:35
customer service department of any business is precisely to
16:39
call up to say what the hell is going on this and this happened.
16:44
Are you guys mad? After I paid all my money, I
16:47
have been waiting for delivery. Who is in charge of you don't
16:52
understand? So that's the reason why in
16:54
Nigeria when we hear customer service, we exactly we think
16:57
immediately of all these negative stuff.
17:00
So those are the big questions that we tackle in Nigeria when
17:07
we talk about customer service. So Nigerian companies when it
17:11
comes to customer service, their preoccupation is what are we
17:14
going to do when all is not well.
17:18
So remember, customer service definition too wide.
17:21
But in Niger for us, customer service has a very, very small
17:26
definition. And that is what are we going to
17:29
do when all is not well. So generally on this podcast,
17:36
when I've spoken about customer service issues in the past, I
17:39
have spoken about some principles, OK, let's say more
17:42
like guidelines, spoken about some guidelines that we can use
17:46
to make sure that we resolve customer service issues.
17:51
Adequately. Or somewhat adequately,
17:54
remember, I'm not talking about customer service now in the
17:57
universal definition, the wide definition, because those of you
18:00
who studied customer service maybe in business management or
18:06
something, you know, those of you who that's your professional
18:08
background. Because remember, all this is
18:10
not my professional background. I mean, I'm good at stuff like
18:14
this and I picked it up on the field, but I didn't study in
18:17
school. So some of you, I want to look
18:18
at these principles that I talk about and I say no, no, no, that
18:20
these are too restrictive and it's not going to help you to
18:23
come up with a good customer service framework.
18:25
And I agree, but that's because I'm only looking at customer
18:28
service the way that we in Nigeria look at it, which is
18:32
something is wrong. What are we going to do?
18:35
So, so First off, we have to listen, we have to show empathy
18:41
and we have to show support, which is the first thing that
18:45
makes the average Nigerian to seriously vex.
18:48
Like you call in because there's a problem, the delivery is late
18:52
or the zip has broken, or the dispatch rider says he's outside
18:56
your house. But you clearly know that he's
18:58
not outside your house because you're standing outside the
19:00
house or you've been trying to call in for the last five hours
19:03
and nobody has answered the phone and blah, blah, blah.
19:06
So that's the first thing that vexes people when somebody picks
19:09
up the phone and the person is just nonchalant, you know, like
19:12
they don't care. It's just like, anyhow, anyhow,
19:15
that kind of thing just it makes somebody's blood just boil.
19:19
Now, there are some folks like me and my father-in-law, you
19:22
know, we tried to be on the calm side, so we take it easy.
19:26
But then there's some people that are hot, like my wife for
19:29
instance, you know, that's where all the shouting and everything
19:32
comes from because clearly there's an issue been trying to
19:35
resolve for like 3-4, whatever the person picks up the phone,
19:38
the person is rude or nonchalant or whatever, of course there's
19:42
going to be a blow out here. Now, what do you expect?
19:45
So all our beginning, trying to get some empathy, trying to
19:50
build some rapport, trying to provide some emotional support,
19:53
listen to somebody, all those things very, very important and
19:57
#2 apology very important in Nigeria.
20:02
Even if you take responsibility, you're trying to solve the
20:04
thing. Why do you apologize?
20:07
There will still be some small anger there and then some of you
20:11
might say, look, what do I care so long as we resolve the issue.
20:14
This is the reason why you can't remember that.
20:16
I was talking about possible goals of customer service and I
20:19
said customer retention. Customer retention means
20:23
somebody bought from me before. I want the person to buy from me
20:28
again today. They bought from me yesterday.
20:31
I want them to buy today. I also want them to buy tomorrow
20:34
or next tomorrow. That is customer retention.
20:37
Before we have done business. Currently we're doing business.
20:40
In the future we will do business.
20:43
The reason why that's important is because sales and marketing
20:46
is expensive. So if you increase the number of
20:49
people that yesterday we did business, today we're still
20:53
doing business, it means you're spending less in marketing.
20:55
Some of you might not understand, but just take it.
20:58
The just take it as a gospel truth.
