Creating Customers Who Can't Stop Talking About You

Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I solve sales and marketing challenges and I'm making today's podcast recording from my living room. It's a late light recording, so expect to hear some noise in the background. Now, the goal of the podcast is business education. So please spread the word so that your friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the questions that we tackle. They can do that by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of their choice.

And if you'd love to connect with me, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140 today on the podcasts. So one moment, let me have a look at the list. OK? Yeah, so today on the podcast, we're going to look at how we can use Bliss to transform customers into brand ambassadors. So let me repeat, we're going to look at how we can use Bliss to transform total customers into brand ambassadors. So how are we going to do this?

Number one, obviously, is we have to give them Bliss with our customer service. Customer service has to be on point and they need Bliss. Absolute pleasure, absolute satisfaction #2 we're going to ask them for referrals. And then #3 we have to look for a way lobby or look for ways to nurture and empower these people who have become our ambassadors. So that essentially is what we're going to look at today. So I'm going to use Bliss to transform customers into brand ambassadors.

What is even a brand ambassador? OK, well, we'll get into all those definitions. But the three-step formula that we're going to use is #1 give them Bliss if we're going to use Bliss to transform them into brand ambassadors. So number one is give them bliss #2 As for referrals #3 nurture and empower the ambassadors. So let's do some definitions. Now. Let's define Bliss for the purpose of the podcast. When we say Bliss, we just mean exceeding customer expectations.

Because of course, Bliss can mean any number of things, especially since, you know, those of us listening to the podcast right now, including me, we're very young people. So when we hear Bliss, we think about something. But that's all we're thinking about today. We're talking about customer expectations because this is a business podcast. So every time I say bliss in this particular episode, that's what I mean. I mean exceeding customer expectations.

If customers wanted A and you find a way to give them a plus a little bit of extra, that is a blissful experience. So if you're going to exceed the customer expectation in the 1st place and leave them feeling blissful, you have to know the expectations in the 1st place. You have to know because the problem is that lots of you who are trying to build wonderful business and you want to give your customers bliss. You want to exceed the expectations.

But The thing is, you are running on assumptions. You are assuming that you know what it is that they need. We have to ask them in the first place because it's not as if most of us are selling ice cream because, you know, if it's ice cream, you know, now it's straightforward. Now walk up to the stand. What do you want? I want vanilla, I want pistachio, I want caramel. I want these, these, these. And then put a dash of Brandy on it, you know, But as ice cream is relatively straightforward.

So since we're not selling ice cream now we need to find, we need to figure out a way to know what the expectations are in the 1st place. And that's why on the podcast I keep talking about need analysis. If you listen to other sales trainers, sales coaches, business development consultants, they will talk about qualification and discovery. In the early part of the podcast, I used to use that term a lot, but I've stopped using it because, you know, it's technical language and you know,

there's no point using big words that will confuse people. So that's why now I just say need analysis. So to exceed customer expectations, we need to know what they need in the 1st place or what they are expecting in the first place. You know, we can do that is if we engage them in conversation. We do need analysis. We do qualification and discovery. Qualification and discovery just means you're asking questions about the person and you're asking questions about the problem because we're trying to figure out who are they?

This person that I'm talking to, who are they? We need to figure that out. What do they want? We need to figure that out. How do they want it? We need to figure that out. Do I even have the skills to satisfy their need? As for asking them all these questions, in our mind, we have to be doing that mathematics as well. Because if somebody says they want a + B + C, but in your heart of hearts, you know you cannot deliver a + B + C, then come on, while you go and put your head in that kind of scenario, you're bound to lose.

So that's also a part of the question, the equation, do I have the skills or do I have the materials or do I have the setup or do I have the team or do I have the whatever to be able to deliver what they want before we even talk about going beyond. So This is why I need analysis is essential. Have a conversation with the person. Most people come and meet you and say how much Yeah, you will get to the money conversation.

