For Many, dealing with Nigerian artisans is nothing but a frustrating experience. Challenges ranging from endless lies to providing inferior part and charging for Original parts to outright incompetence. Sometimes they tell you they will be with you at Lekki in 10 mins, meanwhile they are in Badagry. This article is aimed at giving insight on how to get a satisfying experience no matter the Artisan involved, ranging from plumbers to Electricians, tailors etc.

As an Artisan myself practicing here on Nairaland since 2008 without a single conflict record, As well as the customer at the receiving end of good and bad experience from many artisans who i need to engage for a job or the other, I feel obliged to make this write up especially this lock-down period where there is virtually no job.

I will make a list of Conflict Areas and How to deal.

1. Choice of artisan:

Naturally this is the first and most important point to consider. When you have clothes to sew, faulty car, electronics etc, who do you call? Due to bad economy et al most person go for cheap labor(Not their fault) but most times cheap labour is associated with cheap people. Simply put an Elixade trained Toyota auto-technician will never be compared to An "Olumide the Mechanic" trained toyota auto mechanic. There is the argument of some "street" trained artisans are better than corporate company trained ones, while that may be true, most points of frustration are from soft skills not necessarily core skills and i dare to say most street trained guys may have more on-the-job expertise(arguable), they are often very bad at soft skills. e.g not picking your calls because they have collected money and cannot attend to you at the time of your calling.

Some other persons are out-rightly Nepotistic in their choice of artisan-He is my brothers sister, our church member, the boyfriend of my girlfriend etc. This choice not bad in and of itself, but should not tower above competence if you want to reduce frustrations.

Recommendation: As much as possible, choose the best artisan you can afford.

2. Lack of straight forwardness:

As an artisan myself, it will be grossly unfair to say artisans are never straight forward( honest). I rather think most Nigerians are not honest for varying reasons. Many artisans just simply flow with the tide(this is bad for a forward looking artisan). A customer tells an artisan come check my faulty refrigerator, the tech asks "are you at home now?" the customer responds "sure". The artisan gets there to discover the customer is not at home, he calls the customer who retorts over the phone "Just wait you will see me in 10 mins". The 10 mins eventually turns 1 hour. when customer arrives, artisan is not able to express his frustration he goes ahead to check the fridge. Will he come immediately next time he is called? your guess is as good as mine.

Recommendation: Ask the artisan the time that will be okay for him/her and stress that you take time seriously. Also, call the workman one hour before the agreed time. This may sound like going too far but trust me it will save you time and frustration.

3. Cost of Assessment/Diagnosis:

For many Nigerians, they are not supposed to spend a dime until their need is sorted. this mindset is very unfair to an artisan. For most hand-work, it costs more in time and resources to diagnose a fault than it takes to fix the fault. In many cases when the cause of fault is eventually found, the customer says its too expensive, he cant afford it. and they tell the artisan. dont worry i will call you when i have money without dropping a dime for the assessment/diagnosis. A simple question for you Oga, who will pay for the artisan transport to your house, what about time and resources used in diagnosing the fault?

Recommendation: Even if the artisan does not ask for assessment charge, trust me, most expect you to be considerate. Give them "something" commensurate with the cost of their transport, time and resources used.
N.B: For me, I give an official charge for assessment when it is obvious unit needs to be assessed especially at customers location.

4. Cost/Quality of parts:

Im sure most people know that Nigerian Market is flooded with all kinds of materials from Original to managable to very poor. Having spent some time at Alaba international and Ladipo markets in Lagos, I can tell you that there is virtually no Fast moving item that doesnt have at least three variants(the good, the fair and the bad). Their prices are also as varied.

Now, when dealing with technicians, the common lingo from customer is, "buy the better one o". What does this exactly mean when the variants are up to six. Most of the time, the technician simply go for the one he/she perceives the customer can afford. Though in my opinion this is not fair on the customer, the customer can help by asking how many types are available, their prices and differences. This will help in making better decisions. Same applies to other areas like a type of fabric for cloth making.

Recommendation: If you have the time, Always go to the market youself to get the item, It is very easy to know the various variants in the market. the seller will often give you unsolicited information on the part needed. NB: always go to the market with the approval of the artisan working on the item as it can lead to back and forth if they are not carried along.

5. Loyalty:

For some people, they think using different artisans will help them know the difference between them. While this may be necessary when looking for a good artisan, it is important you stick to one if he/she is competent. This will help build relationship that will reduce stress on your part as a customer.

Like in other forms of relationships, people tend to be less dubious and crafty when they percieve the relationship to be long term.

Recommendation: Stick to an artisan if he/she does the job well. Also cut the person some slack.


6. Payment:

Money, i dare say is the cause of many problems in Nigeria for obvious reasons. Nigerias economy is not very good so many persons find it hard to part with their hard earned cash. The artisan is not supposed to be at the recieving end of this hardship only. when some persons are paying for services rendered, they act like they are doing a charity work. This ought not be so. I have worked for persons who promised to send money for my services to my account but never did. sometimes these persons are well to do, the latest being the owner of a duplex in Lekki phase 2. guess how much-two thousand naira only.

[b]Recommendation: [/b]Always ask how much it will cost to get your job done and be sure you can afford it. This will help resolve a lot of issues with artisans.


This is the part one of my series on the topic. I will like to achieve some following, comments, likes, etc to encourage me to post the part two.

Ese

Your write up is informative, however some artisans are simply bad. I asked a carpenter friend of mine to get a generator repairer . He recommended his childhood friend who kept quoting 5k., I then called another one who did the job for 2k. It turned out that the first repairer has been cheating the carpenter for a number of years. Mechanics and welders are the worst of the lot

Hmmm