Poor customer service is arguably one of Nigeria’s greatest problems. As far as many are concerned, you are fussing too much if you demand it, insist on it and complain when it is not provided. My staff describe me as a customer service police and my compatriots think I am making too much of a fuss. Therein lies the problem. A lot of us have taken rubbish from people we are paying money to for service for so long that we think they are doing us a favor when they actually provide very minimum service. We are grateful, when in fact they ought to do more for the money we have given them for the service. I am intolerant of gum chewing, irreverent secretaries, sales persons, petrol attendants or even shop keepers.
I refuse to be quiet when I walk into your business space and you do not even try to be nice or welcoming. I am walking out of your shop with my money. I am so miffed by all this shabby treatment of customers that I now actually teach customer service as part of my training and branding portfolio. Many years ago, Nigeria benefitted a huge make over supported by Britain in a service compact contract with Nigerians for providing excellent service delivery. Voila! Servicom was born. I can tell you for free that many Nigerians simply considered it a waste of time and money. Being posted to Servicom in the service was considered a punishment posting. I should know. I served as the Nigerian Television Authority’s Head of Customer Service, Deputy Director, Servicom and Nodal officer for two years. Of course it was considered a punishment posting. When you do service delivery, it is considered a waste of everybody’s time. Any wonder then that we are not making much progress in attracting the right persons to Nigeria to invest especially in the tourism sector. Most Nigerians simply do not consider service delivery important enough. In other parts of the world and among big successful corporate companies and countries moving forward, customer service is the core of business, investment, profit and entrepreneurship. I have written copiously on poor customer service and I will continue to harp on it. Only last week, I walked into an ice cream bar. The crowd was swelling but there was only one lady serving. Why do we do this, I complained aloud. Where is everyone else? I am the only one here now ma came the reply. Owners of the Ice cream bar are maximizing profit, using one person for twenty people without caring about how poor the service is going to become. The man behind me told me it was a test of patience. All kinds of excuses for bad customer service. So I turned round and told him I was keeping a taxi waiting and my costs were escalating. This was how he came to understand how a foolish owner, one ice cream service attendant to twenty customers can impact on any one’s plan and economy. Here are five books in the field to get us more understanding of this field that we so badly need in Nigeria. To rescue our nation, we need to be better at service delivery, whether it is in the office or at a filling station.