But First off, you need to figure out a few things. Who is this person? Where are they coming from? Who sent them? What do they want? How do they want it? Can I do I have the skills to deliver? Do I have the material to deliver? Do I have the team to deliver? Do I have the time to deliver? Not to talk of even going beyond very, very important need analysis. Now, let's use a case study And Chinedu, if you're listening to this episode, This is why I said this is an episode that you might find relevant because Chinedu, less than 20 years old,

is about to break into business and he's a graphic designer. So I figured since he's the last person that I chatted with, I think this morning anyway, he was last person. The last message I responded to this morning, I figured let me just use let me just use this guy as the case study for today. So that's our case study, the example that we're going to use to flesh out every single idea we're talking about here. We're going to be using the example of a graphic designer because I spoke to Chinedu this morning.

He's a graphic designer. He's about to break into business. So Chinedu, pay attention. Yeah, that first job that you did, you did it for free, you know, is good. You'll get testimonial, hopeful. Hopefully we'll get some referrals, you know, from this. But eventually when you start having targeted conversations where you're trying to get somebody to become a client, this is some of the groundwork, this is some of the foundation that you're going to be laying.

So China do pay attention and anybody who is in China do situation pay attention. Even though I'm using graphics design, it applies whether you're a lawyer, whether you're a tailor, whether you're an engineer, whether you're an architect, or whether you're an app designer, a website design. The process is the same. Just take the principles that we're going to lay out here and then apply it to your situation. And then it goes beyond people who are just new on starting off in business.

If you are already an established player in your business, so let's say you've been in the graphics design game and you've been doing this for like, you know, three to five years. Still there will be some principles here that can help you. So now back to so I said, well, when do you need analysis now from the point of view of somebody who is a graphics designer? Now this is the usual Niger attitude and you guys, I mean you guys know now this is how we run things in Niger.

Somebody will pick up the phone or somebody will slide into your DM and the person will say, OK, graphic designer or a design banner for me. How much? That's why they will ask you. Then the graphic designer will now respond, it is 350K and then the person will keep quiet or the graphic designer will respond is this your WhatsApp number or? Yeah, let me send you my price list. They will now send you send the customer price list.

They will now keep quiet. Now this is the idea that most people have in the usual Niger attitude. The idea is that, OK, a customer has reached out to me, let me just give them all the information they need and then you know if they want to go get back to me. This is the problem with the usual Niger approach. Somebody reaches out to you and they say Bros design banner for me. How much you know? Tell them 350K. You didn't say anything again.

Or you said let me send you price list. You didn't say anything again. The problem is #1 most likely you are being price shopped. What that means is what that means is whoever reached out to you has reached out to two or three other people. Once you just reply 350K, the person will write it down. Chinna do 350K, the next person might say 750K Cami. They will not write it down cami 750K and then Abdul Kadir might say 150K, they'll write it down 150K.

What will not happen is they will ignore Cami who is 750K. They are really loving Abdul Kadir because it's 150K, but they also try and see if they can get Chinedu to calm down from 250K to get closer to, you know, around that kind of 150, maybe 200. You're being pretty shocked. That's the problem with usual Nigeria approach. Then another problem in usual Nigeria approach is when you just tell somebody 350K, you don't say anything or you send them price list, you don't say anything.

They'll say, oh thank you very much, let me get back to you. And of course, when they say, let me get back to you, what next is ghost mode now? Because when they say let me get back to you, what are you going to do after a while? What are you going to do? You say, boss, I just they greet you or something. Now I was very unprofessional so to say let me get back to you. Then there's some people don't just say, OK, thank you.

I don't want anything again. You tell them the price is 350. They'll say, OK, thank you, don't respond again. And then you you're hanging. You're not wondering, OK, what am I supposed to do? What does OK, thank you mean? Does it mean I'm interested? Am I supposed to follow up with this person? I really don't know what I'm supposed to do. And then some people, OK, this one is a bit more encouraging. You say, alright, it costs 350

or you send them price lists. Some of my reply back and say, OK, I'm interested in option B, but was your last price. This is also a bad situation because now you're negotiating with someone about price, but you're negotiating on the back foot. And then there's some people who say, OK, OK, thank you very much for the information. Let me discuss with my wife, let me just got my business partner, let me blah, blah, blah.

