The person you interact with when you go to the banks, filling stations, supermarkets, etc i.e “the face of the business” is rude, plain rude. Even when they appear to be cheerful, one often gets the impression that you are being lobbied to drop some change, most obvious in the case of doormen at fast food restaurants and supermarkets.

Why haven’t we learnt to relate well with those wonderful human beings who patronise our businesses? Is it that we don’t realise the customer is king? Is it that employers aren’t careful enough in their recruitment processes, thereby getting people with wrong temperaments? Is it that companies do not have in place, policies that ensure right treatment of its customers or they just don’t bother to implement and enforce those policies?

Whatever the reasons, I think it is about time we tried to make a difference in the way customers are treated. Be it a mallam’s kiosk, a fish seller’s stall, a huge bank, an architectural firm, government agencies – It MUST be ensured that those who have any reason to interact with customers, do so with a ready smile, treat those customers with utmost respect, attend to their needs efficiently and joyously.

Take sterling bank for example, I haven’t been to the bank either before or after this their “one customer bank” campaign. But in my mind, that is one bank I would like to place my measly money with and when the time comes, transact my heavy businesses with. This is because they have succeeded in placing themselves within my psyche as one bank where I wouldn’t have to deal with some silly individual who doesn’t understand the importance of his/ her role. Who thinks he/she has a right to talk to everyone anyway they deem fit for reasons I don’t understand. Who doesn’t realise he/she is just one person in this universe.

Please and please, customer service representatives, If you are in a foul mood, it should be part of your training to keep work related stuff separate from whatever personal issues you might have. If you are one of those people who claim to have been born with a ready frown (i.e that is how my face is), you have to adjust to the life of service. When you get off duty, you may resume your gloomy outlook.

Haven’t you observed that a cheerful person who knows what he’s doing, can make you part with more money than you budgeted? Buying stuff you didn’t plan for? This should be a cue for the smart ones amongst us -who want to get others to part with their hard earned money or other things of value- to be attentive and courteous to people who patronise us.

Well, tollu, you should know by now that nobody's cheerful in Nigeria, really.
Aggression is built into our DNA, due to the physiological and socio-psychological pounding we all take every day, meted out by us to us!

That is true Ajanlekoko but still, it really is vexing when one has to carry out transactions with less than competent people.

OK, I can understand that you really don't wanna smile but you could at least do your job and do it well.

LOL.
tollu, really,
1. Nigerians are not particularly big on competence.
2. Nigerians to a large extent are not compelled by the society to work a long hard honest day for their pay.
We instead focus energies on outsmarting and undermining each other, and waiting for the 'big score', in whatever form that may come. Maybe the management slipping up and providing access to some solid cash we can heist sharp sharp.
Last thing we need is some silly-azz customer getting in the way of our 'groove'. That is what it is, at least from my P.O.V.
Peace.

True talk on your no. 2 point. LOL, Everybody tries to outsmart everybody.

I still believe though that the situation can change if 'somebody' campaigns for that. We Nigerians are well insulated against insults and incompetence cos if we were like oyinbos, ppl would have been suing for 'post transaction disorders' and other stuff like that.

I'm a bit busy at the mo, so my post might not make much sense. pardon me

tollu,
I got a solid dose of bad customer service yesterday from the place where you would least want to experience that- a hospital!

