Customer experience for revenue generation is not a fad . It ’ s a reality . We must learn and relearn that customers keep us in business whether big or small and we should treat them with lots of respect . Customers feed life into our businesses . matter how many times you have bought items from them . It ’ s very important to know your customers . The KYC provided by mobile money offers great leads and can create a good retention plan . Data is King if used appropriately and one does not need to struggle to make sales as the frequent buyers obviously create repeat clients . But to them since you have no choice , then you have no options .
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Is Customer Experience Dead Among SME ’ s In The Countryside ?
By Pauline Warui
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That is not the only work we have here ! If your money is not reflecting on our system that is not our fault . You have to wait like the other customers ”. We cannot use your code , we don ’ t know you so please sit down !
This was a statement uttered to me by a business owner in one of my local towns without fear of prejudice . I was perplexed and I quickly got on my feet . I had made a payment of a substantial amount and the lady owner did not care about that . She looked at me with a ‘ so what ’ face . To state that I was furious is an understatement .
I stood my full length and used my booming voice to advise her that she cannot address customers who are spending money at her business like that . I even took my time to give her a lecture on why she should communicate with her customers prior to taking their money . After all , the payments to bank had been an issue for quite some time and she was aware but took it upon herself to silently pick the money and deal with the consequences later .
I wrote notes to myself and started exploring customer experience in other regions other than the Capital City where competition humbles the business owners . My take was that customer experience for middle tier companies particularly in other towns was as good as dead . Why ? In the smaller towns , customer experience is influenced by many factors and one is the status of the business owner . If they are way ‘ above ’ the locals in financial muscle , they believe they have a right to treat customers as they wish . They will open the shop at their convenience and not at the customers timings . They will stock according to their plan not as per the customer needs .
“ Do you have these padlocks ?” No we don ’ t . You can come and check next week if we will have stocked . They do not care for KYC because they know they are the only ones who can stock that item . A simple solution would be just picking the customer number and texting them when the product is available but that is too much work for them .
Another fact I noted is that you are a suspect until proved rich or capable of buying . They cannot trust you to get the product no matter how small the item is because you are not familiar to them no
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Customer experience for revenue generation is not a fad . It ’ s a reality . We must learn and relearn that customers keep us in business whether big or small and we should treat them with lots of respect . Customers feed life into our businesses . matter how many times you have bought items from them . It ’ s very important to know your customers . The KYC provided by mobile money offers great leads and can create a good retention plan . Data is King if used appropriately and one does not need to struggle to make sales as the frequent buyers obviously create repeat clients . But to them since you have no choice , then you have no options .
Interestingly they do not understand that your attitude as a business owner creates your brand and how customers react to it . Simply put , ‘ have you ever entered an office and it is seemingly very cold despite so many members of staff welcoming you with a good smile ? Customers can discern negative energy and fake smiles . They want service not smiles . An efficient process and quick access to products makes customers smile at you .
My mantra in training customer service is that you should let the customer smile at you by giving them the right products . As a business owner you need to understand that you are the champion and role model of customer experience . If you are rude to customers , your staff will , without doubt , outshine you .
In this incident , the customer experience officer had handled me very well . We had made friends and she was very happy with the sale . We talked well and she referred me to the cashiers desk which makes no sense as all payments are virtual . The cashiers counter was fully blocked and there was a small key hole window where you had to call the attendant cashier .
The first one told me she is not dealing with
48 MAL56 / 23 ISSUE