Let me pray about it. I'll get back to you. Let me think about it, I'll get back to you. Either of these options, they're all good. And this is what happens if you take the usual Nigerian attitude of somebody reaches out to you and they say how much you just give them a price straight or you send them price list. Usually it doesn't work too well. Now, this is what you should do. Remember I said that we have to be proactive here.

Sorry. Yes, well, we have to be proactive. Yes, we have to do need analysis. Because remember, the whole point of today's podcast is we're trying to give them blissful service. So by the time we wow them with blissful service, they'll be so overwhelmed. Now you know what, They'll come back and buy from us again and they will start spreading the gospel about as they'll say what, you know what, I did business with this guy Chinidu.

And Chinidu is the bomb. Like he's the ultimate. He's the very best call. My guy Chinidu, he will take care of you. That's what we're trying to do. And of course, we're not going to achieve that. If somebody says how much? We now say 3:50. So we have to be proactive and besides, this sets you apart because trust me, only professionals do this. Then you have to set the agenda. Only professionals do this. Another small benefit for the Nigerian market is you know how in Niger, you know people can look down on some certain classes of people, you know,

because you're a graphic designer. Do you think, you know, you don't have plan for your life or maybe you didn't have money to go to university or something? There's a widow just be looking down on you, you understand? So there's some professionals that when we set the agenda, it helps us to achieve equal status with the customer. So, this one is absolutely necessary for Nigerian markets. We have to be proactive and we have to set the agenda.

We are professionals. They should regard us as such even if they have more money than us. We are equal in status as human beings and they will respect us as such. They will regard us as such. So we will set the agenda for the conversation. Please pay attention. All right then, apart from being proactive and setting the agenda, we have to engage them in conversation in an open-ended manner. We have to get them talking freebie.

The reason why we have to get them talking free is because we will get all the information that we need so that we can give an accurate price. The main reason why I'm not a fan of somebody reach out to you say how much and I'll say 350 is why are you saying 350? Like you don't even know. You say 350 personal. So OK, no problem. Give me your account number. Do send 350. By the time we start doing this job, you now realize that man, I

should have quoted 750 because of the level of work that I have to do to get this thing done. It happens a lot. I've been in that situation before. Someone just reached out to how much you just give them a price. They pay you without calling and you're like, oh, thank God you're happy. You know, you go on and spend a bunch of stuff. Maybe you pay tight, you eat your armour, you know, then by the time you start the work,

you're like, oh, my owner price myself here. This is the reason why we need to get people talking freely. All right? It is not just so that we can figure out what they need so we'll know how wow them. This also, so we know shoot ourselves in the foot. We need to make sure that we have given an accurate price. We need to get information from them then is also from excuse me, engaging them in open-ended conversation that we're going to be able to determine the level of customer experience and the level of service that we need to provide based on what the person says.

You know, there's some customers that are very simple like me. I'm a very simple guy, you know, No, too much for Verity. OK, I want this. Give me this. You know, if you throw some extra on top, you know, for me it's like, wow, impressive. But then there's some people that are like, you know, you better go above and beyond, you better. Like there's some people that need extra pampering and you know, or what not. So it's from asking me questions, engaging with me in an open-ended manner, you'll now be able to oh, OK, this guy is a kind of, you know, it's kind of like this kind of like that.

OK, if we do it like this, we'll have the guy then by the time you're talking to somebody who is a diva, whether male or female, you know, OK. And this one is a diva. So if we want to exceed customer expectations, we have to do like this. We have to do like that. So this part very, very important. Now, now that I've told you what to do, let's use some examples about lines of conversation that we can use. Oh, by the way, you don't have to use all the examples that I'm giving here.

Because usually when I go into this exercise, somebody will say, if I start asking my customer, all these questions will be like I'm interrogating them or they will get bored or they will just do that. And, you know, look, I understand when I give these examples. I'm just trying to give as many examples as possible. I am not saying that when you sit down with a customer, you ask them 15 questions. That's not what I'm saying.

