The Customer third edition 2017 by Chartered Institute of Customer Management

EDITORS NOTE

EDITOR: BENSON MUKANDIWA

Editorial

UNLOCKING THE SERVICE

PUBLISHER

Chartered Institute for Customer Management Global (CICM) CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Ricky Harris ricky@cicmaglobal.com

CICM CHAIRPERSON

Professor Estelle VanTonder

CUSTOMER SERVICE VS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE & CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IN DIGITAL 21ST CENTURY AFRICA

CHIEF EDITOR

Benson Mukandiwa benson@cicmaglobal.com

MARKETING EXECUTIVE

Nicole Jofrey SALES TEAM

Liseli Nare Timothy Mupotsa Claude Mateta Patrice Habinshuti Fredrick Joaki Hector Wulf Fasili Boniphace Tinashe Karimanzira Gamuchirai Makedenge DESIGN AND LAYOUT

+263 (04) 253960 email: info@cicmaglobal.com We strive to promote customer service excellence in the twin fields of customer experience and call centre management in Africa by bringing readers the best and latest business thinking as well as touch points. It is our firm commitment that everyone, whether advertiser or reader will gain by investing in The Customer magazine.

Copyright© The Customer Magazine CICM Global (pvt) Ltd All information is supplied without liability. Although the publisher has taken all precautions to ensure that the information is correct at the time of publication, the publisher and agents do not accept any liability, direct or indirect, for material contained in this publication. No part of this publication may be reduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission of means without prior written permission of the copyright owners. For all your info and enquiries Email/ Write Editor, The Customer Magazine: benson@ cicmaglobal.com, info@cicmaglobal.com

THIRD EDITION |

Paradoxes Shift:

The Customer

frican Customers have gone past the level of merely buying products or services; they buy results. Despite what some brands may still think, customer service and customer experience are actually two very different paradoxes towards a nexus! Although clearly they often cross over, brands should have a different strategy for each. The paradox gets complicated when brands throw customer engagement into the equation. Customer experience and customer engagement can often be confused but there are clear and important differences. Our theme for the issue is “Unlocking the Service Paradoxes Shift: Customer Service vs Customer Experience & Customer Engagement in Digital 21st Century Africa.” Brands are expected to meet customers’ needs and expectations at every interaction, in return for customer loyalty. The ability to deliver this depends on the extent to which ‘Customer engagement’ is embedded within every single person in the value chain of the business. Customer engagement is a communication connection between

a consumer and a brand through various channels. It is the means by which a business can create a relationship with its customer base. Africa is ASSISTANT EDITOR: CYNTHIA TAPERA embracing technology thus is now exposed to first class service delivery; which makes innovation an indispensable asset for the survival and growth of brands in this century. CICM is excited about the potential of technology-driven transactions to drive improvements in customer experience, particularly in the way it can help facilitate customer choice and remove areas of friction. Consumers have this fear of making the wrong choice. However, many African brands are taking a ‘throw the kitchen sink at it’ approach, are offering too many options to their customers and, in the end, are only confusing them. Brands, when they are considering personalizing the experience that customers receive, should be being transparent and open about what they are trying to do. Experimentation can help improve and prove the efficacy of personalization strategies. Voice of the customer feedback should also feed into the process and help refine the personalization process. In line with our theme for the issue we have a number of articles that revolve around the heart of becoming Africa’s’ true customer-centric brands advocates; to enhance the ability to create value for the customer whenever they come into contact with a brand. I hope you enjoy this edition of The Customer magazine. Wow, service experience, whether it is reactive or proactive, should always be personal and personalized in the 21st Century Africa. I look forward to your feedback on any of the articles we publish

|Editor

Benson Mukandiwa

Contents T H E

C U S T O M E R | 2 0 1 7 | T H I R D

I S S U E

COVER STORY

Customer

w ustomer.co.z www.thec

The

FIRST ISS

R CUSTOME WILL SERVICEVISION DELIVER 0 202 NT PAUL PRESIDE E ON ’S MESSAG KAGAME ER SERVICE CUSTOM

ER IS STOMIN G THE CUA K S Y ALW | E MR. RHOD

42 | JOHNS

20 |

MINISTERMZEMBI WALTER

COVER STORY

DR EVE A GADZIKW

EDITORS NOTE

20 THE CAPE TO CAIRO VISION

CICM’S Service Excellence

WELCOME NOTE

Awards

ROD JONES

Contact Centre 2021, The Digital Migration

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.

16 9 TACTICS TO FIND AND GROW YOUR SOCIAL AUDIENCE

SOCIAL MEDIA Customer Service

24 YOUR BRAND IS ONLY AS STRONG AS YOUR WEAKEST LINK 25 SO... YOU WANT TO START A CALL CENTRE ? THINK BEFORE YOU LEAP!

CAN EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE

Save Nigeria’s Sliding Economy

30 IF YOU CAN’T SAY SOMETHING NICE ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE 32 CUSTOMER SERVICE VS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE VS CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT 34 CREATE A CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE TRANSFORMATION THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

40 46 24

PROGRAMME THAT DELIVERS RESULTS

38 CICM LAUNCHES ZIMBABWE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION INDEX 40 GHANA TOURISM

48 SERVICE DELIVERY AND

42 DONT LISTEN SO YOU CAN TALK

CUSTOMER CARE

56 BUILDING POSITIVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES 58 AVOID SPEED TRAP POLICIES

50 UGANDA: SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE BATTLE FOR GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE 53 INVENT YOUR VOCABULARY TO EMPHASIZE WHO YOU ARE

44 LOVE LETTER 46 PSMI

WEIGHT WELCOMES SUMMER IN STYLE

SHEDS OFF WINTER

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

WELCOME NOTE

Engagement in Digital 21st Century Africa.” Many physical actions and devices will become data-driven services. Companies are no longer immune from digital disruption because their assets are physical and expensive. Consider how ridesharing providers challenge a highinvestment industry by deploying transformative digital management systems. How people have interacted with digital technologies has been largely transactional. Now advances in technology enable more natural human-machine interactions. In most recent years, a supercomputer fooled people into thinking it was human. With emotional sensors becoming even more accurate, machines may know how we are feeling in the future. These will change customers’ emotional connections with machines, so businesses should consider adopting emotionally and gesture-based responsive user interfaces. Lastly I am forever grateful for the unfailing support that CICM has received from all key stakeholders; this includes our advertisers, contributors; corporate investors; the editorial team and my fellow Executive Committee members. It is indeed a great privilege for me to serve the institute and the customer service /call centre industry.

RICKY HARRIS-CEO

elcome to this edition of The Customer Magazine! Digital is changing which experiences users perceive as engaging and relevant. They expect them to be intuitive, more personal and responsive. Considering many marketing leaders are also

dissatisfied with the experiences they provide to customers, design needs to be at the heart of how companies shape and innovate around their services and products. Those embracing the transformative potential of service design in today’s digital age have tremendous opportunities for growing their customer base and customer loyalty. In this issue, you will learn more about customer service; customer experience; customer engagement; hybrid call centers, technological disruption. Our theme for the issue is “Unlocking the Service Paradoxes Shift: Customer Service vs Customer Experience & Customer

RICKY HARRIS

Ceo

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

Committed to providing delightful customer experiences, NORED announces its Support Tariff , a special tariff for all NORED customers who are registered Pensioners and People Living with Disabilities. To qualify, make sure that: • The electricity meter is registered in the name of the applicant • The electricity meter has a maximum of 15 Amps • The electricity meter is limited to 50kw/h per month The benefit will only be to one electricity meter per person

0800 000 100

THE

MIGRATION

ROD JONES

Contact Centre 2021 T H E D I G I TA L M I G R AT I O N 8

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

THE

“

In the new world, it is not the big fish which eats the small fish, it’s the fast fish which eats the slow fish

Klaus Schwab

THE FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

THE DIGITAL MIGRATION

THE COLD REALITIES

The cold realities are that the Contact Centre of 2021 is a mere four years into the future; a future in which we are assured of exponential changes; changes in the development of contact centre and customer service technologies; changes in the socio-economic environment and massive changes in customer demands and expectations. What’s more, we can be assured that contact centre operators will be facing the realities of declining workforce productivity, escalating operational costs and intense competition.

DISRUPTION OR SURVIVAL

We don’t have to look far to see and experience the impact of disruptive organisations and how they have become so by adopting and leveraging disruptive technologies. They surround us in the likes of Uber, Airbnb, Amazon, Tesla, Zappos and much more. Even fifteen years ago, in his brilliant

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The Customer

MIGRATION

book, “Good to Great”, author and business strategist Jim Collins gave us the keys to organisational success; one of them being “Embrace Change and Innovation”. More recently, founder of Singularity University and globally recognised futurist, Salim Ismail defines an Exponential Organisation as one who’s impact (or output) is disproportionally large (at least ten times larger) compared to its peers because of the use of new organisational techniques that leverage accelerating technologies. In today’s customer-centric world, innovation and change are no longer the sole domain of a few bold and brave organisations. Change and the adoption of innovative organisational methods and technologies are now a strategic imperative. In corporate terms, it’s now a matter of “Adapt or Die”. In the context of contact centres, the realities of 2021 loom menacingly ahead. These are but some of the challenges: • Customers will demand that we serve their needs on any device, on any channel. True ‘Omni Channel’ services. • We must be accessible to our customers 7 x 24 x 365. • Up to 70% of all customer interactions must be via efficient, effective and user-friendly self- service portals. Handling high volumes of voice calls or human- assisted text interactions will become prohibitively expensive. • The time for procrastinating over systems integration issues is over. It is now an imperative! • High-level skills and the practical application of ‘Big Data’, Data analytics, Interaction

will be fundamental to customer service operations. • New generation Process Automation tools and platforms will be vital enablers. • The reduction in agent headcount, driven by self-service, will demand high-level skills and adequately experienced and empowered “Super Agents”, (The agents of last resort). CALL TO ACTION

There are no easy solutions and no easy roadmap to Contact Centre 2021; merely a few pointers. • The Digital Migration strategy and implementation plan will demand Executive-level support. • Create a specific Digital Team. It must have its own culture of being experimental and entrepreneurial. Ideally, it should exist outside of the influences of the “Corporate Immune System” that resists change. • Speed and Agility are the keys to deploying digital strategies. • Build an incubator. Start now and gradually deploy proven strategies. Avoid the “Big Bang” approach of the 70’s. It will almost certainly result in just that, a very big bang!

RECOMMENDED READING:

“Good to Great” – Jim Collins

“Exponential Organizations: Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, and cheaper than yours (and what to do about it)” – Salim Ismail, Michael S Malone and Yuri van Geest.

Analytics and Knowledge Management

END OF THE

IT’S THE

WORLD AS WE KNOW IT Africa’s leadership challenge in a disrupted future JON KORNIK

am obsessed with The Future. The Future in which the current world order and dominant political systems could be completely disrupted by an evolving set of global incentives and an unyielding drive for technological progress. Technological progress which will likely lead either to the extinction or immortality of the human race within the century. I believe that my daughter will live through the most critical moments in our species’ existence that have ever been, or likely will ever be. And yet the more I observe the actions

of my leaders in Africa and the deeper I dive into literature on the topic, the more it seems that our narrative focuses largely on The Past or The Present. We correctly point out the adverse impact that colonialism has had on African social and leadership structures. We observe how Western democratic models are often at odds with traditional governance models and can lead to perverse outcomes when combined with weak institutions and corruptible leaders. We sentimentalize a few great men who have achieved incredible feats of leadership in their countries, and wish that our current leaders had the same ethical compasses. We look to success stories in the West and Asia in driving

economic growth and prosperity and think that similar success awaits those who emulate those policies. We treat the issues currently facing our nations, from education to healthcare to equality, as static issues which once remedied will allow us to advance to a higher plane of development. In this essay I posit that we are decades too late for leading by looking in the rear view mirror. I propose that there are three major forces that are going to completely alter the terrain we are trying to navigate: a fundamental shift in the world order, climate change, and advancements in machine learning and automation. I argue that if fully embraced, African values of ubuntu THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

LEADERSHIP

could position us to disproportionately benefit more from this revolution. But in order to achieve this outcome we do not just need leaders who are visionary enough to build us a bridge to The Future, but also have just the right mix of leadership qualities to mobilize and guide us over this bridge.

