MAKING THE CUSTOMER KING AGAIN

The customer, they say is king, but in Nigeria, customers can be likened to slaves, a reflection of the many years of poor service delivery they have endured in a country where fraud, deception and unwholesome business practices in the marketplace have been robbing them of their hard earned income and for which they are unable to get any satisfactory redress. The scenarios abound. Recently, social media was agog, with many Nigerian travellers expressing their frustrations about the services of Arik Air following days of prolonged flight delays and outright cancellations of flights which had already been paid for without adequate prior notification of the customers nor any provision made for their compensation. To be fair to Arik, this is a phenomenon common to all the airline operators in an industry where indiscriminate adjustments of flight schedules without apologies are a norm. There are frequent reports of people purchasing beverages and finding foreign and dangerous items inside them. Petrol filling stations adjust their pumps to under supply unsuspecting buyers. Fake drugs are dispensed to patients at hospitals and pharmacy shops which have led to many medically mysterious deaths. Electricity consumers are forced to pay monthly bills for services they have never enjoyed. Indeed, officials of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, who have since stopped reading the customers’ meters to ascertain consumption rates, now allocate bills arbitrarily and will not respond to reported service disruptions except they are bribed. It is a similar situation with telephone subscribers who for years have suffered from poor quality of service, inordinate billing and poor customer service. The non-existence of, or ineffectiveness, of warranties for items purchased in the open market which is often flooded with substandard products, is another headache the Nigerian consumer has endured. Service delivery in the public sector is at an embarrassing low. This is despite the introduction by the Head of Service some years ago, of SERVICOM, a public sector service pact with Nigerians. To access a service as simple as seeing a doctor in a public hospital, one has to contend with the abysmally poor infrastructure and the lackadaisical conduct of the staff. Police and emergency service do not respond to emergency calls, and when you have to visit their premises, you are made to leaf through layers of bureaucracy and administrative bottlenecks. Middle men and touts have since taken over the process for obtaining international passports and driver’s licences, and when there is service failure, there is essentially nobody to turn to with those who attempt to institute legal action fighting long and often inconclusive battles. But the consumer ought to be king. The reality of life is that service providers and consumers will never be able to agree on what the rights of the consumer are nor on the benchmarks for measuring compliance to these rights. Therefore, the intervention of a third party, most likely an enforcing government agency, is needed to help set the standards and enforce its dictates when either party has faltered. In Nigeria, consumer protection regime is still at its infancy; despite the presence of various government agencies involved in regulation of specific sectors. A principal legislation on the issue of consumer protection, tagged Consumer Protection Act, was passed in the year 1992. The act established the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), which was charged with the responsibilities to protect and promote the interest of Nigerian consumers and to prevent market abuse. Although the CPC is established as a parastatal of the government, by Act No. 66 of 1992, it only began to functionally operate in 1999, when its institutional framework was installed. In addition to the Act setting up the CPC, Nigeria also has a number of laws that provides for the rights of the Nigerian consumer. They include: Sale of Goods Law, Weight and Measures Act, Standards Organisation of Nigeria Act, Merchandise Mark Act, Food and Drug Act and Hire Purchase Act. It is therefore an irony that in spite of these laws, most Nigerians have not been enjoying the rights due them as consumers nor are the mechanisms put in place by these laws to protect them any effective. A number of reasons can be adduced for this which includes illiteracy and lack of awareness of their rights, absence of the political will by the enforcing authorities and recognised regulatory agencies of government to hold service providers accountable for their indiscretion, a judicial system buoyed by its many inadequacies and unable to make the laws bite. But all hope is not lost for the Nigerian consumer. In the 21st century and with advancements in all spheres of human endeavour, our citizens are increasingly making demands to be treated and served in line with international best practices. While it is cheering that the people are increasingly making greater demands for their rights, it is also incumbent on the government to ensure they get their demands. The government must reposition the CPC to make it more effective and accountable to the people. Other related regulators must equally begin to live up to their responsibilities in fulfilling the tenets of their establishment. Government should ensure that monopolies and other such anti-competitive business practices are discouraged. Furthermore, since ignorance has been identified as one of the reasons for poor customer right protection, government must also engage in educating the citizenry on their rights, how to identify unwholesome goods and how to reach the appropriate authorities to report service failures. Manufactures, public officials and service providers ought to also benefit from the training as well to help them better understand the standards that required of them, why they have to maintain those standards and the consequences of failing to maintain them. Finally, activists, non-governmental organisations and individuals have a big role to play by leading targeted campaigns to promote consumer rights, educating the populace, standing for consumers’ rights under existing law and promoting new legislation that will make the Nigerian consumer truly the king.