All right, So you hear a couple of examples that are good here. You know, if I say 20 things, you know, look at the 20 and think of the four or five that you can or the two or three that you can start a conversation with. It's OK, It's good. I am not saying use every single idea that I have here. I throw out as many ideas as possible just because I'm trying to be exhaustive. I want people to as many people as possible to hear something that will click with them like OK, let me try this one out.

OK, so don't try at all 10/15/20 or however many I provide. So all these examples, either one will be a good one, but this is just a good place to start because the way conversations happen is you say one thing, the person says something, you follow up with another thing. So this just start. So somebody reaches out to you, it's nice to figure out the timelines. Ask them questions about their timelines, whether they have another project at hand or whether they're just curious.

There's something I used to ask because it happens as a wedding photographer happens. There's some babes who reach out and ask you how much nobody has proposed. They're just curious. They just want to know. So I asked. I said, oh, congratulations. When did you get proposed to? So. Well, I actually, I have a boyfriend, but he hasn't proposed yet. So. OK, So you're just curious. Yeah, I'm just curious. The kind of conversation I'll have with that kind of babe is different from somebody who says how much my wedding is in six weeks and and this is, you know,

my wedding since six weeks in about how much. I mean, that's that's a different conversation. So timelines, we used to be asking people questions about timelines. Since you're a graphic designer, you need to know was the project on hand? When do they need it by? I'll be there just making an inquiry. Then another thing that people don't ask, find a way. We have to ask whether they have worked with another XYZ before. Have you worked with another graphics designer before?

You need to find out what was the experience, was it good or bad? How come you're not using him anymore? I know some of you will be wondering how can I rub that into a conversation? OK, can be tricky, but that time zone must be done. The example that I gave was the lady that I was talking about the mummy's burial, and we started talking figures and honestly, the figures were unrealistic, but I know that Pop, their popsy passed a while ago.

So I just asked, OK, the guy that covered the popsy's burial, then how come he didn't call him now? Like what's up? I just like, oh, actually it's true. And his work was not that bad. I said, yeah, sure, call him up now. I'll be, is there a problem there? We have to ask these questions because first of all, we don't want to be dealing with people who are novices because novices have unrealistic expectations. When I say novice, I mean somebody who has never done the business before.

So if you design websites or you do graphic design and somebody calls you, they've never worked with a graphic designer before, that's a hard conversation because they don't know what's good, they don't know what's bad. But somebody who has worked with two or three graphic designers before and here you can have a profitable, a good conversation there because they've been educated small, so they know what's realistic and what's not realistic.

And then also the whole thing of trying to find out what's good, what's bad about their previous experiences because it now gives you a sense of what to do or what not to do. And believe me, that saved me quite a bit as a wedding photographer, You know, I'm listening and paying attention. They say, oh, during my sister's wedding, this guy did this. In my mind, I just mark it down my head, OK, They don't like this kind of thing.

So, you know, don't do that something as simple as shoes. The guy was so messy, he didn't even bother removing his shoes before he came into Mumsy's house. So I knew that on that day and for me, I wear palms, so it's not even a problem. I knew that once I said the house, I just removed my palms and I put it outside the door and then I walked in. But you won't know these things unless you ask. Now when that bride is talking to other people, they can say,

oh, Tavi Shimai is well behaved. Like when he came was very neat. He left his shoes outside the door. So you need to ask how they work with another graphics designer before. What was the experience like, good or bad? How come you're not working with this person anymore? You also need to ask questions around who else is going to decide on this banner design or on this, whatever. The reason why we ask is because we're trying to figure out how.

We're trying to figure out the decision making unit. That's what people call it in the, I think like in construction space. Yeah, construction, they call it decision making unit. What people that are involved in making the decision, you need to know so that you can pull all these people into the process early. Also because these people are going to be significant when it comes to, you know, at the end of the day, when you want to wow people's expectations, you know,

it's all the key people that were involved in making the decision. Those are the people that you need to get their feedback on, on whether this was a good deal for them or not. So you need to know because you might be trying to wow one person, but there are two other people in the background who are important in making a decision. But you didn't know, You didn't court them. You didn't try to wow them. And so at the end of the day,

one person says this was a wow experience, but the other two people say it was OK. You can see that that affects you know how they're going to talk about you as a whole. How did you hear about me? That's also another question. You don't have to ask questions about their business, their product or their service. You need to ask you don't just tell somebody O350 Ki ask like, what do you need it for? OK, what's your business or computer business?