The Future

There are many forces at play which will direct the next steps of the human race. Given a limited wordcount in which to complete this thought experiment and a recognized ignorance on the part of the author, I have chosen to focus on the three which are of most significance in my mind.

containers was reached. This enabled products to be designed in a company’s home market and manufactured in Asia. Those Asian nations who best positioned themselves for this opportunity benefitted immensely, particularly China. But the benefits of this increase in globalization accrued largely with the owners of multinational corporations while workers in the US and Europe saw their livelihoods incrementally exported abroad. Over time, people in these nations have become increasingly disenfranchised and angry at the system, leading to a rise of movements on either side of the political spectrum. Brexit and Donald Trump are

just two symptoms of this fallout. Until a fundamentally new operating system is developed, the likelihood of turmoil (and particularly protectionism) will only increase. We live in a different world to the one in which the Asian Tigers were born, and new strategies for development are required.

2 | CLIMATE CHANGE

We have passed the point of no return. Countries’ collective commitments under the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are likely insufficient to move us off a trajectory

1 | A CHANGE IN THE WORLD ORDER

Our current world order was formed during the 20th century and particularly in the political aftermath of World War II. During this era, the Marshall Plan matched Europe’s need to rebuild with the US’s massive wartime industrial base and need to employ millions of returning soldiers. The US government formed an implicit deal with corporations: the government would use their postwar political position to enable access to global markets for US products and in return corporations would provide employment and basic social services (like pensions and healthcare) to their workers. As Europe rebuilt its basic infrastructure, facilitation of trade through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the OECD led to variations on a similar model. And so the US and European superpowers rose, fueled by a booming middle class who had better services and more security than ever before. The 1960s saw a few technological advancements which enabled Asia to share in these spoils: airliners became capable of nonstop service between the US and Asia, the first transpacific telephone cable was completed, and global agreement on the standardization of shipping

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The Customer

LEADERSHIP

towards the catastrophic impacts of climate change. And boy, do these impacts have the potential to be catastrophic. More than 600 million people living in low lying areas are at risk of being displaced by rising sea levels. In addition, changing agricultural and disease patterns could have significant first order impacts on employment, food security and health outcomes, and second order impacts through local and regional conflicts. If this transpires, it is possible that there could be an order of magnitude increase in the number of global refugees above 2015’s record 60 million. One has to look

no further than Syria and Europe to get a taste for the human, social and political fallout that could result from such an upheaval.

further. As this will not affect all occupations equally, policy makers should pay careful consideration to the future workplace when promoting policies aimed at skills development and employment.

3 | MACHINE AUTOMATION AND INTELLIGENCE

These choices are made even more difficult by the unpredictable pace of technology development. One major uncertainty is driven by the feasibility and timing of the Singularity the point at which machines overtake their human counterparts in intelligence. At this point, machines could theoretically accelerate incremental gains in machine intelligence much faster than humans, radically changing civilization. Most experts predict this moment to occur sometime between 2030 and 2080.

According to McKinsey & Company, advances in machine learning and robotics have led us to the point where an estimated 45% of the activities people are paid to perform can already be replaced by machines. This trend will continue as technology advances

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The Promise of Ubuntu According to Barbara Nussbaum, ubuntu can be defined as “the capacity in African culture to express compassion, reciprocity, dignity, harmony and humanity in the interests of building and maintaining community with justice and mutual caring”. In this section I argue how powerful this values system is in confronting the challenges outlined above, and the need for African leadership to adapt to reverse ubuntu’s decline in popular culture. The three forces of The Future outlined above have the potential to be deeply destructive to personal welfare, and as a result, tear our local and global communities apart as individuals try to protect themselves and their families: incrementally declining welfare and growing discontent in yesterday’s superpowers leading to protectionism and fear of other cultures major disruptions from climate change leading to further THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

LEADERSHIP

erosion of welfare and exacerbation of conflict and machines which increasingly encroach upon our occupations and threaten our financial security. Imagine how a society built on a foundation of ubuntu could deal with these challenges. Rather than focusing on a rhetoric of divisiveness in the face of discontent, people could take a step back and consider how a sweeping change in the system could be designed to benefit the collective, not just the individual. Communities, corporations and governments could step in to fill the void as individual welfares declined. Conflicts could be reduced as we proactively cared for the disenfranchised with dignity rather than desperately protecting what is ours. Machines could work for us, supplying us with a living wage and expanded free time to explore our passions. One of the most striking illustrations of The Future with and without ubuntu is outlined in Marshall Brain’s short story, Manna. The story paints a future in which machines have significantly advanced in intelligence and capabilities, and describes how this future has played out in two different societies. In the first, the corporations who developed and own the machines have accrued inordinate wealth at the expense of the masses who have seen their occupations destroyed. The few people who are lucky enough not to be restrained in camps on the outskirts of towns are essentially extensions of the machine blindly following menial orders issued by a central intelligence which keeps the entire organism moving in its desired direction. In the second, the wealth is essentially accrued by every individual in society: the machines mine resources, produce energy, grow produce, manufacture goods, ensure safety and provide all of these goods and services to the masses for free. People in this society spend their days pursuing their passions which leads to the further advancement of society engaging in advanced research, exploring artistic and cultural boundaries, spending time

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The Customer

with friends and family, playing games. So what has happened to ubuntu in Africa? Be it through convergence or divergence of economic ideology and cultural values, this has been progressively eroded by our leaders and forces like urbanization. Political leaders spew a rhetoric of divisiveness and tribalism in order to garner votes and political power. Civil society leaders often fight tirelessly for the welfare of their constituents even if this is at the expense of the advancement of society as a whole. Business leaders fight ruthlessly for greater market share and profits, prioritizing their fiduciary duties to shareholders over society. Sitting on the cusp of this revolution, we need leaders who recognize the importance of crossvergence selecting the pieces of economic ideology and cultural values that can be melded to achieve the best societal outcome. We need leaders who live the values of ubuntu in all of their dealings and popularize its impacts on society. Leaders like Nelson Mandela who donated one third of his presidential salary towards assisting disadvantaged children, rather than pushing the boundaries of how much can be extracted from taxpayers to fund a personal residence. Leaders like Leopold Senghor who preached a gospel of inclusiveness, rather stoking the fires of tribalism and separation. Leaders like Warren Buffett who has pledged to give all of his stock in Berkshire Hathaway and 99% of his wealth to philanthropic foundations and inspired 139 billionaires to do the same to the tune of $365B, rather than seeing how many private islands he could accumulate. It should be the norm for our leaders to pay it forward so that the rest of society can be inspired to follow.

An Even Greater Leadership Challenge Unfortunately it is not sufficient for our leaders only to achieve the monumental task of redirecting an entire society’s cultural norms, albeit back towards its

natural state. In this section I argue that we also need leaders who are charismatic enough to be given the opportunity to confront this challenge, visionary enough to develop the best strategies for positioning their nations and organizations for the The Future, and who have the capabilities to mobilize their followers in this new direction. The only thing that is certain about The Future is that it is uncertain. While I have posited some potential outcomes of the three global forces above, it is impossible to know for sure how these will transpire in the face of numerous additional global trends and complex and interrelated geopolitical considerations. Additionally, given different starting points and capabilities, the optimal strategies will likely differ substantially across countries and organizations. We need visionary leaders whose gaze can pierce through this sea of ambiguity to define the best paths for their followers. But in order for followers and incumbents to heed these words, leaders will need to be charismatic enough to paint a compelling enough picture of the future. But defining the best path and getting people to listen is also not enough. We need mobilization leaders who are able to lead us along this path into The Future. The traits required in these mobilization leaders will differ by country depending on the unique challenges for overcoming inertia. Depending on the national culture, charismatic or patriarchal leadership may be required to build a strong following. Or failing that, disciplinarian leadership could be needed to force society in the required direction. Reconciliatory leadership may be necessary to mend fissures between tribes, races and religions and enable followers to work together. Technocratic leadership may be necessary to determine how institutions should adapt to enable the achievement of the set strategy. With such a major global disruption and change in the status quo, there will almost certainly be opportunity for well

LEADERSHIP

positioned individuals to accumulate significant power and wealth. We somehow also need deeply ethical, principled and incorruptible leaders who we can trust to continue to live the values of ubuntu.

So What Can We Do? In outlining the types of leaders we need, I realize that I have listed six of Mazrui’s eight typologies of leadership, in addition to rare personal traits like the personification of ubuntu, unwavering ethics and incorruptibility. From a South African perspective, I do not believe that our current leaders display all of these characteristics nor have their actions indicated that they are willing or capable of developing into the type of leaders we need. Rather, a fresh set of leaders will be required to ascend to power. In this conclusion I question whether this is even possible, and hypothesize about how this leadership change can be brought about or accelerated. I imagine a world where three types of societies exist: dystopian states where humans are enslaved to corporations and machines (the first society from Manna), utopian states where machines serve all humans equally for the benefit of individuals and society (the second society from Manna), and volatile states where despotic leaders use machines to control their populations and seek power beyond their borders by any means. I believe that all three of these societies could exist, and that African countries have a better chance than most of achieving utopia. Firstly, while the leadership challenges outlined above are significant, our younger democracies carry less political debt to prevent the required systemwide changes (compared to countries like the US where partisan politics has been shown to significantly slow progress, for example during Obama’s term). Secondly, with more than 15% of the world’s population residing in Africa, there is a reasonable probability that our continent will produce numerous leaders

with the required potential. Thirdly, we already have the cultural foundations of ubuntu which I have argued could be critical in this transition. The three major barriers I see to the right leaders ascending to power are: creating enough of these leaders so that a few can emerge through the noise of politics, developing enough societal recognition of the challenges and opportunities facing us, and fighting the entrenched interests of corruptible incumbents. Improved education is key to addressing the first barrier of multiplying the number of appropriate leaders. We need more world class education systems with content and instructional techniques tailored towards the challenges of The Future. Organizations like the African Leadership Academy (and hopefully the planned African Leadership Universities) with curricula founded on leadership, entrepreneurship and panAfricanism should be replicated (with a strong focus on technology to the extent to which this is not already represented). Access to information is key to addressing to the second barrier of societal awareness. There is no better way to encourage access to information than through universal access to energy and the internet, and ensuring that internet content remains unfiltered by authorities and unprioritized through net neutrality. And finally, in addition to access to information, the continued fight for transparency and accountability by civil society is necessary to erode the power of entrenched interests. While this may seem like a daunting task, I heed Nelson Mandela’s words: “It always seems impossible until it is done”.

Brain, M. “Manna”. Buffett, W. “My philanthropic pledge”. Chui, Manyika and Miremadi. “Where machines could replace humans and where they can’t (yet)”. McKinsey Quarterly. July 2016. Mazrui, A. “Liberation, democracy, development and leadership in Africa”. African leadership: from the top down. McGranahan, Balk and Anderson. “The rising tide: assessing the risks of climate change and human settlements in low lying coastal zones”. 2007. Environment and Urbanization. Nussbaum, B. “African Culture and Ubuntu: Reflections of a South African in America”. World Business Academy. Volume 17, Issue 1. February 12, 2003. Theimann, April and Blass. “Context tension: Cultural influences on leadership and management practice”. Reflections: The SoL Journal on Knowledge, Learning, and Change. Volume 7, Number4. Thompson, B. “The Brexit Possibility”. June 28, 2016. UNHCR. “Global trends forced displacement 2015”. June 28, 2015. “Singularity timing projections”. “The Giving Pledge”. Wikipedia.

The African Leadership Institute focuses on building strategic leadership across the continent by developing exceptional leaders representing all spheres of society. It does so primarily through the Institute’s flagship programme, the prestigious Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship. Alumni of the African Leadership Institute form a dynamic network of Fellows passionately committed

the

continent’s

transformation. This essay was written by 2016 Fellow Jon Kornik, a social entrepreneur and founder of Plentify.

Achebe, C. “The Trouble with Nigeria revisited”. African leadership: from the top down.