WRITTEN BY SYLVA IFEDIGBO

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SOCIAL CUSTOMER SERVICE

It goes without saying that your attitude towards a social media crisis should be one of anticipation than denial.You know it’s just a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’. One day something flares up but you are spared. The collective eyeballs of the social web are pulled elsewhere. Other times you remain in the crosshair and become a trending hashtag.There are just too many variables to anticipate the outcome. Maybe your organisation was stupid. Maybe it was a partner, an employee or a customer. Even a competitor. Could someone have noticed its shadow in an ongoing  trend? Or did it snuck up as a ‘one-off’?All you know for sure is that one day you will be on the agenda, caught in the headlights. Then you must hope all those fire drills pay off and the major team players don’t freeze.

We Are Only Just Getting Started

Such is the inner world of social risk management at this current stage in the game. But there are already signs of the evolution that will inevitably take hold.Here is an example of an individual with enough confidence and capability to take on a brand for poor service. I’ll summarise the story through an excerpt from Laural Hampton‘s post  ’Should Social Media be a Tool for Consumer Battles?“Martin Macdonald works for Expedia EAN and is well known and respected in the digital marketing community. He has a good following on all of his social media, and his blog is widely read. As I type this, Martin is launching his campaign against  British Gas (and more specifically, @BritishGasHelp ) following unsatisfactory communications with their customer service team.”Here is another one.British Airways has been forced to apologise after a Twitter user bought a promoted tweet to complain about the airline losing his luggage.Hasan Syed, who uses the handle @HVSVN, bought the promoted tweet through the site’s self-service ad platform. The tweet said: “Don’t fly @BritishAirways. Their customer service is horrendous.”In the first six hours since the tweet was promoted, it had notched up over 25,000 impressions on Twitter. This is how he summarised his efforts once BA had found the luggage and apologised.

CULLED FROM BRAIN FOOD EXTRA.COM

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5 REASONS TO CELEBRATE CUSTOMER SERVICE WEEK

The Customer Service Week (CSW) is here! You probably know that the first full week in October is celebrated as the Customer Service Week in a number of countries. It's a time to beam the spotlight on customer service issues and appreciate those who serve customers. Ever since the International Customer Service Association (ICSA) came up with the idea of a customer service week, the celebration has gained acceptance across the globe. In 1992, the US Congress formally recognized it as a national celebration.

I am not aware the customer service week has gained any form of official recognition in our country. But that doesn't matter much. What matters is that there is a dire need to focus on customers and the quality of service we render to them. Just as in most things, we have much to complain about, as far as service in our country is concerned.

Here are five reasons on why you should celebrate Customer Service Week:

It is an international event devoted to recognising the importance of customer service.
To reward frontline staff for the important work they do.
To raise company awareness of the importance of customer service.

To thank other departments for their support
To remind customers of your commitment to customer satisfaction.v>

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VITAFOAM AWARDED BEST FOAM MARKETING COMPANY OF THE YEAR

Amidst challenging market realities and harsh business environment in Nigeria, Vitafoam, manufacturer and distributor of flexible, rigid foam and other fibre products, has stood out among its peers in the art and science of marketing of products.