OK, and they also have to ask about the the objective of the design. This banner, this flight I'm going to design. Is it to increase sales? I'll be easy for brand awareness. Are we trying to do rebranding? I be. You want the flyer to do lead generation? I be It's just for education. You have to ask since you're in graphic design, you have to ask questions about their brand, personality and voice. So normally, how do you guys express yourself as a company?

You know, are you guys modern, traditional, playful? They ask them do you guys have brand guidelines? Do you guys have other marketing collateral? I can look at marketing collateral. That just means stuff that they have created before to use to promote the business. So you can have a look at it, but you need to ask those questions. These are the things that will help you figure out exactly who they are, what they want, what they need.

You now know how to go far and beyond and wow them and give them a good experience because you're beginning to know some things about them, about the company, about the business, about what they want to use the website for or the flyer for or the banner for or for the whatever. Ask them about their target audience. This banner that we are going to design, who are we designing it for? Get the demographics and psychographics of the target audience.

OK, I'm designing website for you. The website is supposed to appeal to who? Nigerians or Cameroonians or or people in the UK, Your audience, a typical audience, what are they like, how old, where do they live, the age, what are the things they're interested in? All these are important factors that go into the kind of design work that you're doing for these people, whether it's logo or website or banner or flyer. You also need to ask questions around deliverables.

What format are we delivering in? Is it PNGZ, JPEG? Is it PDF? You want hard copy deliverables, You want soft copy deliverables. As I ask them, ask all these questions. By the way, this thing about deliverables, you can see that that's where I say we need to ask because some of us, that's how we now shoot ourselves in the food. The person will say you will talk, you agree on 500. After you now collect that 500K as a wedding photographer, you will now hear that they want 4

albums. I'm like hey how can I produce 4 albums for somebody? And I collected 500. So anyway, another question you also need to ask them now by the time we're done, what do I have to do that would make you say this was a successful project? You have to ask this question. And to be honest, me, it's a question that I forget to ask. And I've been in a situation where I was working with somebody and as we're nearing the completion, the person said,

OK, yes, I would like to achieve, I'd like to achieve this. And I realized that child, I didn't ask the person in the beginning this question. If I had asked early on that what do we have to achieve for you to say this is a successful project, I would not have wasted my time talking about this and talking about this, talking about that. I would have gone straight to the Coco, the thing that they wanted. So you can see why this part is important.

Qualification and discovery our sales professionals will call it or need analysis as I like to call it, because this will what this is what would give us all the information that we need first of all for an accurate quote, an accurate price. Then after that is what would give us all the information that we need to be able to deliver the kind of service that by the time they see our design, they will say wow is I see Chinido was inside my skull and removed the image from my skull and just put it on paper.

That is how you achieve that. It's not by wizardry, wizardry or share artistic talent or something. The designers who do a good job of this kind of thing, you know, it's not luck. It's because they have ways of discussing with people or sizing somebody or looking at somebody or listening to somebody and able to figure out that this woman, the way she's talking, I really think this is the kind of thing she's going for.

And by the time you're done with the design, Madam will say, wow, so that's how it works. Engage them in conversation. So now this is the next step. We've engaged them in conversation. Now we've asked them all these questions, We've gotten some information. So the next thing is we always have to summarize. The reason I'll summarize is we're trying to confirm and get feedback. And that's why I keep saying on the podcast, I eventually have to get to that position, that that part of the conversation where we say, OK, boss, Madam Olga CC based on what I've heard so far, I'm feeling like this is what you want to achieve.