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

Customer The

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THE INDUSTRY’S PREMIER CUSTOMER SERVICE MAGAZINE DISTRIBUTED ACROSS AFRICA

ADVERTISE TODAY! THE CUSTOMER MAGAZINE is Africa’s Premier customer service magazine for all customer service,call centre and related professionals as well as covering various issues on customer service and contact centres in Africa. Despite having a special focus on the customer service and contact centre industry on the continent, the working scope of The Customer Magazine is also International with focus on other related topical issues. With exclusive distribution targeting the whole of Africa. The Customer is one channel for advertisers to reach out to the right audience across Africa

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Social Audience T A C T I C S

T O

F I N D

A N D

G R O W

Y O U R

S O C I A L

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The Customer

S O C I A L

A U D I E N C E

You can have the best

CONTENT IN THE WORLD, BUT IF NO ONE IS SEEING IT DOES THAT HELP YOUR BRAND? PROBABLY NOT.

BY BENSON MUKANDIWA

INCREASING YOUR SOCIAL AUDIENCE IS A GOAL THAT SHOULD PERMANENTLY BE A PART OF YOUR SOCIAL STRATEGY. WHY? Because followers matter for a business. Social media is one of the best ways to reach your target audience, have your content shared, and ultimately get more conversions. If you’re not sure how to go about growing your social audience, read on for 9 helpful tips: 1 | CREATE KILLER CONTENT

Social media is all about content. By creating interesting and relevant content that resonates with your audience, you’re increasing the chances that your content will be shared. When that happens, you are not only reaching your followers but the followers/friends of that person or brand. Those people are now aware of your brand and can choose to follow you based on the content they saw shared on their feed. But if that content isn’t compelling, you may end up missing an opportunity. 2 | SHARE THE CONTENT OF OTHERS

Sharing content is a good social media engagement

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practice. By sharing content from other social channels, you’re adding to the conversation and giving others a reason to share your content as well to return the favor. Another way to utilize the followers of another person or brand is through a page takeover. This is when two brands arrange to “take over” each other’s pages, meaning they are now introducing their content to the other channel’s followers, in the hopes of both pages getting followers from each other.

3 | CHOOSE THE RIGHT SOCIAL CHANNELS FOR YOUR BRAND

Not all social channels are going to be the best fit for all brands. For example, if you’re a jewelry retailer, Instagram and Pinterest would be effective channels to display the merchandise, as well as the link back to the website for that person to make a purchase instantly. However, if your brand is a financial services provider you may not have as much success on those channels, but rather sites such as

A U D I E N C E

LinkedIn and Facebook as well as your own blog. While any capable social media manager can leverage their brand on any channel, there are some that make more sense for different brands. Finding those that work for you and your brand will help save time and maximize your audience by focusing on quality over quantity. 4 | MAKE SURE USERNAMES ARE CONSISTENT ACROSS ALL CHANNELS

If someone wants to find your brand on social, make it easy! Consider using your web address as your username across all social channels. For example, if your business name is 123456, you want to make sure your usernames all look the same: Twitter.com/123456 (@123456), facebook. com/123456, and so on. Having different usernames makes it difficult for users to find you, and could cost you, followers. 5 | CROSS PROMOTE YOUR SOCIAL CHANNELS

You already have one tool in your arsenal that you may not be considered as a source of generating new followers: Your other social channels. Use Facebook to get Instagram followers, and use Instagram to get Facebook followers. Twitter can send followers to your LinkedIn and so on. One way to encourage followers to seek you out on other social channels is to tell a story on one channel and make followers visit another one of your social channels for the conclusion. Once they are invested in how the story ends, they will be compelled to see it through and will click through to your other page. From there, it’s up to you and your content to be interesting enough to make them stay and

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become a follower. 6 | STAY ACTIVE

There’s nothing worse than going to a brand’s social media page and seeing the most recent posts are from a week or even a month ago. That’s a really fast way to either lose followers or at a minimum lose their interest. Social media moves fast, so fast that if you’re not posting and updating regularly, it will move on right past you and never look back. Make sure you stay in your followers’ feeds and

continue to engage them. After all, social is all about content sharing. If you don’t give your existing audience anything to share, you won’t have your content shared to new audiences and potentially gain new followers. 7 | USE ANALYTICS TO SEE WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE WANTS

Social analytics can be a great tool to help increase your social audience. Using the stats you have on your social media accounts can help you gauge the best times of day for engagement as well as

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S H O P T O DAY

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The Customer

the types of content that get the most interaction. Also, if you have one social channel that outperforms others, perhaps the analytics from that platform can help you determine a strategy for your other platforms. Keep in mind, however, that some platforms have different audiences, so not all analytics can be carried between platforms.

8 | USE HASHTAGS APPROPRIATELY

Hashtags are one of the main ways content is shared and found by others on social media. When posting content, be sure to include relevant hashtags that have the potential to bring new followers to your page. Keep hashtags specific, but not difficult to read Vor type. Also, avoid generic hashtags that bring up unrelated content. The key is to find the right balance between memorable and relevant. 9 | USE GIVEAWAYS AND PROMOTIONS

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HARARE

A U D I E N C E

Holding a contest or offering deals specifically for social followers is another way to increase your social following. People love free stuff, and more importantly, they love to share when they get something for free or scored a great deal. Use this as an opportunity to turn those customers into brand advocates who can help grow your audience. By treating your social media channels as a way to distribute engaging content and provide value to your followers, you can continue to regularly grow those followers and leverage the power of your audience to drive conversions.

COVER STORY

The

Cape to Cairo

Vision | CICM’s Service Excellence Awards BY CICM

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The Customer

COVER STORY

From left is Zambians’s Minister of Commerce and Trade Hon M Mwanakatwe, Provincial Minister of Lusaka Hon Mwakalombe , Patrick Mwila ZICM Board Member and CICM’s CEO Ricky Harris congratulating the SEA awards winner in Zambia.

fter just five short years, the Chartered Institute of Customer Management (CICM)’s Service Excellence Awards have firmly established themselves as an important initiative in the Sub-Saharan African region fostering businesses across the continent to the wider world as efficient, friendly and approachable. The Service Excellence Awards were launched in Zimbabwe in 2012 by the Contact Centre Association of Zimbabwe (CCAZ) and the United Kingdomheadquartered CICM. The concept of the awards were later expanded in the same year to capture African markets and also promote service excellence across Africa. The Service Excellence Awards without any doubt whatsoever provide African businesses across all sectors with an unbelievable platform on which to maintain, develop and equally importantly sustain customer service levels and satisfaction to the highest of standards. The awards aren’t just about a pat on the back or a quick ego boost. They help to heighten a company’s reputation.

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The Customer

Better yet, they help employees take pride in their work and instill confidence in customers about the quality and professionalism of the specific organization. And as when gets to realize when traversing the continent or even globally, exceptional customer service is still quite uncommon, therefore really good – or at least very effective – customer service should be recognised, shouted about and rewarded. Here’s a small timeline of key events around the Service Excellence Awards after they were expanded into Africa in 2012: 2013 - CICM launched Zambia Institute of Customer Management (ZICM) in Zambia. There was an encouraging turnout and critical reviews setting pace for adoption in Countries where CICM was establishing presence. Meanwhile 2013 saw increased turn out in Zimbabwe’s second edition of the SEA. 2014 – The third edition of the SEA was held in Zim, while Zambia hosted its first SEA. 2015 - CICM made plans to roll out SEA with country partners in Rwanda (Business Development Center); Tanzania (Noesis [Pvt] Ltd); Botswana

(Mystery Shoppers Botswana). During the same year, SEA was held in the following countries: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia and Uganda. 2016 – SEA were launched in Swaziland with country partner – IRDM Swaziland. The SEA were hosted in the following countries: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Swaziland. 2017 and Beyond - CICM has a vision to spread the awards to the rest of Southern Africa, including launching SADC-oriented Awards. And regional and continental SEA awards have been penciled for 2018. SEA has become the Flagship of CICM generating a lot of interest and shedding a lot of light on service excellence in all the countries represented. Most SEA events are attracting over 350 delegates per event. This year Zimbabwe had a record breaking 500+ attendance. In Zimbabwe CICM also launched the National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI) this year, which was the main highlight of the just-ended Customer Service Week, an international event celebrated world-wide during the first full week of October. The nationwide survey showcased all the sectors in the industry and how individual companies were rated against each other. This was also used as input to the prestigious Service Excellence Awards. CCAZ executive secretary Mr Rinos Mautsa has been instrumental in the execution of the SEA concept across the continent. According to Mr Mautsa, the awards selection process is rigorous and it includes online voting by at least 10 000 clients through a questionnaire to be distributed in major towns across the respective countries, followed by mystery shopping and local experts comprising of academics, auditors and researchers who will also sit down to adjudicate the research results before announcement. The Customer Service Excellence Awards have become a key catalyst in improving the competitiveness in customer service, mostly in Sub-Saharan African countries where these awards have made a significant impact over the years. According to CICM upcoming country awards in Tanzania, Nigeria, Botswana, Rwanda and Ghana among several others.

S OCI AL MEDI A

SOCIAL MEDIA

Customer Service

BY JONAH NYONI

OCIAL media is no longer something that business can afford to ignore; it has become a great tool for customer service. Most people before they make a purchase they first search for it online. Customers are getting smarter. Customers now have power as they can use any internet platform available to say their minds and send their complaints. Unlike in the old days where one had to go to a physical structure to voice their concern, now they can do that via a mobile phone. As they get smarter we should level up our game and go where they are- the social media. John Tschohl (2001: 8) in his book E-Service says, “Never forget that you are just one click away from being eliminated. It’s important to realize that speed and

convenience are the primary drivers in the popularity of e-commerce. Using the Internet, consumers can quickly browse through information that will help them make a purchase decision” Companies must now have best practices to handle complaints and grow brands online. A social media bleep or blunder can ruin the image of a company if not properly managed. What happens in a minute on the Internet is breathtaking. An article titled “What happens in an internet Minute in 2017?” By the World Economic Forum (WEF) says that Facebook alone has over two billion active users in a month. It is estimated that in very minute 4, 1 million YouTube videos are viewed, 452 000 tweets are sent, there are 3, 5 million Google searches and 156 email are sent. All that happens in just 60 seconds worldwide! The question is: Are we chasing these customers that have migrated to these new realities? This shows that there is so much business happening online and as such companies should learn the skill of treating, retaining and even creating new customers. Consumer relations on the internet should never be left to chance. We are seeing exponential growth in the Internet of things (IoT), virtual reality,

social media, and artificial intelligence. Traditional media sw i f t l y running out of form Traditional media is losing its flair even though some people might be in denial. Social media is increasingly starting to affect brands and businesses in the developing world. It should, therefore, follow that social media be considered an essential part of the overall communication agenda which should be pursued with all the intrinsic energy of a business if economies are to realize their full potential. In Zimbabwe, for example, social media has outpaced the traditional media: the newspaper, radio, and television. Zimbabwe has one television station whose content is not of the best of standards. This discourages advertising on this media because the reach is low and yet the price of advertising remains costly. So companies should embrace social media to grow the business. Social Media growing at break-neck speed. What is social media? The Webster Dictionary defines social media as “forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

S OCI AL MEDI A

be recommended for uptake and use as companies should now have a social media plan. Companies would generally invest in advertising and marketing more than in Customer Services. Again, most companies see no reason to train their staff on customer relations management. They would rather spend so much money on advertising, marketing, buying machinery and cars and neglect the worker. Again, this goes back to the management which must be very supportive in training on customer relations.

microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)”. Research has shown that in developing countries such as South Africa and Zimbabwe, there is increased usage of social media as a communication platform among the people. The statistics in South Africa show phenomenal growth in the usage of Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Customers now know better Customers are now used to improved customer service levels in business because they use the internet to see what the world is offering. The mass marketing model is fast becoming extinct. Sales are getting lower and lower with this kind of marketing. Empowered customers have more demanding expectations.