I have been under the weather for some days now. Finally I decided to visit the hospital, a very highbrow and popular one in VI yesterday.
I was running a temperature and my head was pounding. When I got to the clinic, the nurses first spent time arguing about whether I was properly registered or not ( I have actually been registered at the clinic since 2001, and my baby was born there, but I have never been treated there as a patient), until I had to lose it. They finally sorted that out after 30 minutes or argument and ask me to wait.
After 2 hours (and I could only see about 3 other people waiting) I had to ask if there was any doctor around at all.
The nurse said "oga since you have a temperature, it's likely you have a fever. Why not go to the lab and do a blood test?' Haba!
Of course I was very upset and raked for them, until a doctor finally showed up, an extremely rude lady doctor, obviously barely out of med school. She asked the most perfunctory of questions, and sent me off to the lab.
After my blood test, and another 2 hour wait (believe it or not, the same 3 people who were waiting since I got there were still waiting!) I could not take it anymore. So I went to ask the nurse on duty how far with the blood test and she just stared at me blankly.
At that point the other 3 people started to rake. Apparently they had also been kept waiting indefinitely just like me.
To add insult to injury the rude doctor showed up and made a comment like 'when I asked you to go and do a blood test you refused'.
That did it. I just walked out without another word, and went to another hospital where I had to pay over the counter, but at least I got the service I needed.
That kind of got me wondering. If I was going to keel over and die, was that how they would have simply 'boned'?
May God help us in this nation.
Peace.

This is quite interesting but lets try and look at it from the other side. Most of the places mentioned are lacking in structure - people doing defined activities. Registering at a hospital is not supposed to be the work of the nurse. Nurses are meant to take your vital signs and then put it on your folder which must have been brought to them by the administrative staff. The doctors are waiting in the consulting room for such folders to be moved to them. The doctors by the way should be competent and mature people who should be able to douse any charged atmosphere instead of adding fire.

My mistake actually. The registration incident was with the administrative staff, not nurses.
The nurses, in fairness to them, did take my vitals as soon as the registration issue was resolved.
The most irresponsible behaviour was actually from the doctors, I'd say.

Ahhh Ajanlekoko.
Did you say hospitals are the least places one would expect to be treated badly?
My my, u must have been quite lucky not to have experienced their madness before now.

Hospital staff are the most useless of them all and that's really scary because we are talking about life and death issue here.
Sometime early February, a cousin of mine was rushed to one of the popular appendectomy hospitals in Lagos. He had been in serious pains since midnight but we had to wait till daybreak (the fear of armed robbers is the beginning of wisdom) before taking him to the hospital. Can u belive he got tested for all sorts and we couldn't even get the results of the tests till the next day? As if that's not bad enough, after getting the results, we were told by one corpulent nurse that the CMD was not available that day, that we had to wait for him to approve the operaton before anything could be done! Imagine, and a human being was in pains.

All over the papers, you find stories of their incompetence. I thin I read sth on NL sometime ago about a man that lost his wife who was in labour because the hospital staff were negligent. I'll post a link when I find it.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-220607.0.html

That's the link to the General Hospital saga.

Ajanlekoko
BTW, hope you are much better now?hat's the

Yet, Nigerians are the happiest people in the world, inspite of the shabby treatment and rude behavior that is commonplace in customer service positions in the society.

i hear if you wanna get a dose of crappy customer service, starcomms bode thomas is the place to go!

also nipost ,

and majority of the Nasu staff of most nigerian higher institutions,

naija people tend to be hostile to one another, and let personal issues interfere with business

the shops, stores, market, filling stations , banks everywhere!!!

@annekix, remember market women. Those ones are one of the worst when it comes to customer service. If you haggle with them, gosh, some of them will resort to insults and all that. Is it any wonder some of our mothers will come home from the market feeling so stressed out. Part of it had to do with insults they received from the market.

I used to think that it was because i operate as a Service Management Professional that i see ZERO service culture in Nigeria, but the truth is, like a previous poster mentioned, there is a problem with our DNA.

I was priviledged to use the NHS (Hospital in Staines) a month ago and i was astonished to note that Human interaction is minimal & even where there is, there is courtesy. The receptionists who gave me directions were courteous & i later found out that they were volunteers. Blood test was clock work, no jumping of queue because a machine gave you (tally) number (nit like the kind of numbering you get at VFS British High Commision Agents in Lagos).

