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Hello and welcome to the show. Today we are going to look at customer relationship management or client relationship management. What does that mean and why is it important? If you've been listening to the show for any length of time, you know that it's something I've hinted on every now and then, but it's one of these perennial issues. So we can't we can't ignore it because it's it comes up every now and then again in business.
So it's not something that you can't over stress. It's not something that you can't over flog, at least for those of us who are in the early stages of a business. So if you are a conglomerate or you're a behaving of like MTN, what else are big national banks? You know, customer relationship can be a tagline and you guys don't pay attention to it and you still do well because you reached a certain level of what I say critical mass.
But now for those of us in the early days, this is not something that we can trifle with. So the big business is MTN. They can put you on hold for 30 minutes, but they know that, you know, they all behave the same way. So it's not like you have an alternative. It's not like if you run away from MTN and you move to 9 Mobile, the service is going to be any better. And it's the same thing with the banks. They'll put you on hold for 3045
minutes because it's the same thing everywhere. So until we get to that level, we can't afford to mess with customer relationship management, customer service issues, all these sorts of things. In fact, I have a theory. I don't know how I'm going to be able to prove it until maybe one day if I end up consulting for one of the big conglomerates, big multinational organizations. I have a theory that even at that stage you can use, yeah,
I'm good customer service, customer relationship management issues to be a distinguishing factor for your business when that's that's a theory. If I ever get a chance to prove it, I'll be sure to let you guys know over here on the podcast. Yeah, well, like I said, technically speaking, we're going to limit it to customer relationship management and not everything that is customer focused or customer service and then all of that.
So First off, it'll help if we define what a relationship is because there are some people who say look relationship is what I have with my mom or my wife or my siblings. Relationship is not what I have with a business. So cut the crap. There's no such thing as customer relationship management because there's no relationship to begin with in the 1st place. Now, in a sense, people who say that are correct, but technically speaking, if you think about it, what a relationship is, it's just the state of existence between two people.
So in that sense, we are in relationships not just with personal entities but also inter. Is it interpersonal or you know, you get the drift. We have personal entities and then entities that are not persons. So our relationship with these things all the time. For those who also are living here in Nigeria, there's no doubt that you are in a relationship with the Nigerian state because there is a state of existence. There's a state of relationship.
There's a state of terms that exist between you and the Nigerian state. So in the sense you can say relationship is all I have with my mom, my kids, my siblings. Yeah, I guess you might be right. But you look at it in a technical sense. There's a state of existence that always exists between two people and two entities. And so when we find that we are in multiple relationships all the time, especially with our prospects or with our customers,
because there's a state of existence that occurs between both of us. Now whether the relationship is good or bad, that's another topic for contention. And whether the relationship is fruitful or not, that's also another thing to be decided. But we are always in a state of relationship somewhat with our prospects and with our customers. So customer relationship management, is there a relationship? Yes, there is a relationship,
just not the kind that you have with your mom or with your kids or with your siblings or with your dad. So do relationships need managing? Because remember, customer relationship management, do relationship need managing Because there are some of you who think, look in my personal affairs with my mom, with my siblings, with my spouse, with my kids, with my whoever, the relationship just takes care of itself. So I don't need to actively or proactively manage anything.
But unfortunately, the answer is, even when you have a relationship with your mom and with your siblings and with your dad, the relationship actually need some level of managing or some proactivity. Because if you don't do that, then your relationships are not going to achieve the desired ends. Because all relationships are geared towards something. There's no sort of relationship that is just relationship for relationship in sake.
Even people who are friends with benefits, you can see that it is related, it is geared towards something even though the ends are questionable if we can't put it that way. So all relationships needs managing. So for your marriage, the end of the marriage or the goal of the marriage is mutual companionship and we're trying to raise kids that are self-sufficient. So we have to proactively manage the relationship towards all this.
You can't just wake up every day and expect that the relationship with your wife is going to sort itself out or the relationship with your husband will sort itself out. Both of you have to proactively manage these sorts of things. So if you are a caveman of sorts, once in a while you need to have a bath, groom, use perfume, smell nice so that your wife can find you attractive again, organize date nights, try to caught her once in a while,
you get the drift. You are trying to manage the relationship and it's the same thing with the kids. Spend time with them, watch some of their TV, go out and try and play with them, help out with homework, get to gossip with them. Know who their friends are. That's for those of you who have teenage kids cousins. One of my cousins who's turning 51 of my big cousins is turning 5353 ish. 54 ish and her kids are her kids are old, well, not old anyway, but older than my own kids.
