Brethren, belive me the service industry is the most difficult to run. Take for example the hotels.Some of us are very guilty of treating the waiter like S**T not to talk of the waitress like a nonentity, and the male customers treat her like a LovePeddler just because she smiles and tries to be pleasant.

We forget these people are human beings and have to pull everything they've got to serve you. All of them have personal stress just like we do maybe children too and have bosses breathing down on their necks, but still manage to bring up a smile for all of us.Sometimes they just can't help it so instead of shouting at you due to work pressure, they keep plain faces.

My advice, next time u see a waiter, bank teller, or any service personel, with a sullen face, ask how she is doing.Be a service person too. Sometimes u can tell a joke and put a smile on their faces.They also need care. And besides it will make them serve u better.


I,ve tried it several times and believe me it works like magic,

Besides, happiness is like a perfume, u can't spray it on others without getting some on your self.

So where ever u are, no matter the condition put a smile on your face, show me your 32.

Don't worry, be happy

customer service can be learnt from vmobile; the company with the true meaning of customer care

@favourwal
am feeling you girl. i can tell it works
but one should careful not to send the wrong message (opposite sex or older person.)

diyobdw:

@favourwal
am feeling you girl. i can tell it works
but one should careful not to send the wrong message (opposite sex or older person.)

u are quite right.

it should be done with moderation.

I stumbled accross a blog post why the writer argues that "the customer is always right" is wrong:
http://positivesharing.com/2006/07/why-the-customer-is-always-right-results-in-bad-customer-service

What?

Ha Seun!! Thank for sharing tha!

i kind of agree that why the companies policies should show love its employee.

kareem Said,

July 12, 2006 @ 7:49 pm

In “Losing My Virginity“, Richard Branson outlined his philosophy of taking care of his employees first, so they would take care of his customers. --- from the same site.

Especially for put'g up with the "Little good & loads trouble" kind of customers.

That where customer care trainings comes in. you need to know:

Who they are (personality, literacy, income range etc)

know what they want(expectation)

Are they worth the effort? (expentation against income)

I have had to tell a client that we would be unable to sell to her because she will not like the services.
She didnt buy from me and we til had friendly relationship afterward and told me we could sell to her husbands company!
My management didnt not killed for doing so because she was asking for too much for Little amount.
but i also sent are to help distract our competitors avoid her not spoil'g our name!
the way you talk really count._{even when it not formal}
i can tell you sorry in different ways to mean different things

sorry!!
sorry
Sorry
sorry O
sorry
sorry
(yoruba will say "pele lako, labo"

The blog is an intresting one too i like such

There is no customer servcie in Nigeria. The smiling ladies in the bank kills the good treatment they give you, the moment you come once or twice without dropping 'egunje'. It's just a bad habit that we've created for our self. I dropped my naija insurance guy because despite is poor customer service, he never keeps his mouth shut. He thinks he's doing you a favor, whereas it's the other way round. He's found of bragging at 'owambes' about who and who insures their property for him. I did not only save a lot from my new Oyinbo agent, he calls me once in a while to know if my family status has changed or if I've done anything lately that can reduce my premium. that's quality assurance + good customer service.

Imagine u going to a store at Balogun without buying a shoe. The owner go curse the hell out of you. Whereas if you go to Office Depot they we willing refer you to another store (sometimes a competitor) if the goods is ot available.

It doesn't cost a lot to offer good service.

Panache:

Imagine u going to a store at Balogun without buying a shoe. The owner go curse the hell out of you. Whereas if you go to Office Depot they we willing refer you to another store (sometimes a competitor) if the goods is ot available.