What blew my mind was when i was to do a Chest Xray, I did my Xray with my clothes on with results coming out within 5 mins. That immediately took me back to an Xray centre on Ayinde Giwa in surulere lagos where a few years ago after taking your xray, u wait behind to find our if d radiographer snapped well and then the film is taken outside to the sun to dry & you collect result the next day.

People of Nigeria, things need to change. We can be ctalyst to these changes if we demand for service based on Best practice

@poster

I work in a customer service capacity and I feel obliged to respond.

In truth, service delivery in Nigeria isn't quite up to it, but It's unfair to say every customer care rep you encounter in you working day is plain rude. That's a sweeping generalization in my opinion!

Sure, the quality of service (if it even exists) you get at the public level is downright pathetic. Someone sighted a Hosptal example here. I personally have given up on hospitals even though my company pays for me, I rather opt for a trustworthy pharmacy and get the express help I need for the occasional migriane or malaria rather than queuing long hours to see a doctor. The reasons why service delivery at our public institutions remain abysmally low arent that farfetched: we know government's sloppiness spawned those institutions to the canker worms that they are, so you shouldn't blame the poor admin staff  for his lackadaisical approach to work when some oga has been sitting on his salary for the past six months, fixing it in some fixed deposit account. So hate the system not him!

But it gets better with the private orgs for obvious reasons. Nonetheless, even at the most exemplary service delivery companies like GTB, they all have their bad days. And i can sight a ton of personal examples that make me cringe. But does that qualify those orgs as hopeless bad in their delivery? I don't think so.


I can speak for my organization. Management places such a premuim on customer complaints that your head could be up for the chopping block if you failed in executing a customer's request. I've had those moments and It helps keep me on my toes in trying to be the best I can be at delivering. That doesn't mean I'll please every customer I'll meet in my working day. I'm human, the pressure on the job does get to me once in a while, sometimes I try to hide under the guise of a plastic smile, sometimes I frankly don't care.

And the truth remains that while so much is left to be desired, there's some progress being made at private institutions, but government has to lead the effort by revamping our public institutions first!

Tollu

Common Sense they say is not common.

Cos we all know that of u treat a customer/client nice they r gonna think of u first when next they have need for ur service or product.

Still it is hard for our most ppl to understand this.

However, i guess as our economy improves and the competition for bizness heats up across the various sectors, folks will realize that the difference between profitability& Loss, staying employed & being jobless, growth & decline etc etc, will rest on ur ability to retain and grow ur client base by offering them the lil extras d other folks dont offer.

Ndipe:

Yet, Nigerians are the happiest people in the world, inspite of the shabby treatment and rude behavior that is commonplace in customer service positions in the society.  

Blatant lie, Nigerians are the "ANGRIEST"  people on earth. how will someone be happy in this kind of country? have you even visited your neighbouring Ghana not to mention any other country?

@Ajanlekoko: you say a highbrow hospital in V.I? Do you mean Reddington? That is part of the problem! why dont we always come out and name these places so that others can avoid them?! I have heard loads of stuff about Reddington and what you say conforms,

I should know a thing or two about customer service in naija; I created a column for a major nigerian newspaper 4 years ago and I can confidently tell you that nothing has changed! Rather than get better, all I get are threat mails, verbal threats to the editor, threats of legal action and the likes, or attempts tom bribe me; thank God I am faceless and write under a pseudonym!

But the part that drives ne crazy the most is to have my friends tell me that what i am doing is not good 'cos some people may lose their jobs!! Agghhhhh!!! they should bloody not have a job in the first place!!!!

My sentiments exactly! The major problem with Nigerians is bad attitude!! Like someone said it seems like its built into our DNA to want to get paid without doing any work. Infact 10pages will not be enough for me to write about  'horrible customer service experience' during my last visit to Nigeria  The general attitude i got was 'I no blame you, because you manage get small money you dey feel cool for me', owners of shops acted like they were 'too big' to serve customers .