Abby, Abby, this is where we're heading. What is the kind of thing that should be able to sort you out? I'll be how do you see it? The stage is very, very important because it's at this stage that somebody would say, ah, no, it's not what I had in mind. You now know that, OK, you totally messed up, need analysis. You have to start again. Or somebody would say, perfect, but you forgot to add this. You now know. Oh, OK, this one is really important.

You will now write it down so that next time you will not forget. Or some people say yes, that's the stage where you now say, Aha, Madame, that. Yes, I didn't like that. Yes. I guess I was not too confident. It's like I didn't understand something. So, Madame, don't worry. I was rushing too much. Right. Let's slow down. Let's, Let's slow down. What? What exactly did I not get that yes, is as if there's something you don't like.

Well, what is it that you don't like? Let's remove it. So this part is very important. Summarize all that you've heard, Confirm that you understood correctly. Try and get some feedback. Figure out. Are we on the same page? Are B? All the things I'm saying is off point. If you are off point, it is best to know it now at this stage. Now for you to collect money, you now go and spend one week doing design and by the time you submit design, Madam will now say you are off point.

It is best to know you are off point at this stage that we are still talking. So summarize, confirm, get feedback. Are we on the same page? Did I hear correctly? Am I off point? Are we good to go? Did I miss anything? That's the next stage. Then after that, in your professional capacity because you are the professional here, remember that we Nigerian service providers, we often forget, except if you're dealing with the professional, chances are you're the one as a professional.

Take look, this one I'm trying to say, listen, I want to show cloth. To be honest, I know nothing about showing cloth. So when I get to the tailor or I get to the stylist, the stylist is the professional. I can tell them this is what I want, but at some point as a professional, you have to put your foot down and say, Olga, I feel you. I know that this is what you want to do, but this thing you're asking, it can't be done or this is the best way we should go about it.

Some of you will say the consumer is king, Consumer is queen. No, it doesn't work like that. You are the professional. In fact, this is one that I experienced early in the year. Somebody needed the number for a good stylist. We gave number and then she came back to say the person was saying that the thing cannot be made and this is the design. And the person said, oh, this design is beautiful, but his design is AIAI design and real life design is not the same.

Madam, this thing you want to do is not going to work in reality. And I was like, oh, she actually said that. She said yes, so interesting. OK, maybe we should try somebody else. So actually tried somebody else and the person said the same thing. And then in my mind, I'm thinking, so like, what are we talking about? You met 2 tailors, 2 different tailors and they both told you the same thing, that this design is beautiful, but this design is AI.

This thing will not work in reality. My mind, I'm thinking, look, can you stop wasting my time? But we have to be able to put our foot down and give our own professional insights, give our own recommendations, give our own advice. Madam, you'd love to do this, this, this is that, or guys you'd like to do this, a more professional opinion. I'd recommend like this, like this, I'd recommend like that, like that. And here are a number of options that I think can work.

Give them two or three options and then give them good reasons why you're making those recommendations. Be confident here. You're a professional. The client does not know this work. You're the one that knows the work. You're the one that went to school or you're the one that has been watching the YouTube videos, you have been doing the work, you have been designing for other people. Come on, stand confidently, talk confidently.

You're a professional here. But like I said, if you're dealing with somebody who is a professional, OK, that's that's a different ball game altogether. So like even as a wedding photographer, normally I'm the professional, but there was that one time that I was talking to a client, so potential clients and the babe was a photographer. The gamer knows some media stuff. Oh, that's a different thing. But in all other situations, I'm the one that is the absolute pro.

So please stand firm. You're a professional, don't be scared, OK, Maybe you don't have enough experience. That's the problem. I'll be don't worry. The more you design and design and design, you now have some confidence in your in your abilities. So after we summarize and we confirm, provide some insights, make some recommendations, give them multiple options, we can try option A, option B, option C, then be proactive in communicating with the customers and give work updates.

Proactive just means don't wait until they ask you tell them, give them update before they ask you. If I early on as a wedding photographer, that's one thing that I learned. I learned that if the bride is always calling me will quarrel at the end. It's just a normal something if she needs 10 updates before her wedding and she's the one that called me 10 times for those updates. In the back of her mind is already beginning to register that this guy is sloppy, this guy is not professional, this guy is not on top of it, or this guy is just giving me BP.