So is it It's a delight to watch the relationship that she has with our own children. She has two kids. The the younger one, the girl is 20 something. The boy is older than that. But it's a delight watching them converse. You know, they drive, she's sitting in the car, they're talking about all sorts of things. Well, anyway, it's not about my family issues. But what I'm just trying to say is that all relationships, excuse me, all relationships need managing the same thing.
Sibling relationships, sibling relationships are for mutual flourishing and support through life. So the whole point with my brothers and my sisters and my cousins is that we will support each other as we grow. So we need to manage the relationships. Now what does that have to do for those of us who are business minded, greedy, entrepreneurial, whatever word you want to call it, It's the same when we enter into commercial or business relationships.
Now, business relationships are all about the transfer of value, and value means different things to different people depending on the context. But for the business, let's be safe to say that value equals money. I'm oversimplifying it, but just follow me here. I'm trying to show something. So for the business, let's say value equals money and then to the customer, value equals the solution or the transformation or you know, whatever it is that they are seeking.
So you can see that commercial and business relationships are built around value. So we have to proactively manage around these things so that we can get value out of the relationship so that the customer gets the solution, the transformation, the good results. And then you business owner, you get all the money. Then let's see what else. OK, customer relationship management. We've done relationship, we've done management.
OK, customer. Now who is a customer by the way? The C in CRM, some people say customer relationship management, some people say client relationship management. To keep things to go with a simple everyday man, everyday woman working definition. I use them interchangeably. The main difference I'll say in in regular balance, the way people normally speak. It's just that when you hear client, you're thinking in much more business to business context.
But then when you see a customer, you're thinking business to what's it called, business to consumer. So for the lady who sells a Gucci in the market, she sees you and she's like, hey, customer, long time, how have you been? But then for those of us who provide, OK, like back when I was a photographer, I couldn't exactly see one of my brides and say, hey, customer, how you been? That's somehow. So I'll look at the bride and I'll introduce her to other people and say, oh, this is my client.
So that's the difference. Customer, client. But you can use both terms interchangeably, at least when you're talking to me. If you're talking to other people who are sticklers for definitions, you know they will correct you sharply. Like, no, you call this person a customer. This person is actually our client or no, they call this person a client. This person is actually a customer. So a customer is someone who has given you money in the past for your product or service or your solution.
That's the simple definition that I like to use. So customer or client, they've given you money in the past. In other words, if the person has not given you money in the past, technically speaking, the person is a prospect. This is somebody that you hope will enter into a business relationship with you. Now, why are we trying to manage these relationships? The reason why we're trying to manage relationship is because we're trying to maximize lifetime customer value.
The idea behind it is this. When somebody does business with you, Let's look at TomTom for instance. OK, no TomTom, that's too small. Let's look at the loaf of bread. Yes, that's my favorite example that I've given when it comes to maximizing lifetime customer value. Oh, by the way, forgive me for the noise in the background. It's a full house and so my kids are just monkeying about in the house, but you know, the day is almost over.
So I might as well just go ahead and make this recording. So where was I bread bread and maximizing lifetime customer value. So if somebody comes and buys one loaf of bread from you, right now, bread in the part of the city where I live is 1200 naira. Now I know that there's some of you like, you know, in Lagos, certain brands of bread are more expensive. I find that really shocking. But anyway, currently 1200 naira. So if somebody comes and buys one loaf of bread from you and the person never comes back,
that is the only profit that you get out of that business transaction. So let's say 1200, but your profit is 200 naira. So this person comes and goes. All you captured was 200 naira. But if you figure out a way to get the person to come back again and again and again, if the person comes and buys 6 loaves from you over the course of six months, then your profit margin being 200 naira, you have managed to get 1200 naira in profit.
Now, 1200 naira in profit is better than just 200 naira in profit. Imagine if you get the person to come the whole year. Imagine if the person comes three years in a row. And imagine if you guys get the sort of relationship where you're chatty and everything, you know, the whole family, you guys are cool. The person doesn't just buy bread, but the person starts buying bread and eggs and maybe corned beef and then something else.
So you get the whole gist. So we try to develop these relationships because we're trying to maximize lifetime customer value because if people buy from us once, then the profit, we only get it once. But if people buy from us over and over again, we get repeatable profit in larger quantity over longer periods of time. Now, another reason why we try to maximize life or manage relationship is because when people buy from us only once, we have to now spend more time and more money in sales and marketing.