21:02
I'm saying for now. In the future, I might make a
21:03
podcast episode to explain why. And then if they come back in
21:07
the future, these are people who are calling to you to do
21:10
business, but you did not spend time or money running after them
21:15
to try and market your business to them.
21:17
So that's the reason why you should care whether you give an
21:20
apology or not because it's time to customer retention.
21:25
If somebody's having negative experiences, if somebody's
21:29
having, if you're introducing what's it called unnecessary
21:35
attrition to the whole process. It reduces the number of people
21:38
who before did business with you, right now currently doing
21:43
business with you and in the future we'll do business with
21:45
you. I keep saying the time and time
21:48
again, if I let me use the wedding photographer example so
21:51
that some of you understand if your wedding photographer, I
21:56
don't know how much they charge now.
21:57
So I'm going to use the rates that we used to charge back when
22:00
I was still in the field. If you do business with a bride,
22:04
the package you put together for her was four, 54150 K and then
22:12
the materials and you pay boys and you pay everything, design
22:15
book, everything cost you 200 K. What entered your pocket is
22:19
250K. If that person never refers
22:23
anybody else or never comes back to do baby photography or
22:26
something like that, that means the only money you have profited
22:28
from that bride is 250 K. It's not bad, it's just that
22:32
things can be better if you profit 250K for the wedding and
22:40
then six months later she comes to say, I want to do maternity
22:44
shoot. And your profit on that is maybe
22:46
80 K. And then one year later don't
22:51
want to go and do baby's first year birthday.
22:53
And your profit on that is another two hundred 250K.
22:58
And then after that they call you again to say Mumsy is doing
23:02
60th birthday anniversary. So a 60th birthday, they call
23:06
you again, the profit on that is another 200 K and then they call
23:11
you in two years time, Mumsy and Popsy are doing 45 years wedding
23:14
anniversary and then your profit on that.
23:17
Maybe it's like 300 Ki. Hope you're beginning to see
23:20
what we mean when we're talking about customer retention or we
23:24
talk about CLV, customer lifetime value, maximizing
23:28
lifetime value. It is good to receive small
23:32
coins from somebody in the beginning, but the big money
23:35
happens in the future. The relationship, the coming
23:39
back, the calling other people, the referring to other people.
23:42
That is where the sweet money comes.
23:44
Especially since this future money is not money that you have
23:48
to work for. Technically speaking, you can be
23:50
there minding your business saying, ah, it's time for school
23:53
fees. What the hell am I going to do?
23:56
And all of a sudden you just receive one phone call.
24:00
And then as in school fame, school fees, money just enters
24:02
like that, you know? And we rejoice and we say we
24:09
thank God for provision. Yeah, we thank God for
24:10
provision. But also it's because you did
24:13
something good in the past. You did something good in the
24:17
past. You handled the business well in
24:20
the past. Because of that, God is able to
24:22
bless your efforts to make sure that the people call again in
24:25
the future. So apology really, really
24:28
important. So listen, empathize, show
24:31
support, give an apology. Then you also have to take
24:34
responsibility. Whoever is on the phone has to
24:36
take responsibility. Now, the average business,
24:39
Nigerian business owner that I talked to, excuse me, they don't
24:43
like this part. Nigerians think that if you take
24:46
responsibility, it means that you are wrong.
24:49
That is your fault. No, no, no, that's not the case.
24:51
Because actually to be honest, you know, we're Nigerians now.
24:54
Sometimes you know, the person is just being an idiot.
24:57
So sometimes it's actually it's their own fault.
25:01
But taking responsibility doesn't mean you're at fault.
25:07
It just means you're taking an active role, a proactive role to
25:11
try and. Resolve the situation.
25:14
Nobody in Nigeria does this, which is the reason why when you
25:17
do it, it will make you stand out and lots of times it will
25:20
make people calm down. Because it will be clear that
25:23
the person is not trying to evade responsibility, is not
25:26
trying to shift blame, but the person is trying to engage and
25:31
come up with a solution. A lot of times this is enough to
25:34
make somebody calm down. So just take responsibility.
25:38
It works different ways. You can do it in different ways.