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Social Media Customer relations a basic equipment My friend and co-trainer in Customer Relations Management Sithandekile Magida say, “A firm’s ability to offer its customers digital interactions is no longer a unique differentiator but rather a basic requirement to meet the needs of the modern customer. The news now follows the customer. The customer does not have to go out of his way to find news. It is right within his or her reach. Social networking sites have provided business with new and efficient ways of reaching deeply into their target to communicate” Companies must i nv e s t in customer services It is in the light of this article, to bring awareness of the huge possibilities that social media has as a customer care model of a business in order to promote awareness, increase usage and the offering of choices to potential markets. It is hoped that clear cut policies can

Train customer service to you tech-savvy personnel. Most companies have the tendency to have tech-savvy individual monitoring their social media space. That is not enough as they must be trained in basic customer care. In an article by Nishith Gupta titled, 4 Best Practices For Social Media Customer Service says: “You might have a whole team of social media experts, one designated person or even just a handful of interns that handle your social media postings and monitoring. Regardless of how much experience they have in social media, they need to be trained on customer service 101, no question. Companies often make the mistake of leaving their social media accounts in the hands of tech-savvy folks, but the truth is, they need to be every bit as customer-centric as your front desk or phone reps.” Now, remember your No. 1 Customer The most important customer in a company is its employees. They have direct everyday contact with the buyers. It is common knowledge that if you train and treat the employee well, it will be easy for them to treat the very person they get in contact with them, who is the customer in this case. The most quoted saying by Richard Branson in the Customer Service circles is: “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients”. Jonah Nyoni is a speaker on Customer Relations Management (CRM). He is an author, success coach and certified leadership/business trainer. Contact details: Tel: +263 772 581 918. Email: jonah@classicmail. co.za. Twitter@jonahnyoni.

BRANDS

YOUR BRAND IS ONLY AS STRONG AS YOUR WEAKEST LINK

o, the other day I’m flying to a speaking engagement. While waiting for my flight to board I bought a yogurt parfait. After paying for it, I looked for a spoon. There were knives and forks, but no spoons. The little compartment next to the knives and forks was empty. I asked the cashier if they had any spoons. He pointed to where they weren’t. I told him they were out, and in an effort to get rid of me, he suggested that I could go to the restaurant next store and ask them for a spoon. I walked by the first restaurant a few minutes later and there were plenty of spoons. Obviously, there were spoons somewhere. The guy just didn’t want to get them, when a customer needed them. I didn’t want to make a scene over this, but I thought I’d mention something to the manager. He wasn’t there when I bought my yogurt. He apologized, but then said something interesting. He mentioned that the restaurant was managed by a group at the airport, so I really shouldn’t expect the same service or quality I am accustomed to at this company’s regular restaurants.

This was a major brand with locations throughout the US. The airport restaurant had the same signage, the same logo and looked just like any of the restaurants you would visit outside of the airport. I’m sure that any executive of this brand would cringe at the response the manager gave me… “I really shouldn’t expect the same service or quality I’m accustomed to…” Really?! And, that is where our lesson begins. You see, it doesn’t matter if it is an airport restaurant, a small kiosk or a fullservice restaurant. There must be a similar experience across all locations, regardless of size or where it is. The logo is the logo, and the brand is the brand!

Let’s switch industries and talk about an icon in the world of customer service. When Nordstrom decided to move into the online world, many of their customers were concerned that they would erode their reputation for amazing service. Management thought long and hard about how to create an online experience that matched the expectation of a Nordstrom customer, and they delivered. Regardless of location – instore or online – Nordstrom will always focus on making sure the customer has the best experience. Now we move to an employee within a company. If there are 100 employees, and 99 of them are amazing, but one is not, what happens when a customer encounters the one who is not? You know the answer. That one bad employee just created the reputation for your brand – at least with that customer. The old saying is that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Well, the brand is only as strong as its weakest location – or weakest employee.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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The Customer

STARTING A CALL CENTRE

SO…. YOU WANT TO START A CALL CENTRE?

THINK BEFORE YOU LEAP!

BY ROD JONES

wish that I could tell you that setting up a call center is easy. In fact, It’s not. It is an extremely complex task and an extremely risky one - even for entrepreneurs who might have operational experience in call centres. However, all is not lost; it is not impossible. An efficient, effective, and profitable call centres is a delicate balance between the People, the Processes, the Data, Technologies, Management expertise and, of course, the customers or the clients. Experience has shown that if only one of these critical areas is not correctly structured and operating flawlessly, the entire operation is doomed to fail. So… When you think about starting up a new call centre, think “What would I need to start a great call centre?”. Would you do it all alone, with little or no experience or personal expertise? Can you learn how to

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The Customer

set up and run a call centre from a book or by going on a short course? The obvious answer is definitely NO. But it makes one think…. Without operational experience, one has to gather a huge amount of information and knowledge to make sure that as an entrepreneur and an investor none of the many potentially critical mistakes are made. Certainly, there are many good books on the subject of call centres and some of these focus on the basics of setting up and others on the management and operational side of the enterprise. A quick web search or a visit to www.amazon.com will give you many options to choose from. (Remember to use the American spelling of the word ‘Center’ in “Call Centers”). I personally recommend a book called “Call Centers for Dummies” by Réal Bergevin ISBN: 0-470-83549-4 (Pity about the name) as it is in my opinion one of the best overall books on this subject

currently available. If your intention is to focus on inbound call centre operations I can also highly recommend a book called “Call Centre Management on Fast Forward” by Brad Cleveland. (ISBN 1-932558-06-3) There is a new, updated and expanded edition of this classic work available. In a typical corporate call centre startup project or when a group of business partners are involved, the workshop participants are each tasked with various aspects of the project and it moves ahead. But the essential point is that even with all this training and advice, it will still not guarantee success. As the call centre project develops (and it can take as long as a year before it becomes operational) there will be literally hundreds of questions to be asked and as many critical decisions to be made. Only hard-won experience and knowledge will help and this is where the astute project leader relies on an external

STARTING A CALL CENTRE

professional consultant. Now you may be thinking that all the above only applies to large corporate call centres. You may be thinking, “I only want to start a small operation. Why do I have to go to all that trouble?”. Regretfully, all of the basic principles that apply to large corporate call centres apply equally to small 5 and 10 seat call centres. In fact, the risks are – in my opinion, far greater in the case of a small or micro operation because in these instances most entrepreneurs just do not have the skills, the existing expertise, experience and the capital that the corporates have. So, the critical importance of gaining skills, knowledge, expertise and experience cannot be under estimated. It is unfortunate that in many press reports the call centre industry has been cited as a ”get-rich-quick” opportunity for entrepreneurs. Some journalists look at the vast amount of outsource business that has – for example – been contracted out by American and European companies to call centre operations in India, Philippines and Malaysia. Yes,

the market potential runs to hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars. And it is also true that on a far, far smaller scale, South Africa is starting to attract some large international outsource call centre projects. But the reality is that most international outsource clients are incredibly careful as to where they place their business. After all, outsourcing an important function like customer service or sales to an unknown call centre operator carries huge risks for them. So.. What do major international outsourcers look for? (no… What do they insist on). Basically, they are looking to achieve two things. Firstly, cost savings and these need to be substantial. And by ‘substantial, it means that an outsourcing client will need to look to achieve a 30% to 40% saving in order to consider the potentially hazardous move. Secondly, they are looking for ‘quality’ and the company awarded an outsource contract must be able to do the job as well – if not better – than the client himself. Now look at the slide below. This data comes from research that was carried out

in the UK by an international outsource user’s association. These are the critical criteria that any company considering outsourcing all or part of their contact centre operator will use to evaluate a prospective call centre to provide them with BPO or outsource services. Focus your attention on the top three criteria and give some serious thought to your proposed start-up outsource contact centre. If you can guarantee that you can fulfill these top three criteria, by all means, keep planning. If not…. My advice to you will be not to consider entering this highly risky and competitive call centre or contact centre industry. Now let’s address the Cost and Price issue. To set up and run an outsource call centre and to win contracts and make a profit one has to run a relatively largescale operation in order to achieve even the first levels of “economies of scale”. So, in most cases a call centre operation of under 100 seats, just cannot achieve these kinds of savings. Secondly, to be price-competitive the operation must be incredibly efficient. This means that

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The Customer

STARTING A CALL CENTRE from the most senior management down to the lowliest call centre agent, there must be a huge amount of operational experience and expertise. This kind of skill and experience is just not present in new or start-up call centres. It only comes with time. And well proven operational experience and past success is the second aspect that a potential outsource client will almost certainly demand. Thirdly, the call centre winning an international outsource contract must have sufficient capital to sustain hugely

expensive operations. Capital resources and Cash-flow will make or break the financial viability of the operation. So bottom line is that until a call centre has become well established in the local environment; has a solid track record of success with credible clients and has earned a great deal of operational expertise, it is highly unlikely that it will win any international outsource contracts that are actually worth taking on. And herein is another warning to all would-be call centre operators….. So. Do you still want to start a call centre?

If so, here are a few more pointers in closing. Firstly …. Unless you have extensive operational experience in call centres or you have business partners who bring all of these essential skills to the new venture and in a hands-on way, I might say that it will be virtually impossible to make a success of the venture in the short term. The call centre business is definitely not a ‘get-rich-quick’ business. Secondly, before you commit to starting your new call centre spend a lot of time reading recommended books, visiting the literally hundreds of websites on the subject of call centres and above all, visit as many call centres as you can and talk to the people running them. If possible partner or put a joint venture together with a company that already has been through the agonies of making costly mistakes and who now have successful call centre operations. Reach a cooperation or joint venture agreement. The third piece of advice is: Please be critically aware of unscrupulous consultants, technology suppliers and brokers and be extra cautious about any kind of 100% risk-based telesales campaigns. Finally, (and this is possibly the best advice that I can give) join any one of the regional call centre associations and only deal with companies that are members of one or more of the associations or bodies or that are recommended by them.

CLOSING WORDS

Setting up, managing, and making a profit from a brand-new start-up call centre is extremely difficult even if one has the experience, the expertise, the business connections and the capital to do so. None of these guarantee successes. It is a highly competitive industry dominated by vast, large-scale operations most of which have strong international affiliations. Be extremely careful.

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The Customer

N I G ER I A

BY CICM

CAN EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE SAVE NIGERIA’S SLIDING ECONOMY?

ACCORDING to the African Development Bank (AfDB)’s latest African Economic Outlook Report, Nigeria’s economy last year (2016) slipped into recession for the first time in more than two decades. It’s a reflection of adverse economic shocks, inconsistent economic policies, and deepening security problems in the north east and Delta regions. And the prospects of a significant outturn in the economy are not that good, with the regional financier projecting “slow economic recovery” for 2017. It’s a realization that some commerce gurus in Nigeria have noted. Dr Aliyu O.Ilias, a regular contributor on Connect Nigeria wrote: “Having gone through the 2016 customer expenditure

pattern and the current economic challenges Nigeria faces including a marked reduction in impulsive customer spending as against informed and deliberate spending, it is noted that virtually all companies in Nigeria experienced a reduction in sales, customer patronage and expenditure.” But what role can the individual companies that make up the country’s economic milieu do to contribute to broader economy growth? Because, after all, the sum of any system – economic or otherwise – is not indifferent to the quality or efficiency of its parts. But how do these ‘parts’ get better? First things first, let’s lay bare the problem. Nigeria’s customer-facing

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The Customer

N I G ER I A

industries do not have a good record in respect of customer service, a fact that was reiterated by Elevato & Associates CEO Marie-Therese Phido earlier in May. And for clarity’s sake Phido is also a sales and market strategist and business coach, so she sure knows what she is talking about. She maintains that to the extent that Nigerian companies do not give precedence to a strong customer service culture, projected economic growth in the country may remain rather bleak. “Poor customer service can actually kill businesses and we have many businesses that have been killed. We have seen many examples in the airline sector,” she lamented. “In the hospitality industry, there are many places people don’t go any more irrespective of how well the place is because of poor customer services. We can also see what is happening in the banking industry in the country.” She added: “Although she noted that poor customer service is not peculiar to Nigeria, the

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The Customer

expert bemoaned that Nigerians have accepted mediocrity. She said:

“We have a situation where a company just reaches a minimum service level agreement and we say the person has done well. For instance, if a distribution company provides power for two days without interruption, people will just start to praise them when they are supposed to have power all the time. That is Nigeria’s problem. ”

The critical factor then is to have Nigeria’s company adopt a more customer-oriented approach to running their businesses. Providing simply good services and/or products is no longer enough for business – and hence economic – success these days. Customer satisfaction is now largely views to be the key driver of long-term relationships between suppliers and customers, more-so when customers have become well-accustomed with certain products and services. It is even more critical in an environment where the companies are in stiff competition. But this is not a particularly novel concept in Nigeria, after all, it is one of the countries in Sub Saharan Africa that regularly commemorates the Global Customer Service Week each October. So they do know what effective customer service is all about. But then again, as one famous motivational speaker once said “to know and not to do is really not to know.” Real effective customer service entails the methods through which there is established a mutually beneficial satisfaction of the non-tangible product needs of the customer. Simply put, companies and organizations must deliver the right customer service more effectively and efficiently. The AfDB’s has projected Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 2, 2% this year “as economic policy reforms begin to take hold and a coherent set of policies to address the macroeconomic challenges and structural imbalances is implemented.” But 2, 2 percent GDP growth is – by no means – significant enough to boost disposable incomes on a sustainable basis. So service or customer-oriented firms in Nigeria need to fight for every naira. As Dr Aliyu O.Ilias further outlines: “Companies willing to successfully navigate the business terrain in 2017 must, therefore, be deliberate in their customer service delivery. “Customers must be offered exceptional customer experience and staff of organisations must serve customers deliberately and efficiently to avoid the bitter experiences of 2016, where customer patronage was negatively impacted in many instances.”