So for the fellow who comes to buy the loaf of bread and who keeps coming back again and again and again, I don't need to spend money to attract him anymore because he's already here or she's already here in the store. So I can spend my time looking for other people to come to the store. OK, let me put it this way. If you have a store and you have regulars that come, let's say you have a neighbourhood shop and you have regulars of, let's say fifty families that come to your shop and they do so every week for the whole year, and they've been doing so for the past five years.
You're not going to have BP, you're not going to have high tension because there's a second level of revenue that you've been used to because these people have been coming and coming and coming. But if it's up and down and up and down and up and down, and families come and families go and somebody comes, they quarrel with your sales girl, they're angry, they take their business elsewhere, then you now have BP because you're wondering, last month was good, we did 1.2 M,
But this month we've gone halfway into the month. We've only managed to do 400 K. What's going on? You know, and then you're nervous and then all of that. So This is why we try to manage the relationships. We get people coming back over and over again. We're maximizing lifetime customer value. So like I said, back to the whole thing of your mom and your wife or your husband, is the relationship going to manage itself?
Don't just wake up and expect that the relationship with your husband is just going to take care of itself. You have to be proactive. So husbands, we have to be proactive. Wives people also have to be proactive as well. The good thing about wives is, you know, husbands are simple people, so you don't need much to keep us engaged, if you catch my drift. All right, so will the relationship manage itself? Like I said, no, not in most cases.
There are people who are actualized customers or sufficiently motivated customers, and these people keep coming back on their own. But these people are in the minority and these are customers who know exactly what it is that they want. Like I was telling somebody earlier today, the first time I came across one of these people in my wedding photography and practice years ago, I was shocked because lady showed up and she was like, hey, how are you doing?
You seeing your photos? They're really nice. She brought us an album. This is my parents album. They got married in 19, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This thing was made in. This was one of these albums that was made abroad maybe like in Italy or something. This is what they got. It is something, something, something kind of paper. Look at the matting, look at the. Look at the seams. Look at the this, look at the that.
This is exactly what I want for my wedding. Do you have this exact thing? How soon can you get it? How much will it cost for this for us to replicate this exact same thing? And I was shocked because I've never seen the customer just roll up like that. Who knows exactly down to the technical whatever is like this is exactly what I want. Can you give it to me? And then how much? OK, no problem. Give me your account number.
Oh, shocked. So that has only happened to me once. Those sorts of people, actualized people, sufficiently motivated people, they keep coming back and back on their own because they know why they're coming to you. So except if you are an absolute idiot and you're negligent and you do something to ruin the relationship, you can expect to see these people come back again and again. But for most people who are not actualized buyers or sufficiently motivated buyers,
you have to manage the relationship. So other customers, other clients, they have to be engaged, they have to be motivated, they have to be incentivized to keep coming back again and again and again. Now, how do we manage the relationship #1 like I said, when we're talking about husbands and wives, take the initiative. So wives, wink wink, don't always wait for your husband to take the initiative. I'm assuming that we're all adults listening to the show so you can read in between the lines.
So take the initiative. Husbands take the initiative. Wives take the initiative. When we're dealing with our customers, take the initiative. Don't wait for the customer to take the initiative. For most people, it's not going to happen. And #2 you have to be deliberate about your outreach. You can't just wake up one day and think, I haven't seen this customer for like 8 months now. I wonder how this person is and then you pick up the phone and then try to call.
No, you have to be deliberate about it. Shuttle it in your calendar or whatever. You're going to be hitting this guy up every two, two months. He's an important customer. You don't want to lose the deal. Or you schedule the end of year thing where you know you send them a Christmas present or a card or a note. Thank you very much for your business in 20252026. You know, whatever. We have to be deliberate about the outreach.
We can't just wake up one day. I'm like I was in Cameo, what happened to her? Hashi Jappa and then you try calling and indeed she has Jaqpad. Jaqpa is a recent phenomenon in Nigeria where Nigerians are emigrating, running away, particularly to Canada, at least at this time. Who knows next year what the flavour of Nigerian immigration is going to be. So it has to be deliberate. Then we also have to be customer focused.
We need to hone in on their needs, that wants, their values, and their interests. Remember how I was talking about maximizing lifetime customer value? If we want them to keep coming back and back and we want to keep growing our bank account, we want to keep getting our deposits. Unfortunately for us, the only way to grow our deposits is to pay attention to the other people. So to be selfish, we have to be selfless. So we have to focus in on their needs, their wants, their values, their interests, and make sure that those things are being met.