25:42
The way that I advise people to say it is, oh, I'm sorry for
25:47
this da da, da, da, da, da. That is not the way we like to
25:51
do business here. I'm really sorry that you know
25:54
that happened to you. Don't worry, ma.
25:56
Don't worry Sir. I'm going to take responsibility
25:59
for the situation to make sure that we can resolve this issue.
26:02
If we can't, I'll try and escalate it to my oga or to my
26:05
Madam. But I will personally be in
26:07
touch with you until we can resolve this matter.
26:13
So Sir, Ma, is it OK if I ask a couple of questions?
26:17
I need to figure out exactly what it is that happened.
26:20
That is the way that I recommend people to take it.
26:23
And you find out for lots of Nigerians, you'll make people to
26:25
calm down because in Nigeria, it doesn't matter whether you go to
26:28
the hospital, whether you go to the police or whether you go to
26:31
your tailor or you go to your caterer or you go to Napa or you
26:35
go to wherever. The average Nigerian has not
26:38
received this kind of treatment anywhere from anyone that
26:43
somebody said, oh, I'm absolutely sorry this thing
26:45
happened to you. This is not how we like to do
26:47
business here. Don't worry, ma.
26:49
Hi, my name is Kuli Adigo. I will take responsibility to
26:54
make sure that this matter is resolved.
26:55
If I can't resolve it, I will call my Olga and see what we can
26:58
work out. But my please.
27:00
I beg no Vex. I just need to calm down.
27:02
Let me ask you a couple of questions.
27:04
Let me figure out exactly what it is that happened, then we'll
27:06
see. We can come up with a solution.
27:08
The average Nigerian has not heard that by you taking that
27:11
kind of approach. You're standing out already.
27:12
I remember what I said. Customer retention, these are
27:18
the things now we'll make sure that somebody did business with
27:21
us yesterday, they'll do business with us today, and God
27:26
willing, they will do business with us for the near future in
27:29
perpetuity. So that's the scope.
27:32
You see why I say for me, customer service, the best goal,
27:37
it's costing my attention. You know, brand reputation, you
27:40
know, Yes, yeah. But you know, who cares about
27:43
brand? If you're doing good business,
27:44
brand will funnel. I know some of you brand
27:46
advocates who like to argue, but anyway, no problem.
27:48
When we see one-on-one, we can we can't quarrel that one.
27:51
So as I take responsibility, in fact, I haven't heard someone
27:56
say is this hotel chain in America?
27:58
I can't remember what it is or the way that they how do they do
28:04
it? I can't remember something like,
28:06
oh, I'm really sorry that this happened to you.
28:08
This is not how we like to deal with our customers.
28:11
My name is so, so, so let me help you.
28:15
Let me help you take care, Abby. Let me take care of this for
28:18
you. So for that hotel chain in
28:20
America, I can't remember the name right now.
28:21
Hopefully before the broadcast episode ends.
28:24
You know, that's their own formula.
28:26
Let me take care of this for you.
28:30
Somebody's taking responsibility.
28:32
Then I've already tossed an action, which is needs analysis.
28:36
You know how asking some questions to figure out what
28:38
happened? Because remember.
28:40
Like I said. Sometimes the customer is just
28:41
being an idiot. So if you ask, yes, the zip
28:45
broke, but then you found out that instead of asking her
28:49
husband to zip her up, she was trying to use cloth hanger to
28:52
pull up the zip for herself. Because I've heard that some
28:55
babes do that. Like if nobody's around, you
28:56
just use cloth hanger and hook on it and then you zip yourself
28:58
up. I would like to see how that is
29:00
done because I've not seen it. I've not seen it done before,
29:04
but I hear that people can do that.
29:06
So maybe she wanted to use cloth?
29:07
Hanger and then zip herself up and then she now damage the
29:09
whole thing. So in that case, she's known as
29:13
being an idiot. But at least you need to know so
29:17
that maybe you can tell Madam or maybe you can use zips that are,
29:20
I don't know, doubly reinforced or whatever you fashion people,
29:23
you will know what to do so that even if somebody's being an
29:26
idiot and trying to use cloth hunger to zip themselves up
29:29
using, you know, on your Immaculate designs, the zip on
29:33
damage so needs analysis. You need to ask questions.