Exactly! .

i may not have the right statistics but i know that most business in niger fail because of poor customer care.the prosperity of any biz is in the pocket of the customer.if u pray to God to bless u he brings more customers to ur shop.what next? ur attitude keeps them and gives u the money or drives them and brings u to zero.

its really bad here. sometimes u walk into a shop and the person feels ou are showing him u have money. imagine that , competing with the customer .

most banks are also guilty. if the percieve u are a low profile customer, the dont treat u well.but think of it , the low customer today could be at the top tommorow.if ur attidude drives him away,

abeg lets change the customer is king.lets spend ouir money with peace .i recently met an okada man that had a radio attached to his bike. imen u need to see how everybody wanted to meet him . a little spicing of your biz can make the differenc

Panache:

There is no customer servcie in Nigeria. The smiling ladies in the bank kills the good treatment they give you, the moment you come once or twice without dropping 'egunje'. It's just a bad habit that we've created for our self. I dropped my naija insurance guy because despite is poor customer service, he never keeps his mouth shut. He thinks he's doing you a favor, whereas it's the other way round. He's found of bragging at 'owambes' about who and who insures their property for him. I did not only save a lot from my new Oyinbo agent, he calls me once in a while to know if my family status has changed or if I've done anything lately that can reduce my premium. that's quality assurance + good customer service.

Imagine u going to a store at Balogun without buying a shoe. The owner go curse the hell out of you. Whereas if you go to Office Depot they we willing refer you to another store (sometimes a competitor) if the goods is ot available.

It doesn't cost a lot to offer good service.

Did you contradict yourself hmmm, ? or was that intentional(refering to the words in bold )


Customer service basically start with an individual that is "you" i have also noticed inferiorty and attitude issues determine the kind of services you get!

A naggy person can not see good service niether can a snob?
you get?

Customer service basically start with an individual that is "you"

[quote][/quote]

customer service is service rendered to customers irrespective of the "you" u quoted its a standard not some selective service u render to people depending on their pocket or attitude 

_{hey long time@ diyobdw}
see this https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-17161.32.html about the cab

@LoverBwoy

yep! i notice you got me wrong!

I meant no matter how good your Customer services is.There are some People that wont just feel it.
_{this no excuse to be crappy}

I mean, at times "how we see things is depends on what we want to see"!

& that determines our attitude and conslusion about issues! ^{generally speaking}

i guess it is right to say that customer care starts with taking care of the employees who will then pass the treatment to the customers;

just what celtel is doing!

Bad customer service is very damaging to a company. Someone said that in the UK it doesn't matter because we don't give feedback on the service. It's true that we don't like to complain - but be sure that we are giving our 'feedback' to all our family and friends and telling them not to use that company. We don't complain - we just go somewhere else and when bad things are spread about a company, then people listen.

For example, there are two big national companies I will never ever use again in my life. One upset me over 15 years ago by calling me a liar. The other just made a disaster out of a delivery that went on for 4 months. I still haven't forgiven them! They have lost a lot of business from me over the years and I've told lots of people my story about them, which has created a bad impression of the companies in their minds.

See also: 'Who Is Your Customer?'

15years? miss dont you think they would have gotten over your patronage and moved on. 15years's 5475 days, 720 weeks, 180 months, c'mon now.

oh yeah ,2weeks ago, i had a bother with my service (celtel) so i called their so called 24hr help line, as usual im given directions to rectify the hitches(that like never yields any fruitful results) the convo ends with recomendations for manual servicing at their office. The next thing i know the dude's calling me up, saying he couldnt get me off his mind, etc.i immediately dismissed him.

That's very wrong of the dude. He's soiling the company's name.

He should be [punished severely]!

Very unprofessional@labelle. You could report him to his boss for such an unprofessional conduct.

Or maybe it just aint worth it y'all

in my own opinion,i am tempted to think some nigerian businesses are in operation not really because of their customers,rather because of their money but what they forget is that customers like to get value for their money.

IB,

Your story reminds me of a guy who used to cut my hair in Calabar. He was so nice that every time I would visit Nigeria, I would go there for a hair cut, even though there were other places with a better environment and charged less. We exchanged numbers and emails but at some point, both means of communication on his end were no longer working.

During my last visit (2004), I went there only to hear that he had moved to PH. I was and still am very sad over his move. In fact, even though I have never been to PH, if I knew where he was, I would visit there just for another hair cut. For me to do that should tell you what good customer service is all about!