The company got the recognition of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), which at the weekend, awarded it the best foam marketing company of the year and a commendation as a trailblazer in the manufacturing and distribution of foam and allied products.

Rotimi Adeyeye, NIMN’s chairman of Council, who presented the award to Vitafoam at the institute’s 10th anniversary/lecture and conferment of fellowship and marketing excellence awards on corporate organisations in

Lagos, urged Vitafoam to sustain its excellent corporate performance in order to uphold its philosophy of creating shareholder value.

Gabriel Okoli, Vitafoam’s head, sales and marketing, who received the award on behalf of the company, described the award as an assurance that the company had always been on the top, noting however that the award imposed certain responsibilities on his company.

“This prestigious award is a call to duty. The least expected of us at Vitafoam is the need to double our efforts by ensuring that the company surpasses the current performance that earned it this award,” Okoli said.

On the challenges facing marketers in Nigeria, Okoli lamented the influx of adulterated products, urging the regulatory authorities such as Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and National Agency for Food, Drug

Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to wield the big sticks on the culprits in order to curb the menace of poor quality products whose low prices and orchestrated packaging make them attractive to unsuspecting consumers.

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HOW WELL DO YOU YOU TREAT YOUR INTERNAL SERVICE CUSTOMERS?

As the world marks Customer Service week beginning from Oct 7th to October 11th,here is a useful tip on how well you treat your internal customers:

The concept of internal customer service may be just as important, if not even more so, than general customer service.  So much of what drives the customer experience is what is happening on the inside of an organization.  It’s the company’s culture that creates and ultimately defines the customer service experience. So here is an interesting concept:What if your internal customers had a choice about doing business with you? Customers have a choice with who they do business with, so why shouldn’t internal customers have a choice as well?  Okay, that may not be realistic.  We have to do business with our internal customers, don’t we?  We actually work with our internal customers, or do we?Typically, if one of our internal customers is unhappy with the way he or she is treated, they don’t usually have a choice to go outside to another vendor.  But, they do have a choice of continuing to work for the organization.  If they are unhappy and have an opportunity to leave and work for the competition – or any other company for that matter – isn’t that kind of the same as a customer leaving us for a competitor?No doubt employees leave if they are unfulfilled or are offered opportunities that are of better value than their current job.  But that’s not what this is really about.  This is really just a concept to get you thinking.  So here’s another question:How well do you treat and take care of your internal customers?Okay, let’s go back to the original question: What if our internal customers really did have a choice of doing business with us or someone else?  Would they choose us?  Do we deliver a level of internal customer service that is just acceptable or satisfactory?  Or is it above average – even amazing?Years ago I worked with a client who had an internal event planning department.  What was interesting is that they had to bid for every job they did for their own company’s meetings.  They went up against other creative meeting and event planning companies.  And, the internal customer had the choice of doing business with their own department, or going to an outside firm, which in a sense is a competitor.  The pressure was on for the internal event planners to deliver an experience and level of customer service that would get their internal customer to come back.  This concept worked and the internal event planners kept their creative edge and worked to make their internal customers very happy.In the end, most of our internal customers really don’t have a choice, but if they did, would they choose you?

Culled from www.hyken.com

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NEVER BLAME THE CUSTOMER(TIPS ON CUSTOMER SERVICE)

When things go wrong, most companies' kneejerk reaction is
to look for someone to blame. If you're BP, you blame the
contractor for a big oil spill in the Gulf. Other times, you
might blame another employee. The blame game is never a good
idea. Customers don't want to hear it. What they want is for
your company to step up to the plate, take responsibility,
and resolve whatever issue they're having.

But the blame game becomes an especially horrific idea when
companies decide to blame the customer. In the past couple
of weeks alone, we've seen two major brands take this
incredibly stupid PR approach.