29:38
Who did you talk to the last time?
29:39
What happened? The delivery person was his
29:42
name. What time was he supposed to
29:43
come? What exactly did you order?
29:46
Do you have a tracking number? You know, as in ask any
29:50
conceivable question. Because the more questions you
29:53
ask, the more information that you have to now come up with
29:57
solutions also so that if you need to escalate this thing to
30:00
your girl or to Madam, you have enough ammunition to give them
30:05
now. Olga, this.
30:06
What's up? My mom called, she did provoke,
30:09
she did rake. Based on my investigation, I
30:12
think this is what happened. I'm not sure what to do next,
30:16
but these are the details and maybe these are the options or I
30:19
can now come up or Madam can now come up with a solution for the
30:23
problem. So need analysis.
30:28
And then when you profile a solution, you always have to ask
30:30
for feedback. Feedback just means OK in this
30:35
situation. Now feedback just means are we
30:37
on point? Are we OK?
30:39
So you propose what it is that you're going to do and I see for
30:43
feedback, would that be OK? Ma, would that work for you?
30:49
Let's say what else? How we put it.
30:50
Any I'm sure you get my point because how you're going to ask
30:54
for feedback will be different according to your temperament,
31:02
your style of speaking, your personality and the level of
31:04
rapport that you built with the person.
31:07
But either way, we have to get some kind of feedback because we
31:10
want to be sure that what we have proposed to solve the
31:14
problem is going to be fine. Now, there are some situations
31:17
that you've run through all these things and you can't come
31:20
up with an educated solution. And remember when I was talking
31:23
about taking responsibility, that is where that whole part of
31:26
you know, my name is Kuniya Digun.
31:30
I am promising you that I'm going to take responsibility for
31:34
this thing to resolve the matter.
31:36
If we can't, I will escalate it to Mahoga or to my Madam.
31:39
But either way, ma. Don't worry, I.
31:40
Will be in touch with you to make sure that this thing is
31:42
resolved. And by the way, if you're the
31:45
customer service Rep, if you're the only adigo, you will not
31:48
help in this case. If you run through a couple of
31:51
things, you come up with some options she's not happy with
31:54
either. You escalate to yoga, but then
31:57
people don't get back in touch with her.
31:58
And then the customer is the one who calls back again.
32:01
That's the kind of thing that makes Nigerians, that's the kind
32:03
of thing that makes their heads not boiling.
32:05
So once you escalate, you need to be keeping the customer up to
32:09
date. OK Ma, I spoken on my OGA.
32:13
He's also appalled at what it is that has happened.
32:15
He wants me to tender he's he's unreserved apologies and we are
32:22
currently working on. You know, whatever, we're
32:25
currently working on a way to resolve this matter.
32:27
Please give us two hours. And I'll be in touch again to
32:31
let you know how far that kind of thing, that kind of update,
32:35
being proactive, you know, that's all stop people from
32:37
calling back and provoking. So let me stop here.
32:42
But I hope you can see how there is a framework or there are
32:51
possibilities for come up with frameworks to deal with all
32:54
these sorts of things instead of letting people freestyle.
32:58
So the problems occur because organ Madam owner of the
33:02
business, you haven't thought of a framework for yourself or you
33:07
have thought of the framework but you have not communicated it
33:11
to other people. Or you have communicated it to
33:13
other people, but you didn't communicate it enough and you
33:17
didn't role play enough or try and troubleshoot the system
33:20
enough to be sure that it works and that is adequate.
33:23
And that is going to cover different kinds of possible
33:26
scenarios that occur on a customer service call.
33:31
So no freestyling. Think about this ahead of time
33:34
before there's a problem. Write it down.
33:37
Don't leave it in your head. If it's in your head, you can't
33:40
help anybody. If I'm a customer service Rep
33:42
and you have the call, the perfect framework for dealing
33:46
with this thing, but you never taught me like what do you
33:48
expect? Of course, if somebody calls,
33:50
I'm going to be, I'm going to start freestyling.
