Consistency is Key

I’m indeed honoured to have the first guest post on here by Kaboro. Enjoy!

Kenyan’s are a peculiar lot. This was said by Michael Joseph, CEO Safaricom, and his words have now been (in) famously entered into the annals of Kenya’s favorite statement history. Now, to put it into context; Kencell vs. Safaricom, tarrif battles circa 2003… Safaricom was behind Kencell in subscriber numbers. Quotes such as the aforementioned one did not help their cause. Today? Safaricom is way ahead of the pack; Kencell (Zain, Celtel, then Vivendi?) is trailing. What happened? Kencell suddenly stopped listening to their customer. Tried feeding their customers with per minute billing, even when the Kenyan public had declared they preferred per second billing. The “flashing” culture was testament to this.

Now what happened to Kencell is typical in the Kenyan market. New companies come up, with lot’s of PR, offer a good product for a short while, they then become “entitled” to the business. They then go through a cycle of arrogance, followed by a slow demise, rebranding, good customer service, only to go back to arrogance. Now this cycle is with the more ‘enlightened’ of the lot. Most don’t go through the cycle, they just go down. Think about our supermarket industry. Uchumi; In the late nineties, they were on top of the market, launched several hyper stores. Complaints of poor customer service started streaming in. Their stores slowly dried up. Nakumatt was the main beneficiary in the same. Soon, Uchumi filed for bankruptcy, I am not discounting fiscal mismanagement as a cause of their downfall, however, what really drove away customers at the end of the day was poor customer service (not stocking what they request is symptomatic of this).

I move to yet another example. Citi Hoppa. When they came into the market, they were the only ones who had complied with government regulations. They quickly won the heart of the public and were able to get a huge fleet of buses together in a very short time. However, they squandered the goodwill they had generated and in the meantime, Kenya Bus were able to put together a sizeable fleet as well as Double M.

This brings me to the primary point of my article. Buying is an emotional affair. Because it is an emotional affair, you have procurement laws, to prevent emotion from trumping reason. If you can create and sustain a good feeling in your customers, you will have endless repeat business.  The only way you can get away with poor customer service is if:

1. You are in a monopoly (you are the only one with the good/service you sell)
2. There is a need for that good (if there is no need, then no one will buy, monopoly or otherwise, I don’t know the last time someone went looking for a gold plated tractor, its functional, never flamboyant, there may be someone who makes one, but he/she cannot be rich, due to extremely low demand).

Given this, the primary focus of any business should be improving the buying experience as if you can captialise on this, you will be able to get the customer to spend more per transaction (i.e. be more expensive), and buy more from you per transaction (bulk) while at the same time, having  him coming back to you. This is if you are not priced out of the market though…   Why are we not able to do this? It boils down to one thing; humility. Look at the customer for who he/she is. A member of the community who has decided to favor your store/office with business. If you recognize that the customer is the game changer and is the one you need, not vice versa, half the battle is won. It will put you as a business person in a position to treat the customer well. Ensure that there is proper information flow, from the bottom up. If a cleaner in your establishment comes across a customer, he/she should be able to escalate the problem to the top. Customer complaints should not be viewed as a nuisance, but as much needed feedback, to enable you to better position yourself in the market. Many times, customer complaints form new product offerings, only if we listen.

Are there examples of companies that consistently listen to their customers? Yes. Safaricom is one such example (before you have my neck), they have several nifty services that make it the defacto network (Please Call Me, Thank You – basically means that people who are not willing to spend on telecommunications will be on this network, they may not necessarily be price conscious, they aren’t paying for most calls), a service that shows who recently called, M-Pesa, Sambaza, the 184 group text service , 3g  and they do have the most customer experience centers for any local Telco along with the most third party service providers etc. They have the ability to read the market consistently. They are rewarded with customer loyalty. Now, note that Safaricom does not have the *best* products, or the highest quality in their products, they just have the right products; those which the customers want. Java Coffee House, have a consistent service quality and product quality. Hence it rarely makes a difference which coffee house is frequented, save for the coffee drinker’s location and further familiarity with the staff of a particular location. Equity Bank is the best example. When they open a branch, they source staff from within the area. Hence the staff can speak the local language, are known by the locals, and are aware of the problems the locals face; they are part of the community (community from this point forward denotes the area around the branch), hence the bank becomes a part of the community, giving an excellent experience for the customer. Their success is apparent…

I close with this; listen to customers, they will reward you, ignore them, they will ignore you as well.