That was my point when visited Naija last xmas, infact, they think they r doing u a favour, like, give me a break. If u r sad or sumthing like dat, stay back at home. Customer Service in Naija is ZEROOOOOO

I agree with many of the sentiments posted here but I will share mine:

1. To say their is zero customer service in Nigeria is to over-generalise. I have experienced both good and bad service and I think to a large extent, your experience is determined by where the company is located and the type of staff at that location. Example: GTBank is the only bank I use in Nigeria and even that is a story on its on. Their CS staff on GTConnect (phone help) are always nice and ready to help. I dare day they are world-class. I have experienced good service at about 5 of their branches in various parts of Lagos (I don't live in Lagos and so cannot be specific with the branch names). I have also experienced bad service with my own branch in Bodija Ibadan. The bank had simply lost the 3 referees I offered and wouldn't give me the cheque book for the account. They still have it! I asked for my card's PIN and was told the lady in charge was not around. I had to either wait or come back later. I left. They still have the PIN. I don't leave in Nigeria and so have no pressing need for the chequebook and Mastercard PIN thus my laxity.

2. I am yet to experience a single instance of bad service from Virgin Nigeria though I have used their services many times.

3. The problem in Nigeria is generally attitudinal. Indeed, Nigerians direct their anger and frustration on each other instead of directing it at their "so-called" leaders. "So-called leaders" because it is widely known that too many of them were rigged into office. I run a business and I can say on authority that many of the customer service problems are caused by the customers. Some customers are plain rude and one needs a lot of self-control not to shout them down on the phone. [s]Some annoy you so much you wish you had a gun to exterminate them.[/s] because they have made themselves a pain in the butt. Yes. It's that bad. How do you describe a customer who would refuse to read a simple knowledgebase or help section but would want to hold you responsible when something goes wrong? I have too many instances of unnecessary rudeness and aggression from customers and too much of it is from Nigeria. Trust me: you need a very thick skin to run a business in Nigeria and still offer a good customer service. Some customers can send you to the asylum.

This is all true and I am glad to see this thread. I wish nairaland had a 30min National radio program on specific issues, The most Intelligent ones like this one.
This customer service issue is deep. deep deep!!!!!!
The problem also is that Nigerians who have lived in Nigeria all along do not realise it. I am sure most of the people in this forum who get the gist have traveled out of Nigeria that is why they appreciate the Topic and how bad the situation is.

Its not only customer service but the way we relate to each other day to day, on the streets, in our offices. the way we answer questions with questions all that is HOT!!! and coming from our heads and its typically a Nigerian thing.
As you enter Nigeria from the airport, sea port or our boarder, you just can feel the difference of an aggressive, not ready to listen,"show him I am in charge" people.
At the airport in Lagos sometime I quietly watched a man who walked in the airport building looking desperate, in a hurry and somehow confused. He was obviously trying to get a flight and maybe was afraid he had missed his flight. As an airport official walked past him he quickly drew his attention for inquiry.
1. The Airport staff though not in a hurry did not stop when the man asked "excuse me please" he kept on walking.
2. The man had to follow him to complete his question.
3. The airport staff was giving the man answers as he was still walking away.
4. He was still talking to the man as he went through the door though the man had stopped following because he realized he was going his opposite direction.

In a busy restaurant complain about the size of meat and see what you get. If its mama-put she would dump all the food she already dished for you and call out "Next person!" If you no like the meat go your house. Abi u know wetin she suffer go buy the meat.

My concern at this stage is, How do we fix the problem? How do we reach out to the millions of other people everyday who are being infected or slowly killed by this one single attitude of "am doing you a favor being here."

I own a business in Port-Harcourt and one of our standards is good customer service. My staff are very aware of that. We try to talk with our customers, and make them just answer our questions rather than ask first. Ask them if they liked the service, that way they complain nicely. And I have my number clearly displayed everywhere to ensure that my staff will keep this standard all the time, when they realize customers will call me at once if they feel unhappy.

