Background

Customer service, like a brand, is what the customers perceive and remember of the service they received. It is also the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.

According to Jamier L. Scott. (2002), “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation.“

Good customer service is therefore the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business would not be profitable for long.

Good customer service, is all about bringing the customers back. And about sending them away happy – happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in turn become repeat customers and brand advocates.

The essence of good customer service is forging a relationship with customers – a relationship that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue.

It is in the light of this background that we deemed it necessary to understand the concept of ‘customer service/relations’ from customers’ perspectives.

The study examines, amongst others, respondents’ perspectives on customer service vis-a-vis products/services and companies they have patronized or interfaced with.

The study was carried out during the first two weeks of weeks of February, 2010.

The modified, multi-stage random probability sampling approach was employed for this study. The rationale for this is to avert any known form of bias that may affect the accuracy of data collected.

The sample selection involved a 5-stage design as shown below: Stage 1 - Delineation of each area to be sampled into smaller units of

near equal proportions known as sectors.

Stage 2 - Random selection of sectors.

Stage 3 - Random selection of dwelling structures.

Stage 4 - Random selection of household units (i.e. residential units within each dwelling structure).

Stage 5 - Finally, random selection of individuals to be interviewed.

Sample Design

GENDER

Male – 109

Female – 116

AGE

16 – 25 – 47 26 – 35 – 63

36 – 45 – 70

45 + – 45

LOCATION (LAGOS) Ikeja – 63

Surulere – 55

Yaba – 52

V.I/Ikoyi – 55

225Respondents

Achieved Sample Structure (Respondents’ Profile)

Achieved Sample Structure (Respondents’ Profile)

EDUC. BACKGROUND OND/Dip. ,, – 89

HND/BSc. ,, – 109

MSc./PHD – 27

SOCIAL CLASS

AB – 34

C – 112

D – 79 225Respondents

OCCUPATION

Self Employed – 59

Professionals-Lawyers, Engineers, Doctors, Bankers etc – 73

Coys Managers/ Directors – 65

Others – 28

51%

38%

26%

20% 14%

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To most respondents, anticipating customers’ needs and satisfying them must lie at the heart of any meaningful customer service and ditto for listening to customers coupled with a display of good body language – smiling and eye contact.

Executive Summary of Findings

What Constitutes Good Customer Service from Respondents’ Perspectives

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Listening to customers is greatly underscored because customers do not buy products or services; they buy ‘good feelings’ and ‘solutions to problems’. Most of their needs are emotional rather than rational. Moreover, a good customer service would not make promises unless it would keep them. It should also have the capacity to deal with problems / complaints immediately.

Good customer service and good/efficient/prudent management are not mutually exclusive in that the latter should necessarily translates to the former and vice -versa.

It was also reasoned that “the quality of a company’s end product / service will be measured in terms of the quality of the back up services it renders”.

In category terms, banks, hotels and Quick Service Restaurants and Pay TV, in that order, were credited with some level of good customer service.

Sectors with awful customer service are PHCN, Telecoms, Airports and Airlines, in that order.

The lessons to be learnt from the study are not far fetched. Customer service should necessarily be an integral part of a company’s customer proposition – the sum total of benefits which a vendor promises that a customer will receive in return for the customer’s associated payment (or other value transfer). Since customers have memories, they will remember you, whether you remember them or not. Moreover, customers trust can be destroyed at once by a major service problem, or it can be undermined one day at a time, with a thousand small demonstrations of ineptitude.

Detailed Findings

The Position of ‘Customer Service’ in the Basket of Other Offerings

4%

8%

11%

35%

42%

Good/efficient/prudentmanagement

Rebate/price slash

Promotions

End products

Customer Service

• The quality of customer service rendered by a company is placed on a higher pedestal vis-à-vis other offerings. More importantly, it was reasoned by most of the respondents that ‘good customer service’ should outpace ‘good/efficient/prudent management’, in that the two are not mutually exclusive. ‘Good/efficient/prudent management’ should necessarily translates to ‘good quality customer service’ and vice- versa for ‘good quality customer service’. Moreover, it was posited that “the quality of a company’s end product/service will be measured in terms of the quality of the back-up customer service it renders”.

16%

37%

46%

51%

68%

Pension FundManagers

Pay TV

Quick ServiceRestaurants

Hotels

Banks

• Sectors /companies credited with some degree of customer service include banks; prominent amongst which are Zenith, GTB, Bank PHB, Skye, UBA and a host of others. In the hotel sector, Lagos Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Protea and Oriental were mentioned amongst others. For Quick Service Restaurants, Sweet Sensation, Tantalizers, Mr. Bigg’s and Tasty Fried Chicken, in that order, were cited. DSTV was specifically mentioned for Pay TV whilst IBTC, UBA, Crusader and AIICO were cited for Pension Fund Managers.

Sectors / Companies with Some Degree of Customer Service

21%

32%

45%

56%

87%

Mikano

Airlines

Airports

Telecoms

PHCN

• PHCN was highly berated for “constantly supplying darkness to/withholding light from Nigerians”, “incessant power outages” and for “not being responsive to consumers’ complaints / problems”.• Virtually all the Telecoms sector players were bemoaned for unsavoury customer

Sectors / Companies with Appalling Customer Service

services ranging from “non-transparent billing system”, incomplete/drop calls”,“fluctuating internet service without prior notice”, “having to hold on for a long while whilst making enquires” to “poor overall network service”. • Airports and Airlines were not spared for “delay flights”, “poor flight

services”, “unkempt toilets” and many more.• Mikano was specifically mentioned for “frequent breakdown of serviced

generators” and “poor after sales service”.