BAD CUSTOMER SERV ICE

JOHN TSCHOHL

IF YOU CAN’T SAY SOMETHING NICE ABOUT

CUSTOMER SERVICE… COMPLAIN!

n the customer service industry, we cannot avoid complaints. Complaints happen every day and when a customer complains it is usually for a good reason or genuine concern. They usually have made a purchase that did not meet their expectation—a product, service, or maybe a combination of the two. We must take care of the customer

by listening to the complaint, and resolve it, to ensure a happy customer. Fewer than half of unhappy customers will bring a complaint to your attention. Those who never say anything will tell an average of 11 or more people about their bad experience. It is important that we recognize complaints as opportunities, so we can sway these averages, one resolved complaint at a time. It is my belief that no transaction is complete unless the service that customers receive will motivate them to return and do business with you again. Customers want to know someone is

listening and they are understood, and they are hoping you are willing to take care of the problem to their satisfaction. No matter what the situation is when a customer brings a complaint to your attention—even if they do it in a lessthan-desirable way—be thankful. We must realize that improper handling of a customer complaint can be costly to the business. Handle a customer complaint in a smooth and professional manner

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The Customer

BAD CUSTOMER SERV ICE

When something goes wrong how do you take the customer from hell to heaven in 60 seconds? The solution is to empower and reward employees to solve problems quickly and to the customer’s satisfaction. Follow up with a phone call. Even a small gesture of apology can turn a bad situation into a good one. The cost could be minimal—maybe a simple upgrade on the customer’s next purchase or a gift certificate. A simple gesture like this could result in an overly happy customer. When you resolve customer complaints successfully, you will better understand their needs, retain them as loyal customers, and enhance your business. I have been writing about Stew Leonard for over 25 years. Stew Jr. has a huge 6,000 pound rock in front of their store that says Rule 1 The customer is always right! Rule 2 If the customer is ever wrong reread Rule 1.

The company has received worldwide acclaim for excellence in customer service and quality and is featured in two of management expert Tom Peter's books: A Passion for Excellence and Thriving on Chaos. In 1992, Stew Leonard's earned an entry into The Guinness Book of World Records for having "the greatest sales per unit area of any single food store in the United States." In my book, The Customer is Boss, I show you how to complain correctly. Most people begin their complaint with the person they are complaining about. Not a good idea. It all starts at the bottom and many people don’t believe it will do any good. And, they are right. After all, if the complaint comes in at the bottom level, they surely are not going to send it on up to management to show what a terrible job they did on

handling it. I tell everyone that they have the right to a good experience, a quality product, and top of the line customer service. I also tell everyone that it’s their responsibility to let the appropriate channels know when there is an issue. You deserve quality and top-notch performance. There are a couple of things that work when trying to motivate a business to give you better customer service: • Ask for good service: “I really need your help.” • Act as if you expect good service. • Treat salespeople as friends—a friendly attitude toward salespeople is so rare that clerks treated respectfully jump to attention to serve you as if you were a celebrity. • Change your attitude toward good service. Your chances of receiving good service improve immensely. Speak up. • State clearly your expectations and ask for a speedy resolution to problems. Don’t feel sorry for business, government, or non-profit groups when you complain about bad service. You’re doing them a favour by complaining. Complaints are good for business so don’t shut up, speak up.

JOHN TSCHOHL John Tschohl is a professional speaker, trainer, and consultant. He is the President and founder of Service Quality Institute (the global leader in customer service) with operations in over 40 countries. John is a self-made millionaire traveling and speaking more than 50 times each year. He is considered to be one of the foremost authorities on service strategy, success, empowerment and customer service in the world. John’s monthly strategic newsletter is available online at no charge. He can also be reached on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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The Customer

CUSTOMER CUSTOMER CUSTOMER S E R V I C E

V S

E X P E R I E N C E

V S

E N G A G E M E N T

Despite what some companies may still think, customer service and customer experience are actually two very different things! Although clearly they often cross over, businesses should have a different strategy for each. Just to complicate things a little further let’s throw customer engagement in there too. Customer experience and customer engagement can often be confused but there are clear and important differences. In this article, we will try and explain the key differences and help you strategize for all three. Firstly, let’s explain each one…

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The Customer

what is customer service? CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ALL ABOUT THE HELP AND ADVICE PROVIDED BY A COMPANY TO THE CUSTOMERS WHO ARE BUYING OR USING THEIR PRODUCTS OR SERVICES.

BY CICM

Customer service could be classified as an area of customer experience. It is, however, a key area and at its core it’s role is to provide support. Quite often the entire customer experience can be heavily influenced by a customer service interaction. 73% of customers leave because they are dissatisfied with customer service. WHAT IS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE?

Customer experience (CX) is more about the product of the interactions between a company and a customer throughout the duration of their relationship. Specifically, the way in which customers perceive these interactions. These are all the aspects that ultimately make you feel something and can include everything from the packaging an item arrived in, speaking to a customer service agent or receiving a notification email. CX involves the integration of physical, emotional and psychological processes that occur throughout the customer journey.

engaged your customers are with your brand the more likely they are to remain loyal and increase their lifetime value. OVERVIEW

The overall customer experience is what stays with the customer and will ultimately decide if they will come back to you or recommend you. The customer service clearly plays an important role in the customer journey but whereas the customer service can often be pinpointed to a specific department or individuals, customer experience is the responsibility of everyone at the company. Customer service can often be about one single point in time and is usually reactionary. Customer experience is the sum of all interactions and is more feeling orientated than problem orientated and is a more proactive experience. Customer experience is an emotional connection of how the customer perceives your brand and ultimately is not something you can control. You can though try to shape that experience into a positive one by engaging with the customer. This could be through social media, surveys, ad campaigns or direct interaction. This customer engagement is what helps you keep a customer and gets them coming back to you on a regular basis. HOW TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY

In the past companies competed primarily on things like price or brand

Your support should be assisting your customers throughout the journey, before they purchase, during and afterward. Your agents will need to be empowered to go above and beyond with customers to help create winning experiences. You might want to look at assigning metrics to each of these areas. For example, when it comes to customer service you might want to look at overall customer satisfaction ratings or perhaps collect ratings against specific sales agents. For customer experience, you might want to look at metrics such as Net Promoter Score which will give you an indication of how the customer perceived their overall interactions and the result this has on the likelihood of them recommending you. You could also look at things such as customer retention rate, customer value over a certain time or customer acquisition. When it comes to customer engagement you should decide what areas you feel are most important for your business to engage with your customer. This could be social stats based on engagement metrics, it could newsletter opens and clicks or actions on your website. The more engaged your customers become the more these metrics should be increasing. All three areas should be personalized and consistent across all channels to achieve maximum impact. BELOW IS A SUMMARY OF THE MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CUSTOMER

WHAT IS CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT?

Customer engagement is a communication connection between a consumer and a company through various channels. It is the means by which a company can create a relationship with its customer base. Traditional marketing methods are becoming less effective which makes customer engagement a vital area where companies can measure their effectiveness. Again, this could be classed as a specific area of customer experience and is usually more focused on sustaining and growing your audience. Customer engagement is the process of actively building, nurturing and managing relationships with customers. The more THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

but now the overall customer experience is the real driver. 89% of companies now expect to compete mostly based on customer experience. This was 36% just four years ago. Improving the customer experience is not just some fluffy thing that is nice to do, it can directly increase your profits. In fact, 86% of consumers state they would pay more for a better customer experience. A successful strategy would see these three areas interact with each other very closely. Your customer service should expand beyond the simple reactive role of the past.

SERVICE, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, AND CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT. Hopefully, that gives you a better idea of the differences between the three and where you can start looking to improve each aspect. Ultimately everything falls under customer experience but it is useful to start dividing this up into key areas such as your customer service and customer engagement for you to better understand how you are performing and to make improvements.

CUS T O M ER E X PER IEN CE

Create A Customer Experience TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME THAT DELIVERS RESULTS

BY CHANTEL BOTHA

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

CUS T O M ER E X PER IEN CE

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE eco-system catalyst

in store

innovate & co-create

evaluate

customer journey

distribution retail operations

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT LOOP

phone product awareness

marketing infuse brand DNA

reward

CUSTOMER LOYALTY LOOP

buy

customer value proposition

client correspondence

need

use

attract

web + mobile

get support

product development technology

inspire excellence encourage curiosity & learning

customer interaction channel

employer journey

organization structure

awareness, training & education

change management

customer journey mapping & design

process & client communication changes

program / project management

service design

system changes

cx capability development, coaching & consulting

customer experience maturity business case for experience based differentiation

customer personas customer experience definitions

employee experience - internal brand promise

root cause fixes for broken experiences

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE TRANSFORMATION PHASES

DIRECT

customer value proposition

customer problems you want to solve

customer experience strategy / blueprint

customer needs / problem statement

DESIGN

customer experience perception

DEFINE

DISCOVER

CUSTOMER CENTRIC LEADERSHIP

cx measurement & developing maturity

hello@brandlove.co.za © BRANDLOVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (PTY) LTD.

DIAGRAM 1: THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ECO-SYSTEM

BY CHANTEL BOTHA

I REGULARLY MEET EXECUTIVES WHO TELL ME THEIR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE INITIATIVES ARE NOT MEETING THEIR EXPECTATIONS, AND WHEN I LOOK DEEPER I FIND SOME OR A COMBINATION OF THE FOLLOWING: • An obsessive single focus on the voice of the customer measurement, but not enough focus on continual improvement and closing the loop on fixing the root cause of customer dissatisfaction. • An obsessive single focus on customer journey mapping, but this is done by a core team in isolation. Buy-in and alignment are low as a result of the implementation approach, which may feel like implementing a process map, rather than taking people on an emotional journey to really understand the world of the customer. • An obsessive focus on values and company vision and not on embracing an all-encapsulating culture that is lived daily and does not just feature on posters on the corporate walls. • An obsessive isolated focus on the process and technology improvements without considering the people, leadership and customer empathy aspects. It is indeed very important for the above initiatives to take place, but it is very much a holistic, integrated approach that will increase the chances of transformation success. We often

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

find often that the responsibility of customer experience transformation is split across functional areas, and this requires excellent collaboration and cooperation between teams in order to deliver a vision of “putting the customer first”. DIAGRAM 1: THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ECO-SYSTEM

I want to share the model we have used in large customer experience transformation programmes to ensure alignment and results across the CX eco-system. I refer to this as the 5 Ds of Customer Experience Transformation. PHASE 1 - DISCOVER

Here are more insights and techniques that could help you in this process of discovery: • Determine CX maturity through

leadership surveys and interviews

• Voice of the customer reports • Voice of the employee reports • Verbatim in-research feedback • Net promoter score (NPS) • Effort score • Organisation structure • Value proposition • Brand promise/essence • Values and culture initiatives • Existing journey maps • Mystery shopping

It is important to discover what your customers need from you through various insights you can gain from research or which you may already have in your Voice of the Customer (VOC) insights.

• Call recordings across the customer

You can consider an immersion technique whereby your executives are challenged to do business with your organization as if they are just “normal” customers. This often delivers honest results in creating awareness of what the experience is like for customers today. Often executives have become removed from the detail of the experience and merely see summarized results on balanced scorecards rather than “feel” what customers feel when they interact with your brand.

Once you have a deep understanding of customer problems, their experience with your brand today and what they need from you, you are ready to move on to a definition phase where you define your experience vision.

journey • Conduct customer focus groups to

get an understanding of the current

experience.