I think its the duty of business owners in Nigeria to do something about customer service. This will fix over 60% of our attitudinal problem in the society.

krisbobo:

@Ajanlekoko: you say a highbrow hospital in V.I? Do you mean Reddington? That is part of the problem! why don't we always come out and name these places so that others can avoid them?! I have heard loads of stuff about Reddington and what you say conforms,

I should know a thing or two about customer service in naija; I created a column for a major nigerian newspaper 4 years ago and I can confidently tell you that nothing has changed! Rather than get better, all I get are threat mails, verbal threats to the editor, threats of legal action and the likes, or attempts tom bribe me; thank God I am faceless and write under a pseudonym!

But the part that drives ne crazy the most is to have my friends tell me that what i am doing is not good 'cos some people may lose their jobs!! Agghhhhh!!! they should bloody not have a job in the first place!!!!

That's just it,you need to keep going at them,at least the threats and bribes make you know your being heard!kudos dude

Good customer services can be rendered in some near ideal situations which hardly exist in our country. Have you tried calling MTN customer care recently?

niyyie:

I agree with many of the sentiments posted here but I will share mine:

1. To say their is zero customer service in Nigeria is to over-generalise. I have experienced both good and bad service and I think to a large extent, your experience is determined by where the company is located and the type of staff at that location. Example: GTBank is the only bank I use in Nigeria and even that is a story on its on. Their CS staff on GTConnect (phone help) are always nice and ready to help. I dare day they are world-class. I have experienced good service at about 5 of their branches in various parts of Lagos (I don't live in Lagos and so cannot be specific with the branch names). I have also experienced bad service with my own branch in Bodija Ibadan. The bank had simply lost the 3 referees I offered and wouldn't give me the cheque book for the account. They still have it! I asked for my card's PIN and was told the lady in charge was not around. I had to either wait or come back later. I left. They still have the PIN. I don't leave in Nigeria and so have no pressing need for the chequebook and Mastercard PIN thus my laxity.

2. I am yet to experience a single instance of bad service from Virgin Nigeria though I have used their services many times.

3. The problem in Nigeria is generally attitudinal. Indeed, Nigerians direct their anger and frustration on each other instead of directing it at their "so-called" leaders. "So-called leaders" because it is widely known that too many of them were rigged into office. I run a business and I can say on authority that many of the customer service problems are caused by the customers. Some customers are plain rude and one needs a lot of self-control not to shout them down on the phone. [s]Some annoy you so much you wish you had a gun to exterminate them.[/s] because they have made themselves a  pain in the butt. Yes. It's that bad. How do you describe a customer who would refuse to read a simple knowledgebase or help section but would want to hold you responsible when something goes wrong? I have too many instances of unnecessary rudeness and aggression from customers and too much of it is from Nigeria. Trust me: you need a very thick skin to run a business in Nigeria and still offer a good customer service. Some customers can send you to the asylum.

I hear what you say,some customers can really piss you off,that's why we need customer relations training and the grace of God.lol

@Poster and @All

Out of curiosity, I have tried to find out what is missing in our organisation and society that encourages the excellent customer service failure that has engulfed our society today, and I have identified 2 major issues that if addressed critically, the situation will greatly improve.

1. Organisations should provide a channel for effective customer feedback and also proper follow-up to respond to such feedbacks (I would explain).
It is important that I am able to bear my mind to a listening ear if I don't receive gud service. I would give a practical example. One of the Nigerian
Banks (Intercontinental to be precise) has a toll free line that you can send your complaints. this line is directly linked to the CEO. I tot it was just
one of those marketing strategy but I was surprised when I went to one of their branches and was not satisfied with the service I received, I sent
a text message to that line and was surprised with the response time. I received a call in less than 10mins from a very polite clients supports
person at the other end of the phone and she apologised to me and asked for proper clarification. It did not end their. the branch manager called
me after that time to apologise too and assured me that d officer in question has been cautioned. I was satisfied.
I learnt one thing from it. Most of the staff you have encounter with are just concerned about their salaries and not how the business will survive,
so if you own a business, it is important that you provide for an effective means for customer feedback and also proper follow-up to get such issues
sorted out on time. Else, u risk loosing ur customers because of one useless employee who is just concerned about his/her pay.