So for me I hated it when the bride called me first. The moment I see the bride, I'm like that wish my you don't have for I should have called her since. So be proactive, be giving them updates. This is where we are. I told you this will be ready by Friday. I'm just calling you Wednesday to remind you it's looking like we're going to be on calls for Friday, you know, blah, blah, blah. You know, just that kind be proactive, giving them communicating like that.

So you can see now that based on how things operate in Niger where somebody would just give a price and then just deliver work, you see now that by you beginning to do all this, you are beginning to wow them because the average Nigerian service provider does not do all of this already you are beginning to wow this person. Then delivery, remember we talked about blissful experience. So try and deliver more than they expected.

Now, this is my own experience with a graphic designer that I did some work with back in back in the day. When was time for delivering, They delivered everything that we discussed in colour because it was from my photography logo. For my photography logo, we agreed on white and we agreed on burgundy. Yeah, white and burgundy. Yeah, I think that was it. So the guy not only delivered white and burgundy, the guy also delivered transparencies.

First of all, I couldn't see the transparency because I opened up. It just looked like an empty square. And So what is this one? So is the transparency. I said transpare. He said transparency. So what is that? What does that mean? He says, oh, it is for situations where you want to take this logo and you want to put it somewhere on the banner or a website or something. It would just make the logo blend nice into the background.

I still don't understand what he was saying. He just copied it and pasted it somewhere and the thing just blended. I was like, wow, he removed it and he put it on another surface and the thing still blended. I was like, oh, OK, like thanks. We didn't pay for transparency, but the guy delivered transparency. Is that not part of the WOW experience? I agreed on something. He gave me something extra. Now work with any other kind of surface.

I think his transparency, he called it. I can't remember. But for those of you who are into design, you know exactly what is I'm trying to talk about. Then the guy now delivers social media kit as well. He said when you want to use for Instagram, this is how you do the logo. This is the Instagram size, this is the website size, this is the whatever size. Can you see how somebody was beginning to give me a wow experience?

I asked for something white and burgundy. They said no problem, here's your white and burgundy. But by the way, if you're going to use white and burgundy on top, all these other different backgrounds, these ones will not work too well. Transparency is what will work well. Or yeah, take transparency. And then for social media, when you are embossing, when you're putting your signature on all the photos, this is how you would do it.

Take these small, small versions for social media. See, that is delivering more than expected, but within reason. He gave me the logo and then he anticipated the other ways that my business partners and I would want to use the logos and he gave us an extra something that will help us with that. Then something that Nigerian service providers don't do, do a pre launch checking or a pre something checking if somebody, especially a person is a business owner has reached out to you so that you can design,

banner design, website design, flyer design, whatever. Obviously they're doing it because they want to use it to make money. They have some campaigns they're working on. I have not worked with a single designer and I have not heard of a single graphics designer that has delivered something and has called later on to say how far with the project. Is everything going good? Is it working well, my design, my website, my everything, Is everything smooth?

Is it working well to help you with what it is that you're planning to do? I have not heard of a single designer that has done that apart from this guy. They give me more than I expected. Oh, is the website up? Oh fantastic. Can I have a look at it? I want to see and be sure that the logo rendered professional, rendered well and is blending with the rest of the website. The average Nigerian service provider does not do that.

And Chinido, make sure you do that. Your person is a business owner and they say pay you for logo. It's not just a matter of you take your money, deliver the logo, call this person. Bro, it's been a while. How you been? Hope you're happy with the logo. OK, You've been using it. Oh, you designed that ahead. OK, let me have a look and be sure that everything is looking nice and smooth. OK, It's on the website. And let me see the website and be sure that everything render well, everything is good.

So make sure you do a pre something, something check in, right Chinna, do pay attention. All those Nigerian service providers pay attention. I don't know why you guys don't do this. It's common sense. You just collect money and then you just go there later on. You now be asking somebody for referral like why should they refer you because of what? When you took your money and you left, you made it transactional. Then of course there has to be a post launch, you know?