First, there was Apple. When it was discovered that the
iPhone 4 had a faulty antenna, the tech company's first
response was to blame the user, saying they were holding the
phone incorrectly causing the signal to drop out:

"Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its
antenna performance with certain places being worse than
others depending on the placement of the antennas," the
company said in a statement. "This is a fact of life for
every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your
iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a
way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal
band, or simply use one of many available cases."

Needless to say, customers were less than thrilled with
Apple's response, and they only got more upset. Finally,
Apple responded by giving them what they wanted (free
bumpers for improving phone signal), but the PR crisis could
have been much smaller if they had done that from the
beginning.

But Apple isn't the only company who mistakenly points the
finger at the customer. Remember the Toyota debacle? In case
you don't let me refresh your memory. All across the
country, people were getting into wrecks and many died
because of sudden acceleration in Toyota's vehicles.

Well, just when things have finally started to quiet down
for the auto manufacturer, they insist on stirring things
back up by saying some new research shows that drivers were
to blame for the accidents.

"Toyota Motor Corp.'s investigation of accidents involving
unintended acceleration where motorists said they pressed on
the brake pedal shows that "virtually all" involved drivers
who pushed the accelerator instead, a company spokesman
said.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker, is looking into
causes of unintended acceleration in its cars and trucks and
has recalled more than 8 million worldwide in the past year
for defects such as pedals that stuck or snagged on floor
mats. U.S. auto-safety regulators are also probing the
causes and haven't released their findings."

Auto safety advocates called the report "totally ludicrous."
It's easy to understand why Toyota did this, as they were
trying to reestablish their credibility, but it's just never
a good idea to blame the customer-even if he really is the
one to blame. The public still sees Toyota as responsible
for all those accidents.

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ETISALAT REITERATES COMMITMENT TO YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

Etisalat Nigeria has restated its commitment to continually encourage and empower Nigerian youth as it storms Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta, Ogun State, with its all-round development and empowerment initiative known as Cliqfest.Etisalat’s Cliqfest is a youth oriented programme that is celebrated in various universities across Nigeria, and features a seminar, novelty matches, raffle draw and musical concert featuring top Nigerian music acts.Commenting on the passion of the company to keep empowering the Nigerian youth, Elvis Ogiemwanye, head, youth segment, Etisalat Nigeria, described the initiative as a brand building platform designed to bond with Nigerian undergraduates and also give them the opportunity  to have an all-round development in sports, music and academics in a manner that seeks to guarantee them the ability to become self-sufficient after completing their tertiary education.

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RECKITT BENCKISER ALIGNS WITH MEDICAL EXPERTS ON CONSUMER AWARENESS

Gaviscon, the heartburn and indigestion solution health brand from the stable of Reckitt Benckiser, has aligned with medical experts on how to raise consumer awareness for the prevention and management of heartburn and indigestion health conditions in Nigeria. To this end, Gaviscon’s two separate interactive medical and scientific stakeholder events during which experts from across Nigeria, Ghana and Turkey converged on Lagos to educate consumers on facts about heartburn and indigestion health conditions. One of the events was the sixth Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Nigeria (SOGHIN), with the theme, “The Burden of Gastro-Intestinal and Liver Diseases in Nigeria.” The second was a special forum organised by Reckitt Benckiser under the auspices of an initiative code-named ‘Golden Faculty.’ The forum focused on “Optimising the Management of Reflux Disease in the 21st Century.” The events, which brought together eminent medical professionals in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, family medicine, pharmacy and other specialties, were in furtherance of the company’s corporate social responsibility. It was aimed at increasing consumer knowledge about heartburn and indigestion health conditions and what they can do to prevent or manage it in view of the noticeable low awareness on the difference between the two terms (heartburn and indigestion) which majority of the populace often use interchangeably whereas they are actually two different health conditions. Marketing director, Reckitt Benckiser, Oguzhan Silivrilli, underscored the essence of the initiatives by the company as a demonstration of its value-addition to the communities, noting that the company has continued to invest in product research and development in a bid to make its brands deliver more value to the consumers.

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