2. Customers should demand service. I also have come to realise that most customers will just take anything they get. this is not supposed to be so.
Even in an organisation where proper feedback mechanism is in place, some customers will not still use it. They will rather complaint to themselves
and probably head for another outlet where they will receive worse service and they keep going round and round until they find themselves where
where they started from. In such case, how do u expect to receive good service? Assuming I did not send the text message to the toll free line, I
probably will still be thinking dat bank does not care about its customers. So whenever I go the bank now and I am not getting good service, what I simply do is to treating them that I would send a text message, and you will be surprised with the type of attention and service I would receive.

kelvd4real:

@Poster and @All
So whenever I go the bank now and I am not getting good service, what I simply do is to treating[b][/b] them that I would send a text message, and you will be surprised with the type of attention and service I would receive.

I meant threaten. lol!

I agree with the poster that Customer Service in Nigerian businesses is nothing to write home about. It is very disheartening that in a country of 99.9 % black people, we still don't know how to treat each other with respect. Many Nigerians have a negative approach to life. Just look at the example of our eateries. I once went with my friends to a popular fast food joint in Ikeja [ GRA ] and I was not happy with the way the attendants treated us. They were behaving as if we were a problem to them. They were not enthusiastic about the work they were doing. I don't know why one of them was even angry in the first place. Is it too much for us to ask for the reheating of one of the plates of Fried rice we ordered? Na wa o. Are we not going to pay our hard earned money for the eatery's services?

Nigerians must realize that no job is too small for them to do. They must not think that any job is beneath them. One of the reasons why workers treat customers badly is because they feel they are bigger than their jobs. They have not realized that life is in stages. Some of the richest men in the world today did odd jobs that can not be mentioned on this forum. However, I would like to state here that bad customer service should not be limited to Nigeria alone. The shit happens in Europe too. Though in Europe, especially Western Europe, you have the right to complain and the right to be compensated. Nigerians must start to take their service providers up if they are not happy with how they are treated. Enough is Enough. This our passiveness with those that we give our money to must stop. It is also time for us to start gauging the performance of our leaders openly. The current economic recession has shown that nothing is secure in this world. Nigeria needs to develop and change must come upon our land. The time to act is now.

Please, please and please, let us call out the names of the noise-makers (sorry, bad service providers). This anonymity is the reason for their continued boldness. Also, part of the problem is that employers are yet to start sacking staff for delivering poor quality service. If the Sweet Sensations/Barcelos (v. rude!)/Reddington (arrogant)/Starcomms Bode Thomas (Bad Service Oscar Winners!) staff knew they could be sacked for misbehaviour, they would sit up! We too also need to start demanding at the counter for good service. If the person at the counter is rude, COMPLAIN!

I have a friend who went to TFC Surulere (yes, names please!) and was waiting to collect food from the attendant. She was frowning as she attended to him. So he told her that she had to smile before he paid for the food. He told her that to collect money from his clients, he had to smile at them. He didn't like all of them, but he smiled anyway. At first she refused to comply, so he refused to move or pay for the food; until she smiled to his satisfaction. You need to remind these people that it's your N50 that contributes to their salary.

You call it customer service, I call it incompetence. This single reason is probably why Nigeria is just limping along instead of sprinting ahead.
We love to go to extraordinary lengths to do pretty ordinary things. Get a passport, register a company, check in or out at the airport, get a treatment at the hospital, the list is endless. Everybody acts as if they are doing you a favor and not simply doing their jobs.