So in the summary, those are the things we need to do to manage the relationship. So how do you take the initiative? You take the initiative by having a calendar, by having a diary, by having some reminder system, by having some note taking system. Why do we need a system like this? Because we end up talking to dozens and dozens of customers over the years and eventually you get to the stage where you can't remember everything about all of them, the people that have fantastic memories, like some of these neighbourhood shop people.
And there's this pharmacist in my neighbourhood. It's like the guy knows everybody. You come inside, he knows your name somehow. He knows your wife name even though you only mentioned it once. He also knows the name of your children. And he can say, oh, so This is why. So he's 12 years old now. He say, oh, no, actually, yeah, he's 1313. The children are growing up. As in the guy's magic. Don't assume that you are magic.
If you are magic, somebody would have told you by now. So don't assume that you are magic. You unfortunately, unlike my pharmacist, neighborhood pharmacist, you need a calendar, you need a diary, you need the reminder system, a note taking system, whatever it is, because number of people that we're talking to keeps going up and up and up. Now this system is what we call the CRM or CRM tool because I'm sure some of you have been hearing CRM tools, customer relationship management tools.
And since I started talking about this 20 minutes ago, you guys have been waiting for me to see CRM. And now the build up is done and we are here. What this system is called is ACRM tool. It can be a website, it can be an app. There are different kinds of industry standards and there are different kinds of formal solutions that are available on the market. But this is not the focus of the show yet. So I'm not going to tell you guys get Salesforce or get Zoho.
Or get, let's see what else HubSpot or get whatever it is that is out there. And then all these retail management software, you know, like when you go into the store and they scan 'cause there are some of them that allow people to have customers phone numbers and things like that. Like some store back when we lived in Lagos, there was this store, really small, small boutique like this where they used to sell makeup 'cause my mom used to be AQ tax girl.
QTX is what do you call this thing nails, the thing that used to paint your nails. So now QTX is, is old, it's legacy. So you know, young girls nowadays don't use QTX because QTX is what my mom's use, you know, that kind of thing. So my mom's AQTX girl. And then for lipstick, it used to be kind, I can't remember used, there's some red mats kind of thing. Anyway, so that was the only store that she could find it. And those people, they were sharp.
So they didn't just use that whole thing for scanning. You know, you go and you take it, you scan and then you pay, they give you receipt. But they had Mumsy's details there. And those people who are really, really who are good, I mean, they did their homework. They kind of knew when Mumsy's lipstick was about to finish and they would send messages that oh ma, this brand we have stocked up. We have this dot dot dot dot dot a text message.
Then somebody else might even call like, oh, mommy, we've got them in stockhold. The thing is going down now and then, Mumsy, of course, Mr. Tari Shima, let's go our driver to the store to pick up our supplies. So you can see that there are lots of things that can serve the function of CRM tools, including the fancy scanning software that we use in our shops. But I'm not going to say you should use any of these things.
Particularly the reason why I'm not going to focus on that on this episode is because there are people right now like you and me, who needs simple, everyday solutions, solutions that someone starting out can use right now to make traction. Because the thing about HubSpot is, yes, there's free account. Let's see, Salesforce, OK, no, Salesforce is paid. Zoho, you have to pay. Let's see what else. But The thing is I'm trying to focus on things that you don't have to pay anything, you don't have to download anything, you don't have to go to YouTube to try and learn how to apply anything because it's just there.
So that's going to be the focus of this, the episodes that will continue now, since we've done 20 minutes already, I'll bring this to a close. From tomorrow onwards, we're going to start looking at specific examples of calendars, of Diaries, of reminder systems, of note taking systems so you don't forget to keep, so you don't forget anything that you can keep track of all your customer relationships. I remember the goal is trying to maximize life, customer lifetime value.
We're trying to get repeat businesses, sorry, repeat business and and referrals. We're trying to make sure that the person buys from us. In January, they come two times in February, they come three times in March, maybe they come once. But then eventually we get to April, May and they have brought their wife along and maybe referred somebody in the office and that is what we're trying to grow here. So tomorrow specific examples of tools that we can use.
So that's all for today folks. Please connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140 and the country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, then connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name and my e-mail address from the link. We are currently listening to this episode. Thank you very much for your time and attention.
I'll catch you guys at the next episode. And please, husbands and wives, remember to take the initiative in your relationships because these relationships are not going to manage themselves. So I'll catch you guys at the next episode.