33:52
So make sure it's written down somewhere on a piece of paper on
33:57
Google Docs or whatever. Then you should be having
34:00
sessions every now and then where you guys will you train
34:05
the people and then you troubleshoot.
34:07
Sometimes if there's a very difficult issue that won't be a
34:10
special case. And then you call meeting.
34:12
In fact, there's a family member that I know who had some medical
34:19
issues and, you know, the hospital didn't handle it
34:23
properly. Apologies were tendered and, you
34:28
know, we had some conversations. But after that, I noticed that
34:31
in the hospital, that particular issue was a subject of a
34:36
management, you know, something, something where they called
34:38
everybody. OK, look, unfortunately this is
34:41
what happened in the future when these sorts of things happen.
34:44
This is how we have to deal with this thing.
34:46
So we should also be taking advantage.
34:49
We should also be doing these sorts of things.
34:52
Now, some of you are going to say, Bros, I thought you said
34:57
this is about customer service over WhatsApp.
35:00
And since you started, you've not said anything about
35:01
WhatsApp. Yeah, you're absolutely correct.
35:04
But The thing is, if you realize that all these principles that
35:06
I've spoken about so far, listen, empathize, show some
35:09
support, tender an apology, take responsibility, do some leads
35:13
analysis to figure out what's going on, get some feedback.
35:17
Madam, I've given you two or three solutions.
35:18
Which one do you like? Which one works best?
35:20
Would this one make you happy? If nothing works, escalate it to
35:24
organ Madam. At that point, you've done
35:26
what's within your own control. You can see that that applies
35:30
whether it's a phone call or whether it's a WhatsApp message
35:35
or whether the person comes into the office.
35:37
In fact, for WhatsApp messages, in my own opinion, if you can
35:40
switch to phone call, you'll be better because sometimes you
35:42
type some things and the effect is not there because trying to
35:48
say I'm sorry in a WhatsApp message, it's not the same thing
35:52
as you're on the phone with all my say, ah mommy, ah mommy, I
35:56
beg, I'm very sorry. The approach is different in
36:00
text message. You just put I'm sorry.
36:02
It's not the same as when both of you are talking and there's
36:05
lots of things that are being communicated in voice.
36:09
The principles also apply. Like I said, if somebody comes
36:12
into the office, well, just be aware that sometimes people come
36:14
into the office and they are very, very angry.
36:16
Don't break somebody's head if that's the case, do the best you
36:21
can. In fact, maybe you get your line
36:25
manager to handle it. You know, somebody who is better
36:28
trained to deal with these sorts of things.
36:30
But anyway, these things apply over WhatsApp.
36:35
OK, almost 40 minutes. So let me bring this to a close
36:37
now. The reason why I thought about
36:38
this and specifically for WhatsApp is because I tried
36:44
buying credit recently, net back credit and then there's a failed
36:49
transaction with the app. I'm not going to say the service
36:51
provider. So what I did because that was
36:53
around 2 PMSI reported the thing.
36:56
There was phone number. I tried calling, phone number
36:59
was not going through. I said OK, no problem.
37:00
I saw WhatsApp number. So I now sent WhatsApp message
37:03
that was around 2:00 PM. Then when I sent that message at
37:07
2 PMI attached the payment receipt and then I also attached
37:12
the screenshot of what else screenshot of the failed
37:18
notification, you know, thing in the app and I was trying to buy
37:22
the credit. Then I got a message back saying
37:27
that OK, sorry, I'm listening on phone.
37:32
Remember what I said that you're able to sometimes you can
37:36
resolve customer services issues easier over the phone precisely
37:40
because you can be more empathetic over the phone.
37:43
It was unfortunate that the phone number was not working, so
37:46
we had to be texting back and forth.
37:48
Then I know what they bought. Message back saying that all
37:53
agents are currently busy, someone was going to assist me.
37:56
That message came. I say OK, no problem.
38:00
Then 3:00 PM is like one hour. I've not had anything.
38:06
I sent another message, an automated prompt came back.
38:09
Aliens are currently busy. Something, something, something
38:11
someone will call to assist you non blah blah. 5:30 no response
38:17
and I'll send a message saying how far the same bot response.
