Unaccountability and Poor Customer Relations: An overlooked crime -By Yishawu Opeoluwa

One thing that pisses me off as a Nigerian living in Nigeria, is the way producers or renders of services never seem to be accountable or enthusiastic enough about their field. It really pisses me off. One would have exactly the amount of money needed to pay for a service, but these people would never seize to frustrate you. There are so many stories of how these renders of services frustrate the lives of their customers or leave their customers dissatisfied. I have had a lot of experiences with these silly people, and some people might not even notice that this isn’t normal because they’ve gotten so used to poor service or haven’t gotten the chance to experience fair customer service.

Customer service and the wisdom of treating customers right does not exist in most upcoming or even the so-called professional business owners, it does not exist in their book. From my observation, nobody seems to be spared from this frustration of poor service; rich or poor, young or old, it’s a common attitude from renders of services in Nigeria, especially the Nigerian business owners.

I do not intend to go beyond surface-level awareness, which might be a page for another day. The following paragraphs thus contain two parts. The first deals solely with sharing some of the complaints received from customers needing multi-services, and the succeeding paragraphs focus on creating awareness of the importance of good customer service in any business that hopes to flourish (yes, it is not always about your village people ).

A friend of mine recently moved into a new apartment. She moved out of her parent’s house and needed to get furniture. She got a carpenter here in Nigeria and even paid him a deposit after being clear about what she wanted. It has been two months now and she has been sitting on the floor! According to her, she has to be a bit nice to the carpenter who is nowhere to be found and even pay for his breakfast and transport fare so he can get his job done. Mind y this carpenter still did a nonsense job and acted like he was doing her a favour.

A coursemate of mine sells thrifted wears (Okrika). After weeks of seeing, please patronize my small business, please share it on your platforms, please this business means a lot to me, etc. I decided to give it a try. I requested two dresses and a pair of jeans. While chatting o social media, she had the most disrespectful tone, she caught across to me as someone who wasn’t ready for business. One thing about owning a business (no matter the size) is that it requires you to be down to earth. Things were the opposite with her, it felt like I was the one begging( I did beg) for an item with no money to pay for it. I wasn’t encouraged to patronize at all. I already paid her, and it was an issue for her to bring my item to school. Mind you, we met in school every day, but I didn’t get my item until a month later (next session). The worst part was that she wasn’t at all remorseful. She would look me in the eye and say something like, omo, I didn’t bring it, I was tired, I forgot, you’ll have to wait till when it’s convenient for me. It was simply awful. I got that same attitude for the two times I patronized her before cutting her off.

The worst part about this is that they are people like her everywhere. You can’t tell your saloonist to make amends, you’ll immediately receive a scowl, you patronize people online, and they all have the same non-caring attitude even after getting your money. Your ability to pay for an item(s) does not guarantee your satisfaction. You walk into a mall and the sales representatives are not welcoming, you ask them a question and they look at you like it’s a punishment. You walk into an eatery and they won’t let you decide on your meal in peace. I mean, you have money for a commodity and you end up spending twice, sometimes thrice as much, accompanied by a lot of begging and a ridiculous amount of patience so you can receive your paid item or service.

Moving on, the above paragraph has demonstrated some of the characteristics of a poor customer relationship, this paragraph attempts to discuss the worth of good customer service and what it entails.

A happy customer is a frequent customer. s/he can serve as a free advertisement channel. What do I mean? If a customer is satisfied with the service rendered, s/he is most likely going to refer whomever it is to a friend, consciously or unconsciously. A happy customer would become a brand’s biggest fan. s/he would gist or post on social media about the fabulous service s/he got, thereby creating free awareness. This situation goes both ways with an unhappy customer. A study shows that customers who had received great customer service were shown to spend 140% more than those who had a bad or less than great experience. Customer experiences or suggestions are everything. They are a major hidden key behind the growth of businesses. A second study has proved that 92% of consumers read online reviews and testimonials before making a purchase here in Nigeria, this can be to the advantage of business owners who upgrade their customer services.

Finally, monitoring your staff while checking and balancing their responsibilities is an important step. You might be well grounded in business areas, but your staff can upgrade or tarnish your brand’s reputation. Checking regularly and ensuring they are well-trained to handle such aspects would aid in avoiding casualties.

Please note that I am not an expert, but a customer sharing knowledge on past experiences and long-time observations of other customers and renders of services.

YISHAUWU OPEOLUWA Writes from  Lagos State University (LASU)