Finally, I find it interesting that the same pple who treat you badly, customer-service-wise in naija, will immediately brighten up and call you "Sir" the minute you add another N100 as tip after the service. I have done this, on purpose, several times and it works like a charm, so much so that if I go back to the place, they clear the area and treat me specially. So I ask myself and you guys too - Is it that there is no customer service in Nigeria or there is but it comes at a price? Think about that

oh yeah ,2weeks ago, i had a bother with my service (celtel) so i called their so called 24hr help line, as usual im given directions to rectify the hitches(that like never yields any fruitful results) the convo ends with recomendations for manual servicing at their office. The next thing i know the dude's calling me up, saying he couldnt get me off his mind, etc.i immediately dismissed him.

That's crazy.

my2cents:

I find it interesting that the tip same people who treat you badly, customer-service-wise in naija, will immediately brighten up and call you "Sir" the minute you add another N100 as after the service. I have done this, on purpose, several times and it works like a charm, so much so that if I go back to the place, they clear the area and treat me specially.

Yeah! works all the time.

I find this a very pertinent issue at the moment in 9ja.
Many Nigerian banks and indeed businesses are trying to get into the international market and with GLOBALISATION, POSTMODERNISM and all what not the importance of competing with regards best practices can not be over emphasised.

The bottom line is this, what is good service?
I dare to say that good service is service that satisfies. End of.
The service most ppl give in 9ja is not satisfying. period.
Satisfaction according to the Disconfirmation principle is when customer experience meets customer expectation or disconfirmation = 0.
So where ever you are, no matter the socio-economic background satisfaction is meeting your expectations and these expectations are tempered by your culture and its relationship to the culture in which you are receiving this service. For example a Nigerian receiving below average service in America might feel delighted ( +ve disconfirmation) even if it was really nothing (no need for y'all to be trippin).

In Nigeria it is so true that most service falls short of this criteria. It is also true that customer satisfaction affects loyalty which in turn affects customer equity which then affects market share and corporate profitability. Benjamin Ehigie actually studied the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty to their banks in Nigeria and found that the more satisfied a customer the more loyal he/she is.

My question now is this - is the Nigerian man or woman MAD for EXPECTING good service (customer expectation) then receiving NORMAL 9ja service (customer experience) and getting dissatisfaction (-ve disconfirmation). Pls tell me O!

Its a culture thing you see, our fathers and our fathers fathers have bequeath it to us.

As you all can tell this is the subject for a thesis which I plan to write someday.

Finally, I find it interesting that the same people who treat you badly, customer-service-wise in naija, will immediately brighten up and call you "Sir" the minute you add another N100 as tip after the service.

The customer service you will get if you use that method is at the expense of other customers, so it's not ideal.

nigerians really don't know the role that customer service plays in a business. its of the utmost importance. on my job i would'nt  dare extend bad service, i can't afford it.i have a mortgage to pay and can't afford to loose my clients. i have goals and targets to make and a client base to build. besides of what joy is nasty, half assed service? 

when i am in nigeria, people treat you with good service if they think you are rich and can tip or if you know someone. they also have wierd yardsticks like helping the white or half caste customers first. ( couldn't understand that one oh!)

it doesnt cost anything to be nice and your business will be all the better for it.

Nigerian businesses are definitely not about the customers, but the Money, so its comes as no surprise when we have obnoxious customer service personnel in our business organisationms

Nigerian businesses are definitely not about the customers, but the Money,

How do you get this money without satisfying your customer? Money is a good reason to invest in customer service!

.

Customer Service and Nigeria? Surely there is something wrong in this equation.

Customer Service and Egunje, now that is more like it

igbonla:

I get good service all the time though because I try to be nice to people, You get bad service everytime you are nasty!

i agree. when i walk into an establishment im always syrupy sweet. ive discovered that its easier to attract bees with honey than vinegar! i compliment them, greet them and engage them in conversation and before you can say robinson crusoe they are falling all over themselves to be of assistance to me. so many people walk into a business wearing their suits like its a coffin, being so mean and yet they expect excellent, cheery service?! 
the service may not be bad but it wont be excellent. you don't get the drums rolled out for you like that!