PHASE 2 - DEFINE

It is essential for the leadership of an organization to craft a collaborative aspirational end state for their customer experience. What is it like for them when the brand promise is met? What will a customer think, feel and say

CUS T O M ER E X PER IEN CE

This customer experience definition or, as Lou Carbone calls it, your experience “motif”, forms the core of your design principles when you start designing your customer journeys for differentiation and delight. This definition provides you with a “true north” when design decisions are made.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM STRUCTURE CX STRATEGY, EXPERIENCE DEFINITION, AWARENESS AND CONTINUES COMMUNICATION

CUSTOMER MACRO JOURNEY

CUSTOMER DETAIL JOURNEY (REPEAT FOR EVERY STAGE) WORK STREAMS

when he has just experienced a remarkable interaction with your brand?

CUSTOMER ARTIFACTS

NEED

JOURNEY DESIGN SPRINT 1

AWARENESS

JOURNEY DESIGN SPRINT 2

EVALUATE

BUY

JOURNEY DESIGN SPRINT 3

USE

JOURNEY DESIGN SPRINT 4

WEB BANNER

CLICK TO PRODUCT PAGE

SEND CONTACT ME

GET MESSAGE BACK

BANNER MESSAGE

WEB PAGE CONTENT

CONTACT ME BOX & AUTO RESPONSE

EMAIL FEEDSPACE TEMPLATE

GET SUPPORT

JOURNEY DESIGN SPRINT 5

PROCESS MAPPING & BUSINESS ANALYSIS

SYSTEM CHANGES

The “define” stage could also include crafting a more extensive customerfocused strategy that includes defining principles for operations, client service, people, and culture to all align with what you as a brand are aiming to achieve with your customer-focused strategy. I have often seen strategy breakaways deliver PowerPoint presentations with consultant-speak that provide no support to the teams that need to deliver results after such vision sessions. We like to get really practical and as part of our two Customer Experience Strategy sessions, we create an environment in which the team act out various scenarios and deliver a presentation with the results they want to achieve into the future, stating the actions they have taken to deliver those results. We call it “Our future CX transformation success”. This exercise simplifies some of the more daunting tasks and actually creates a positive experience for the team that will embark on the delivery of the customerfocused strategy. Once you have a clear strategy and set of design principles in place, you are ready to move on to the design phase. PHASE 3 - DESIGN

Many teams start here. They simply jump in and start swimming … in a lake of customer touch points, and very soon they feel like they are in a swamp and being drowned by problems and broken experiences. It is very important to start with the end-to-end macro-journey, first identifying the stages of the customer lifecycle with your brand. Once you have co-created this with key

CLIENT COMMUNICATION & CORRESPONDENCE CHANGES

FIX-IT STREAM OF BROKEN EXPERIENCES (HIGH IMPACT + HIGH PRIORITY)

DIAGRAM 2: The Concept Customer Experience Programme structure

stakeholders including senior management, you should have as the output a backdrop or canvas as well as a shared language for your more detailed customer journey design. You can hire the best consultancy to create a customer journey map for you that will be visually crafted and look great in PowerPoint presentations. However, I want to appeal to you to see the map as the transformation tool and a journey for people to align with and start owning their part of the customer journey, rather than get fixated on the end result. Customer journey mapping/design, done well, will deliver the following results in your organization: • Enable anyone to look at the map and be able to tell the story from the customer perspective • Vest the ownership for the moments with every person that engages with the customer. • Create a culture of people feeling proud of the experience they create and seeing themselves as defenders of the experience of the customer in the moment that they act upon • Create a wider awareness of what happened before the moment the customer lands on you and what will happen once he has finished interacting with you. Your customer journeys as they unfold with strong facilitation will also create your scope and statement of work of what needs to be done. Once the

journey has identified actions, I even go further and prioritize the various innovations and actions in terms of the value they would add to the organization. What are the quick wins? What are the items that would make an immediate difference to how a customer experiences your brand? Let’s say, for example, you have an annual statement that goes out to customers and 2 million policyholders once a year. You know it is a high-volume communication and an important touch point and sometimes the only interaction a customer has with your brand. These high-volume, highly emotive interactions are the “moments of truth” in which you really want to invest effort in designing them for differentiation and delight. Once your journey starts creating actions, you want to manage these using robust, disciplined project management structures so you can track delivery, manage risks, drive decisions and ensure value for your organization. PHASE 4 - DO

Customer experience transformation should not be seen as a project; however, project management disciplines are essential to delivering real outcomes.

DIAGRAM 2: The Concept Customer

Experience Programme structure I will share a few tips I have found invaluable in managing large customer experience transformation programmes:

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

CUS T O M ER E X PER IEN CE

Establish strong ownership of the initiative. Continue to lobby for executive support through the inclusion of executives in a steering committee that meets regularly and is responsible for programme guidance and decision making. Much of the first engagement in establishing the structures of the initiative will entail educating executives, exposing them to case studies, and connecting them with their peers at international organizations that are further along the CX journey. The more you invest in this stage, the more you can rely on support and quality decision making later in the programme. Structure your programme in a way that shows delivery across: • Process • People • Technology • Ongoing communication, awareness, and education. Also have a project stream where you tackle more pressing tactical issues that are creating reputational issues for the brand, for example, complaints that just keep reoccurring. I call this project stream the “Fix it” stream. It is essential to deliver quick results as well as create a culture of fixing the root cause of issues rather than just handling them when they arise. It is also important for the CX programme or initiative to not just become the dumping ground for all the “broken” processes. The team responsible for CX transformation needs to have a clear vision of becoming enablers and change agents in the organization so that everyone can transform rather than just a few. Celebrate success. Redesigning a journey can be a long and tedious task. It will require people to give their time and collaborate on designing each moment in a journey across customer interaction channels, looking at every SMS, email, system-generated communication, letter, statement, and web page. It is important to constantly share with the design team, comprising business people, where you are and what has been achieved to date. Often adopting the sprint concept from the agile development methodology helps THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

teams’ time-box the design task for specific moments. A typical customer experience transformation initiative to increase organizational maturity and integrate customer experience thinking into an organization’s way of doing takes between three and six years. That is why ongoing direction through measurement, storytelling and capability development is essential. PHASE 5 - DIRECT – BE DIRECTORS

In your transformation efforts, the most important role you will play is that of being a corporate storyteller. Your aim should be to tell stories that inspire people to transform. Stories should aim to share a different perspective on some limiting belief about how we create experiences for customers. Rather than factual, data-oriented reports and PowerPoint presentations, you should aspire to create stories that inspire people and give them a reason to find stories that show their passion and stories they want to share.

HERE ARE A FEW TIPS OF HOW YOU CAN DO THIS …

• Capture your entire journey mapping session on video – extract the bits where people have aha moments and come up with great ideas. • Collect client service calls that really inspire even greater service. • Collect video of interviews with customers as well as focus groups for use in stories that you craft for the organization and decision makers. • Use whiteboard drawings, images and cartoons to convey your story • Create customer personas and let them come alive in your stories. • Create a customer war room with a storyline of what the journey looks like for a customer, with all the moments in his journey with your brand and every artifact that he receives from you. Sharing this with people on walk-through brings the actual experience to life for everyone involved in the moments in the customer journey. • Plan your communication strategy in the organization ahead of time. For example, in a large CX transformation programme that I

• •

lead, I plan all communication interventions a year ahead, with quarterly Customer Experience forum sessions with a large audience, and smaller sessions on a monthly basis with a core team. Use gamification in your communication strategy. People love to be creative, have a laugh and participate in creating a better future (even the ones who won’t admit it). It is important to deliver on the promises this initiative has made to the organization and to do so in an innovative and remarkable manner.

SUMMARY

In addition to crafting an internal journey for your stakeholders to continue to support and believe in your CX initiative, it is also important to motivate your core team through continued education, being part of an international network of CX professionals, such as the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) and building a CX library of fantastic books. Here are a few books you could add to your library if you don’t already have them: • • • •

Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business by Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine Revolutionize Your Customer Experience 2005th Edition by Colin Shaw Clued In: How to Keep Customers Coming Back Again and Again by Lewis Carbone Mapping Experiences: A Complete Guide to Creating Value through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams 1st Edition by James Kalbach.

Customer experience transformation is never quite done and for a customer experience professional the road can get long and lonely. Reach out to us if you need assistance or are interested in being part of the African or international community of CX professionals. We are here to support and share stories.

ZIMBA BW E

CICM LAUNCHES ZIMBABWE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION INDEX…. AS LOCAL HOSPITALITY SECTOR LEADS THE WAY

BY CICM

HE Chartered Institute of Customer Management (CICM) has launched Zimbabwe’s first of its kind Customer Satisfaction Index. Prior to its introduction of the Zimbabwe Customer Satisfaction Index (ZimCSI), the country had no measure of quality from the perspective of the customer. According to its developers, the index will also measure the quality of economic output as a complement to traditional measures of the quantity of economic output. CICM Chief Executive Officer, Ricky

Harris said the index will be the country’s scientific standard of customer satisfaction. “This annual survey will set the baseline for the industry data. Our aim is to have these country survey reports in all English speaking countries in Africa. We will also include all sectors going forward.” The inaugural index revealed found out that Zimbabwe’s customer satisfaction index current ranking averaged at 70.2%. This basically means that the majority of local customers are happy with the services that they are receiving from their current service providers. And the hospitality industry dominated all other sectors.

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

ZIMBA BW E “This sector has the highest CSI of 78.8% which is significantly above the National level. Within this sector, the players who participated in this study are Meikles, Holiday Inn, Crown Plaza, Cresta Lodge, Elephant Hills, Kingdom, and Leopard Rock and Jameson Hotel respectively. “Having noted this notion, it can be asserted that Leopard rock, Elephant Hills, Crown Plaza and Holiday Inn are significantly above the index mark of the hospitality sector. While Cresta Lodge, Meikles and Rainbow Towers are below the index mark yet above the national index of Zimbabwe,” reads part of the report. In respect of the other sectors that were surveyed under the ZimCSI, the medical aid sector recorded a CSI of 78.7%, while the long-term insurance sector reflected another significant CSI of 76.6%, both also above the national average. Also above the average ranking was the

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

short-term insurance at 74.3%. “There is feasible competition among the players within this sector who succeeded in deriving an industrial mark to be anchored at 79.9%,” highlighted the report. Meanwhile, players in the print media industry contributed to an industrial index of 70.1%, while the telecommunications sector – which is dominated by three firms - generated an industrial index of 68.4%. The Zimbabwean retail sector (which has numerous large and small players) recorded an index mark of 66.7%. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) registered a very low CSI of 66.1%, while the banking sector posted the second lowest CSI of 64.7%. The aviation industry, which is dominated by the monopoly, Air Zimbabwe, recorded the lowest CSI of 61.7%. Ricky Harris said the ZimCSI an independent national benchmark of customer satisfaction will benefit

multiple players both public and private sector within the local economy, as well as foreign investors eyeing the country’s markets. “Zimbabwean companies use the ZimCSI as a tool to optimize customer satisfaction, which in turn drives customer loyalty and thereby corporate profitability. The Index also is used for competitive and cross-industry benchmarking. “It’s also critical for foreign investors who need to understand the relationship between a company’s current condition and its future capacity to produce wealth. In capitalistic free markets, sellers that do well by their customers are rewarded by more business from buyers and more capital from investors,” he said. “The ZimCSI will also benefit Government, which needs to know how best to encourage economic growth and living standards for its citizens.”

GHANA

BY CICM

GHANA TOURISM

LAUNCHES QUALITY SERVICE CHARTER

OW really do businesses, organizations and institutions determine that their strategies, plans and implementation matrices will eventually lead to customer satisfaction? Often times, this critical element of business is left to utter chance. But sometimes, just sometimes a company, organization or institutions get it spot on, like the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) did this August. The GTA launched its new ‘Quality Service Charter,’ “which seeks to ensure the delivery of excellent tourism services to its clients and the public.” BUT WHAT IS QUALITY SERVICE CHARTER?