38:21
All agents are currently busy some some some some blah blah
38:24
blah blah, blah, blah, whatever. Then I have some wrongs to do
38:29
that day. I can't remember if my
38:30
sister-in-law was around or anyhow, so you know one or two
38:34
things and then plus there was not an emergency like would have
38:37
been able to go another two or three days before the Nepal
38:40
credits ran out. That's the, oh, sorry, those of
38:45
you who are foreigners who are listening to this, when we're
38:47
saying APAC credit, we mean utility electricity, electricity
38:51
credits, yes, electricity credits and put it that way, the
38:54
units that you need to keep the lights on.
38:57
So anyway, OSHA eventually, oh, that guy 11 PMI got a message,
39:04
bring him. That's from the app saying
39:05
vending successful. So I went down because our meter
39:10
is downstairs in the new house. I went down and I just entered
39:12
in the meter number. Everything loaded so there was
39:15
no problem. So I now sent the customer
39:18
service people a message saying that oh, my earlier complaint
39:24
ignore thing has been ratified, Abby is ratified, rectified.
39:31
Everything has been rectified. I sent it and then our stupid
39:37
air prompts bot prompt came again.
39:40
All agents are busy. Something, something, something
39:43
somebody will call you back to resolve.
39:45
Like you see the reason why I say for Nigerian business
39:48
people, some of us are jumping on this whole bot automated
39:51
something too, too quick. We have not given the bots,
39:58
we've not fed it with enough data.
40:01
To be able to anticipate different kinds of situations
40:04
where people are trying to reach out to the business.
40:06
And so because of this, the responses are painfully
40:10
inadequate. Somebody has spent good money to
40:15
buy credit through your app. The credit is not working. 2:00
40:19
PM bought response, which is useless. 3:00 PM bought
40:25
response, which is useless. 5:30 AM bought response which is
40:29
useless. 11:00 PM But response which is useless, this is not a
40:35
good way to do customer service. In case some of you haven't
40:41
figured this out, it's not a good way to do customer service.
40:43
And can you see why the average Nigerian, they provoke?
40:46
Anyhow, by the time somebody, like I said, for me, I like to
40:50
be calm, I like to be cool. So even if I had 11:00 PM,
40:54
somebody eventually called me out.
40:55
I've tried to have a cool calm conversation but you can see how
40:58
for the average Nigerian, let's say the average person now for
41:00
instance they had they used their last 20K to buy Nepal
41:05
credit. The thing now says credit
41:07
unsuccessful and maybe the unit now came unfinished.
41:11
They don't have another 20 K to try again.
41:14
You can see how the person is angry and is bubbling from 2:00
41:17
PM until 11:00 at night and people say Nigerians are rude.
41:22
It's not that Nigerians are rude, we just have crappy
41:25
service in this parts of the world.
41:26
So lots of people are angry and so they lash out.
41:30
I'm not excusing that kind of behaviour.
41:33
Well anyway, funny thing is eventually the business
41:38
responded to me. Guess when at 3:00 AM in the
41:44
morning. Hello TGA, how can I help?
41:47
13 hours later, that was their response.
41:50
Hello, Tara, Shima, George, Eddie.
41:52
How can I help? 13 hours later, I reached out to
41:59
you. 13 hours ago, there was a problem.
42:01
I was sending messages, the silly agent says.
42:06
How can I? They didn't even bother to read
42:09
all the messages that came before to even get a sense of
42:12
what the problem was. You want me to now repeat the
42:15
whole thing of what happened? Anyway, let's just take some
42:19
general lessons since we're already at 45 minutes with the
42:22
phone. You can be more, more
42:26
empathetic. You can be more responsive.
42:28
It's easier to put people to put people at ease and to get people
42:32
to vent. So please make sure your phone
42:35
lines are working. That'll be the easiest and the
42:38
quickest way to resolve this because we're trying to resolve
42:42
customer service issues by pinging back and forth this
42:44
thing. Sometimes it can take hours and
42:45
hours and hours. It's even worse if you're trying
42:48
to e-mail back. You'll find that you're taking
42:50
several days now, you haven't resolved an issue.