As one may deduce from the above statements, the prime objective of the quality service charter is to provide a framework for defining effective

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

GHANA

service delivery standards, the rights of customers, and how complaints from customers will be handled. Now the GTA’s introduction of a new quality service charter is not without cause. The country’s tourism sector – perhaps its quintessential and most significant customer-facing industry – has had its fair share of brushes with a ‘disappointed customer. ‘Karen Curley, a blogger with the American media house The Huffington Post wrote recently of her experiences of a travel venture into Ghana: I think travel makes you a well-rounded person and can help us appreciate what we have in America. As an American, I’m used to having a certain comfort level. I like having a hot shower, food and, yes, even air conditioning. If you are travelling to Ghana don’t expect any of these

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

things. I went to Ghana on assignment for a newspaper and stayed in Accra, the capital city. Even though it’s a developing nation you would expect that the capital would have some amenities. It did and it didn’t…..I was riding in a taxi with my roommate and all of a sudden we stopped and our driver got out. I thought for sure we were going to be kidnapped and sold off to the highest bidder. (I have seen way too many horror movies.) I looked out the back window and our driver was peeing on the side of the road like it was nothing. He got back in the car and off we went. I will never get that picture out of my head…… The people over there do not know how to react to white people. When I was walking around the market I was constantly poked and prodded like a lab rat. I think some wanted to touch me because they had never seen a white

person. Just trying to look in one of the outdoor markets proved an impossible task. I couldn’t even walk a foot without getting my clothes pulled on, my butt poked at, or my back hit. And forget about taking pictures. Ghana’s tourism receipts have been ranging between US$1, 2 billion and US$2, 5 billion since 2010. But for a country that is targeting its tourism sector’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) to reach US$8 billion by 2027, such “customer experiences” certainly need to be cut out. And they seem to be well aware of it. Mr. Alex Boakye, the manager of Quality Assurance at the GTA, pledged the commitment of the organization towards delivering on its mandate to achieve “Ghana’s target of leading African tourism space by the year 2026.”

LISTENING

Don’t Listen So You Can Talk,

Listen So You Can Learn JOHN TSCHOHL

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

LISTENING

BY JOHN TSCHOHL

CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ALL ABOUT LISTENING. ACCORDING TO BERNARD FERRARI, AUTHOR OF POWER LISTENING: MASTERING THE MOST CRITICAL BUSINESS SKILL OF ALL, GOOD LISTENING IS THE KEY TO DEVELOPING FRESH INSIGHTS AND IDEAS THAT FUEL SUCCESS.

Organizations choose front line employees for their social poise, their outgoing personalities and their ability to communicate well, meaning their ability to talk well. And they train them in what they can and can’t say and what they can do to help the customer. Finally, their performance is evaluated by how proactively they manage and resolve problems or calls. It isn’t hard to understand that organizations are also missing an opportunity for customer relationship building if they fail to choose customer service employees for their natural abilities to listen and empathize. Also, an opportunity is missed if training doesn’t include an explanation of how important listening is and why, and what can be done to become a better listener. "You learn when you listen. You earn when you listen—not just money, but respect."— Harvey Mackay

In my book, Feelings, I asked the question, “do you listen to your customers, and honestly try to help them?” For example, when I go into a crowded restaurant and give my name to the host/hostess at the head of a long line, I don’t want them to simply take down my name. I want to know a realistic estimate of how long it will be before I’m seated. If I get a casual reply of, “It won’t be too long,” I know my request has not been heard. On the other hand, if I am told a realistic time frame for my wait, I can choose to leave or to occupy my time doing other things. Good listeners… Are genuinely curious about what’s going on for you. Are patient and don’t interrupt in the middle of your pauses Give their full attention Let you know they follow what you are saying by nodding in agreement Don’t judge or criticize Don’t relate everything you say to their own personal experience Empathy and active listening are the golden rules of customer service. In order to truly connect to your customer and give them a reason to come back, let them know you’ve heard and understood. Nowhere else is the art of listening more evident than at the Mayo Clinic. It’s a religion with them. You can tell the minute you walk in for your appointment. Everyone, from the janitor on up is educated in looking for opportunities and chances to make your visit/appointment a good experience. Everyone in this very large facility will help you with directions Everyone is super nice. Large directional signs. Flexibility in scheduling and testing Give you their full attention Treat each patient as special with special needs Is in contact with everyone on your team of experts

the Best Hospital in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report. Doctors, nurses, technicians, pharmacists all are part of the communication process with you. They listen the minute you walk in the door. They are the “experts” at the art of listening and you are embraced by a team that truly cares about you. Things are good at Apple: If you walk into an Apple store you will be greeted by a sales staff member and you are not asked, “How can I help you?” Instead they ask, “What would you like to do today?” They go right to the heart of any technology user’s question, a question that’s always related to what they want to do with the technology the user is interested in. They listen. Once you explain your needs, they take care of it …on the spot in most cases. If you need more hand holding, they turn you over to the Apple Geniuses. By adhering to their basic principles of constantly offering great customer service and in-store experiences, Apple reported $8.78 billion profit on of $45.4 billion revenue for 3Q 2017. “The best way to understand people is to listen to them. How would you rate your listening skills?”--John Tschohl John Tschohl is an international service strategist and speaker. He is founder and president of the Service Quality Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Described by Time and Entrepreneur magazines as a customer service guru, he has written several books on customer service. He will release shortly the 11th Edition of Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service. The Service Quality Institute (http://w w w.customer-ser vice.com) has developed more than 26 customer service training programs that have been distributed and presented throughout the world. John’s monthly strategic newsletter is available online at no charge. He can also be reached on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Published with permission from the Author

Mayo Clinic has once again been crowned THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

LOVE LETTER

LOVE 3 R E LETT OYO

BY RODRICK MAZ

This becomes the 3rd of ‘Love Letters to ‘Dear Corporate’. A series of artistic pieces meant to convey customer concerns over customer service in a generally unique manner. In this feature, ‘Customer’ is exclusively siting the service irregularities within Zimbabwe’s banking halls, especially in the face of the cash crisis.

Dear Corporate It is that time again when I use words to paint pictures and convey sound messages. I am maturing. Coming out raw is becoming less of my portion, but the desire to express my deep-felt concerns has not changed a bit. In this piece, I wish to point out where you are missing it in your banking halls, the place where

because of the cash crisis, I frequent, more often than not. I have a strong conviction that your friend, the one who doesn’t know what a cash crisis is, will also benefit something since an error in any bank is an error to all of us, anywhere, everywhere. Without wasting your invaluable time, let me dig in. Too often I walk into your banking halls and everyone is either looking too busy for me or actually swamped with work that I feel can be done at the back office. Guess who then looks very available and comes to the rescue? ‘Mr Security guy’. My dear, what is the link between security skills and superb customer handling? If there is, I am sure it is not much to the extent of replacing customer-care professionals with the ‘security guy’. Of course, he is available and is quite mobile, but does he know your service standards? Does he know your products and services thoroughly? Can I really bank on the loan advice he offers? Are you comfortable knowing I walked in and got advice from him and not your well-trained staff before departing? If you didn’t know, now you know, its happening! When is the 'guy' advising people on when their

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

LOVE LETTER

bank cards will be issued and when he is educating me on how to fill in my forms, who will be watching out for the armed robber? Does this question ever cross your mind or you think robberies only happen in movies. Need I remind you of the Stanbic Chegutu branch fiasco? Let me not, I will open old wounds. All the same, allow Mr Security to do his job and relieve him of the daunting task of trying to handle and delight me in my hundred moods, please. Talk of fresh air. Investing in an efficient air conditioner is no longer optional. Yes, I said it. You and I cannot debate on this one. We are in the Savannah for goodness sake! Ubuntu has to apply in some instances and not in sharing breathe. My lover, you can’t have me and hundred others sharing oxygen as if we manufacture it in using it. We are humans, not trees. Please, install reliable air conditioners in all your banking halls such that the long queues become a little bearable. I can’t have high blood pressure from missing you and then get budgeted breathing air in your premises again. I will faint! After I faint, my gut feeling says you will then tout me as a drama queen. My womb is a bowel of multiplication, from it comes generations. The little ones need an occupation whilst I wait for service in the bank, remember? A ‘kids’ play-centre’ is thus used to this effect. The little ones need to be kept entertained lest they become my reason for leaving without getting assistance. I could ask for preferential treatment in the queue, but since you are polygamous, it’s many of us nursing, all at the same time. We are too many we will form another long winding queue on our own. Dear Corporate, do those tailors know there is life after the cash crisis? They are no longer smiling at me. Need I over-emphasise the notion of my sovereignty? I am scarce in the market, please sit them down and explain to them my importance. I might seem like the desperate one because I would have waited long for the hard-cash, but all the same, they must greet me first and I mustn’t beg for that customary smile. Mother Theresa once said, “Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

thing.” In the context of our relationship, I will simply say, a smile begets a smile. Courtesy cannot be compromised because of a passing phase, can it? I promised to sound sweeter in this letter and don’t tell me I have already gone off the rail or off the line. Oh!.. and talking of lines, do you know, a toll-free line can be the solution to decongest your banking halls? A contact centre can process up to 15 000 queries per day depending on your investment and nature of the business. I don’t need to be in the same long queue as another one of my kind who wants to lock a stolen ATM Card. She who desires to ascertain the status of their account or check available loan facilities does not need to increase the number of noses battling for air in the banking halls. Whilst contact centres, mobile apps and online sites help in processing queries, the banking hall may then be left to us the hard-cash seekers. A better arrangement isn’t it? Contact centres make life easy, adopt them! There is listening for the purpose of replying and listening for the purpose of understanding. I want you to do both! Banking halls should be places of great ambience and superb service. Cash crisis or no cash crisis, my experience cannot be compromised. Business, as they term our union, will always blossom as long as our communication thrives. If anyone doubts our love, let them see my receipts and transaction traces. The migration of my Rands, Dollars, Kwanzas and Kwachas to your wallet speaks volumes. Your products and services also do the same. I need you and you need me too. From this writing, I expect change and as the norm, you should expect more letters. Yours in love,

Customer.

PSMI

PSMI SHEDS OFF WINTER WEIGHT WELCOMES SUMMER IN STYLE

BY PSMI

uring winter, most people find comfort and warmth in food where they develop a sw e e t tooth, tuck in

confectioneries and brewing a cup of coffee every now and then. Now that we are in summer, PSMI organized a sports gala for its employees so that they

would shed off the winter weight and welcome a healthier body in summer. They say, “a healthy workforce is a productive one” and indeed PSMI is making sure that it does not only preach about wellness but it walks the talk. In promotion of its new culture, the sports gala was themed #Together…Tasangana… Sisonke where regardless of titles, the Board, Directors, Team leaders, senior managers and junior employees mixed and mingled with people of the same family.

PSMI has centres in Harare, Kadoma, Kwekwe, Gweru, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls, Gwanda, Masvingo, Chiredzi, Chipinge, Mutare, Rusape, Marondera, Bindura, Chinhoyi and Norton. All the staff from these towns converged in Harare to particular in the first ever sports gala for PSMI. PSMI sports gala was full of activity with various sporting disciplines which are Zumba, soccer, tug of war, netball, volleyball, tennis, darts, athletics, chess and modelling. This was in a bid to promote teamwork

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

PSMI

and oneness among the PSMI family. The gala was well attended with only a few employees who were on job cover at the company’s hospitals not attending the gala. It presented a healthy competition as well as wellness of the employees. A health booth was set up in the middle of the fields providing vital checks to staff, for example, BP checks, Diabetes checks etc. To make this day possible, PSMI was supported by a numerous partners amongst them were Platinum sponsors Medirite Distribution and Sign Express; The Gold sponsor was J & W Pavers; Silver sponsors were AMTEC, Mike

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

Harris and Omni Africa; The Bronze sponsors included Croco Motors, Datlabs, NetOne, Premier Link and Copier Parts. These sponsors made the day a success and their support was unmatched. Asked for a comment about the gala, PSMI Managing Director Dr Farai Muchena said, “As PSMI, our employees are one of our top priorities that is why we have invested so much in their wellness. We have a Human Resources department whose responsibility is employee wellness because we believe that for the company to provide excellent customer service to our patients, there should be a healthy

and happy workforce. They say all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so we found time from our busy schedules to relax, play and mingle so that when we get back to work, we will be refreshed and we put our best foot forward.” After the sports gala, one can conclude that indeed PSMI has got talent, participants exuded their best of abilities. PSMI sports gala is not a once off event, teams are still practising every week as part of the company’s wellness drive and also in preparation of next year’s sports gala.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES

SERVICE DELIVERY AND CUSTOMER CARE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES By Cllr. Annette Deppe (Ward 132) City of Johannesburg

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES

Being a Councillor for the City of Johannesburg is much like any other Job. You have to be service driven and you have to share the City’s Vision and inform residents how you plan to achieve that vision and tell them again and again and again. It is very important to let people know what you do, whether on Social media, e-mail, mailing system, local newspapers, radio and newsletters. There are so many means of communicating today. Positive messaging is a key component as people will not buy into your vision if you are negative. A creative message is likely to be remembered and can help build your brand. If you want support from your voters, your strategy must be to provide clear and concise bullet point messages, i.e., what does it mean for your voters, what you want or need them to do.

of the city’s vision, but not share what is done with the public. The public then hears about the task, the development, the service delivery at the end of the process and not at the beginning. This makes them feel left out and excluded from the vision and plan. The biggest lesson is to share your plans, be transparent and open, get the buy-in from your residents and have a great attitude. Don’t make promises you can’t keep, don’t take sides, give a balanced view, be a good listener, and revert to your voters as soon as possible. This makes for happy voters, sustainable communities and all round inclusivity in an open opportunity society which provides freedom and fairness for all. After all, you were elected by the voters to serve.