42:52
Meanwhile, if somebody took the initiative to pick up the phone,
42:56
you'd be surprised that 15 minutes, 20 minutes when I don't
42:58
finish, you resolve the matter. So please make sure the phone
43:02
lines are working. Then when it comes to these
43:05
things of bots and auto prompts, please, if you're going to use
43:09
them, make sure you have the data set, you have fed it with
43:13
enough scenarios and data sets and everything so that these
43:17
things can adequately respond when somebody reaches out.
43:23
But in my opinion, I think too many of us are rushing to these
43:25
bots and auto prompts. We are not there yet.
43:28
The average business person is not there yet.
43:31
Another problem that I have with the bots and the automated
43:33
prompts is it usually gives people the illusion that all is
43:36
good because the customer has been responded to.
43:39
Well. Surely you can see that all is
43:41
not good. All is not well because if
43:44
there's been a response but the response has not been adequate,
43:47
then there's still room for the person to be angry.
43:51
So left to me, most business owners, please kill this whole
43:54
bot thing or do you have enough data to train these things well
43:59
so that they can respond? Then please respond quickly.
44:05
In Nigeria, we are not too all. I put it even by Nigerian
44:11
standards, 1313 hours, that's bad.
44:15
So respond quickly then let's see if you're a customer service
44:19
Rep, please get into the habit of reviewing the history in the
44:25
chat, in the e-mail, review the material.
44:29
Because too many customer service people, I noticed they
44:32
pick up the phone or they e-mail you back and then they ask you,
44:34
how can I help? What do you mean how can I help?
44:38
I've already sent 567. Can you at least read it so that
44:42
when you reach out in touch, the attitude will be more like, oh,
44:45
Mr. Heyde, I'm really, really sorry.
44:47
It looks like this and this and this and this and this was the
44:50
problem. Is that the reason why I reached
44:52
out earlier? Yes, it was.
44:54
Or has it been resolved or hasn't been resolved?
44:56
Oh, I'm terribly sorry. This is not how we like to do
45:00
business. My name is Kami.
45:04
I do go. I'll take responsibility to make
45:06
sure that this is resolved adequately.
45:09
But before I do that, can I ask you a couple of more questions
45:12
on to be sure that I have all the information that I need, you
45:17
know, to rectify this. So please review the history,
45:22
review the material. Don't come and ask.
45:24
We couldn't come and be asking how can I help?
45:27
If somebody came into the office and the person provoked in front
45:31
of the customer service Rep, the customer service Rep goes inside
45:34
and then they call you, the manager.
45:36
Don't come out the manager and ask you also, Madam, how can I
45:38
help? The customer came in, I was
45:41
angry, I provoked, I vented, I harassed somebody for 15
45:44
minutes. If you go and you come out and
45:47
say, Madam, how can I help? You're making matters worse
45:50
because nobody wants to repeat themselves under those difficult
45:53
conditions. Then let's see what else.
45:58
Anyway, so that's basically. So those are the lessons said a
46:02
lot about customer service. I just hope that somewhere
46:07
between the 45 minutes of talking that we've been doing,
46:10
they'll be able to get some good Nuggets about how to organise
46:13
our customer service processes. But I guess the main thing that
46:16
I want to pass across today is do not freestyle.
46:18
This thing is supposed to be planned, and it's supposed to be
46:21
planned well ahead of time before somebody even gets angry.
46:25
So plan it ahead of time, come up with the response, come up
46:29
with the philosophy, come up with the framework ahead of
46:30
time, put it down on paper. Make sure that everybody has
46:34
been trained on your team. Practice it with everybody.
46:37
Do role plays. When those situations happen
46:39
where something breaks down terribly, take that.
46:45
That will serve as a case study for the next time.
46:47
You will have sales meeting, you will have marketing meeting,
46:51
departmental meeting. You will discuss it and then
46:54
take the lessons that you learn from that and add it into your
46:58
customer Service plan for the future.
47:00
So that's all for today folks. If you have got any sales and
47:03
marketing questions, bring them to me.
47:04
Call, SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
47:10
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
47:11
I'll catch you, dear listener, at the next episode.