Voters like to know and will help you with your oversight function if you give them something that they buy into. One of the common mistakes a Councillor can make is to do it all yourself and be very busy in meetings, strategizing the implementation

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

UGANDA

UGANDA Social Media & The Battle For Good Customer Service

BY CICM

GANDA has more than its fair share of bad customer service. No. Actually, to be more precise, customer service in this country is so poor it’s not even recognized as poor customer service. It’s hardly believable, but you will strain to come across a stand-alone organization that drives the good customer service agenda like in other African countries. In Zimbabwe, you find the Contact Centre Association of Zimbabwe and the local subsidiary of the global Chartered Institute of Customer Management.

Go to South Africa and you will find the South Africa Consumer Complaints In Nigeria, you find the Institute of Customer Service of Nigeria. These are just to mention a few. No such luck in Uganda if you are an abused customer. The only customer assistance that one can get is from companies and institutions’ internal customer service departments. But this experience by Ugandan blogger Lindsey Kukunda shows that these internal customer service departments are not all that. “I had heard a lot about MTN and long queues in some of the notoriously busiest places. So one day I decided to use the outlet in the Nakawa Game mall to send Mobile Money. Sure enough, there were only two tills operating.

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

UGANDA

After standing still for 15 minutes, I proceeded to the MTN Towers in Clement Hill to speak with the head of the customer service directly. When I told the male receptionist what I needed to speak with him about, he stared at me for a full two minutes, smiling. I learned why when he said after that time had passed, “Oh, he just passed you to go for lunch. You can try again in two hours. Look, there he is in the white car pulling out!” He pointed helpfully. Oh, right. I was supposed to chase the car at that point. Spontaneous exercise. Now that’s customer service.” Social Media to the Rescue It’s a nascent project that some anonymous persons have come up

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

with a Facebook page to literally take the fight to bad customer service. It’s appropriately named ‘Fight against poor customer service in Uganda.’ With its budding membership and few posts, it’s difficult to yet appraise the kind of impact that it has had or will eventually have on good customer service in Uganda, but it’s an idea that is full of potential. There are numerous examples of how social media platforms have been used to change or at least impact on business behaviours. For example, South Africa restaurant franchise Spur, experienced significant Twitter and Facebook backlash after a video showing an altercation between a

white man and a black woman at one of its Johannesburg outlets went viral. Social media is a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can be abused as a weapon of mass destruction, but then there is no denying it can be used to effect positive social (read “good customer service”) change.

BY SHEP HYKEN

INVENT YOUR VOCABULARY TO EMPHASIZE WHO YOU ARE THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

TRAINING

he other night I was on a Southwest Airlines flight, traveling home from a speaking engagement. While waiting to board, I noticed a sign advertising Southwest’s concept they call “transfarency.” THE SIGN READ AS FOLLOWS: Transfarency [Trans-fair-uhn-see] n. Philosophy created by Southwest Airlines in which Customers are treated honestly and fairly, and low fares actually stay low – no unexpected bag fees, change fees, or hidden fees. Created and practiced exclusively by Southwest Airlines. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. That’s Transfarency. In the past, I’ve written about the concept of how changing vocabulary can help shift an attitude and even a company’s culture. But, inventing words takes the vocabulary concept to a new level. Southwest Airlines has always promised to be a low fare airline. They give away peanuts, not meals, and they are proud of it. They don’t “nickel and dime” customers with extra fees, and they’ve used that point to differentiate themselves from their competitors. And, now they invented a word to describe it, transfarency. There is a word to describe what Southwest has done. It is portmanteaus. It is combining words and sounds from

two or more other words. It can be even if you don’t buy ours.” The word clever, yet at the same time it can make or phrase emphasizes they are friendly, a point. Southwest’s use of the two flexible, and easy. And, the commercials words, transparency and fare, align with are fun. They’ve created a strong their brand promise and is part of their message about their version of customer customer experience. experience. Robitussin, the popular cough syrup There are plenty of examples that can came up with a campaign a few years be found with a little Internet research. ago to emphasize the results of using The point of all of this is to get you to think their product: “Don’t suffer the cough- of an interesting, and even fun, way to equences!” That’s a successful way of describe what you do for your customers defining what they want their customers and what you want them to experience. to experience. Sometimes it’s not about combining two words, but making words up. I remember the Volkswagen campaign in the 1990’s where they used two German words, fahren and vergnugen, to create fahrvergnugen (pronounced far-fairgnu-ghen), to describe the driving experience. Roughly translated, the word means driving pleasure. That’s what VW wants every customer to experience when driving CICM partnership proposition one of their cars. It’s a brand promise. Another made up word is WBYCEIYDBO, which is Service delivery is the cornerstone of local actually an acronym that government and is currently by and large CarMax came up with that impeded by internal constraints and the silo means, “We’ll buy your car

effect. We are excited to share our skills and experience in working with municipalities in this space by: • Assisting municipalities to improve the effective level of public participation, enhancing call centre efficiency and the links back to the service delivery model • Advising on the drafting and implementation of service charters for municipalities taking cognisance of unique municipal attributes and capabilities • Designing and implementing customer care and relationship management practices by customer segment to ensure those customer requirements are addressed by segment • Advising on the best options for establishing a service delivery model that is aligned to customer segments, regional requirements, urban and facilities management imperatives and acceptable turnaround time Service delivery and customer care should be improved by developing the internal capacity of local government through partnering in action!

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

BUY IT OVER THERE, GET IT OVER HERE. Let DHL international specialists collect your parcel, clear it through customs and deliver. DHL Express – Excellence. Simply delivered. Tel:+263 867 770 0120 dhl.co.zw

2 THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

CUS T O M ER E X PER IEN CE

Building Positive CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES & OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES WITH BLENDED CALL CENTER BY BENSON MUKANDIWA

B U I L D I N G

P O S I T I V E

C U S T O M E R

E X P E R I E N C E

t’s a common, daily struggle of business owners worldwide. For a very long time, delivering exceptional customer service to each and every client, as if they are the only client the business has, has been viewed as a lofty goal that comes with a price. Paying extra, special attention to each of your customers can put your business’ operational efficiency at risk, particularly if you have limited manpower and resources because it quickly drains these limited resources. And because small and medium-sized businesses do have limited resources, their goal of creating positive and memorable customer experiences becomes much more difficult to attain. But what if we told you there is a proven strategy that allows you to create positive customer experiences while maximizing your operational efficiency? Research has shown that blended communication in the call center context is an effective method for increasing the quality of customer experiences you create for your clients while improving your operational efficiency. These three benefits show how a blended call center can give you the best of both worlds:

Shorter wait times. Creating positive customer experiences begins with knowing what your customers want and doing all you can to deliver that. If there is one thing customers hate, it’s waiting for their call to be answered by an agent! The shorter the waiting time, the more positive their experience becomes. The flexible set-up of a blended call center environment greatly reduces the wait times of calling customers on the other end of the line, by assigning the outbound agents to also take the incoming calls when there is call overflow. The result is reduced wait times, reduced abandoned calls, and happier customers! Greater efficiency and productivity. Blended call centers utilize both inbound and outbound call center technology that improves the work efficiency of agents. Automatic call distribution software allows inbound agents to handle calls that match their skills. It also helps decrease wait times by automatically routing incoming calls to agents who are not handling calls at the moment. Predictive dialers, on the other hand, help outbound agents make outbound calls faster. All these efficiency improvements

ultimately result in higher productivity levels for the agents and call center. Higher agent engagement. The great thing about a blended call center environment is it breaks the monotony for the agents. Because agents in a blended call center are tasked to handle both inbound and outbound calls, they are given the opportunity to interact with different customers with a greater variety of needs and concerns on a daily basis. In the course of their work, blended call center agents become more knowledgeable about different customer preferences, and develop skills that are important for both inbound and outbound calls. Since routine is minimized in a blended call center environment, agents become more engaged in their work, which may reduce agent turnover. A blended call center set-up offers shorter wait times for your customers, greater efficiency for the call center, and higher productivity and engagement for the agents. All these three benefits work together to help you create positive customer experiences while boosting your business’ operational efficiency.

THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

AVOID SPEED TRAP POLICIES BY JOHN TSCHOHL

If you want to differentiate your company in the marketplace, then you need to show how you can dramatically deliver service and products faster than your competitors. Amazon does it. Apple does it. Why don’t you? Recently, one of my employees was having a problem with an item shipped to her from Amazon. She needed to return the product and was not savvy to the info on the website to make the return and get her money back. So she called and talked directly to a human being. An emphatic and understanding rep sent her a return packing slip via email so all she had to do was print and tape the label on the box. AND…According to company policy, credit will only be issued once the product is received at Amazon. The customer in this case was issued the credit to her account right away. Speed Trap avoided and… another over happy Amazon customer. Customers value speed … Amazon! “…if you wanna do more of something, make the friction less. If you wanna do less of something, make the friction more.” — Jeff Bezos Amazon has overcome challenge after challenge by adhering to Bezos’ mission: To be earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Speed involves using tools and techniques to dramatically reduce the time needed to complete a task while still placing a high importance on the level of quality. Remember, customers will reciprocate your helpful actions.

When you resolve situations quickly and effectively, and then respond to their need, most customers will pay you back with continued or increased loyalty, goodwill and even repurchasing. Keep in mind, there’s nobody more valuable than the customer. Just ask Apple. They are known worldwide for service and speed. They take care of questions, problems and concerns faster than competitors. Apple has elevated customer service into a science. Today, the company stands shoulders above the competition when it comes to alleviating the stresses customer’s experience. There’s no outsourcing as they specialize in fixing Apple products and making a stressful situation more manageable. They make it easy and fast. Apple’s secret weapon is incredible customer service. The most recent earnings report listed Apple as the most valuable company on the planet at a mind blowing $775 billion with a staggering $261.5 billion cash balance. Written out, that is “$261,500,000,000.00.” “We’re very simple people at Apple. We focus on making the world’s best products and enriching people’s lives.” Tim Cook. In my book Empowerment a Way of Life, I illustrate four challenges that all businesses face. They are: 1st: Many executives don’t trust the customer. They believe the customer is trying to take advantage of them. Employees feel the same way. 2nd: We don’t trust employees. We pay them as little as we can and have even less confidence in their ability to make

decisions. We have a belief that our lying, cheating customers are going to take advantage of our incompetent employees. 3rd: With Empowerment you don’t need as many managers and supervisors. They’re not overly excited about losing their perceived power, nor are they thrilled about the potential of losing their jobs. 4th: Very few employees are on their knees at night praying for Empowerment. It’s just too risky. I stress that empowerment means every employee has to make fast decisions in favor of the customer. It’s important that we are honest and sincere in our efforts to service our customers. The only way we can do that is by empowering employees to satisfy the customer quickly and to their satisfaction. Satisfying customers quickly benefits everyone. A company’s success lies in empowered employees. It is important to train employees and make sure they have trust in what empowerment will bring to a company. Moreover, happy, empowered, fulfilled employees are the key to creating “over-happy customers” for your company. When employees are empowered and given responsibility, they use their talents and skills to maximize the opportunities and as you can see by the most successful companies in the world, empowered, responsible employees that know the value of speed, contributes greatly to your bottom line. “Speed is making fast decisions, on the spot, in favor of customers.” John Tschohl THIRD EDITION |

The Customer

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