Thing as well, OK, now that the campaign is over, now that they have used your flyer, now that they have used your billboard, now that they have used your whatever, how did the thing go? Also take your collaborative approach and try and help them solve any more problems that came up. So some problems came up, you say oh OK, OK. The problem is the website was not optimised, that this was not optimised like that. You know what, I know a guy who does website.

Let me give you the guy number. Oh, I know a babe who does this is let me give you the number. You're being collaborative. You're helping them to solve challenges that have come up, whether you provide the service or not. But The thing is, is like you're in the corner. You're trying to help them. Can you see Nigerian service professionals, how we can start to wow people? Small, small, small. All right, for the 40 minutes.

OK, let me round up quickly. Hmm. OK, you know what? Let's just have reasonable expectations. Now, I'm not saying that if you follow every single step that you do now, you will wow all your customers. No, that's not what I am saying. You cannot wow all your customers. It is not it's it's it's not possible. You're not better than God. And God has not wowed all of us. God has not wowed all his customers. Some of us are very angry with God.

You know, if God did not get 100 / 100, do not expect that you get 100 / 100 is not happening. You will not wow everybody. But the goal is this. You keep following these processes. You keep trying to optimize the customer experience or the user experience, you know, for those of you who create apps and websites and things like that. Because in aggregate, when I say in aggregate, I mean you know, in average when you get everybody together and over time the reputation will begin to build and you will get the chance to be wound people small,

small, small. So if on average you're wounding like 2 out of 10, two out of 10 looks like it's poor. But if over a two year period where you have 10 customers every month I wow 2 / 10, then a two year period I'll be 24 + 24, I have 48. So you see what I mean? So in aggregate, over time, over 2 years, you have now wowed 48 people. We can see that that kind of thing starts to compound upon itself. So don't be worried about the fact that you want to wow as many customers as possible.

But for now is like 2 / 10 or 3 / 10 or 1 / 10. Don't worry, continue over time in aggregate or average and based on probability, you know you will all add up. Now how do people become an ambassador? Anybody who has gone through this experience with you, I will become sufficiently tripped as in their trip with you that really impressed. That person is now an ambassador. Especially if the person comes back to buy again or the person sends you referrals or the person begins to engage on your social media.

The person starts to give you positive reviews or even maybe even once in a while, the person will just call you and say it was option to do blah, blah, blah. You know what? And then they just give you some honest feedback at that level. You now have an ambassador, especially when you didn't ask, you didn't ask, they came back again, They brought other people to you. They are praising your social media. If I guess when I realized as a wedding photographer that I had a problem with my business, I

had done I think close to 20 weddings and then I noticed there was only one particular bride, only one that was calling me back for stuff, giving her friends my phone number and they even praise me on social media. She will now put the picture and then she will now tag me if you even call me and harass me. That look, I wanted to tell you, I couldn't find you on Instagram. Why? You know, on Instagram was then I realised that, oh, there's a problem with my business processes.

The how can I say I've done these many brides and only have one customer who is doing this is it is the reason why I say knowing how to sell business processes. These are the things that make your business rise or fall. I was focusing on the quality of work that I do and I was not paying attention to all these extra stuff. And that's the reason why I basically wasted all my time to do how many brides and only have one ambassador?

Just one. We need to be paying attention to all these things. We need to have more people who are raving about us, who come back and buy again, who give numbers to their friends, who blog, blog us on social media and who now start to call us to say how far now I wanted to tag you on Instagram. I didn't see your handle. What is your handle? Why you know, on Instagram? That's how I got on Instagram, by the way. Or for some brides that were impressed, I say why, you know,

on Instagram, I want to tag you. I can't argue. That's when you know you have an ambassador. Now the final step is when you have this kind of person, not sure this person, empower this person. So record recognition, appreciation, acknowledge them in public. You have to acknowledge them. That's the reason why whenever you guys drop a comment on the podcast, I reach out to you guys sharp immediately because I appreciate you guys.

Those of you who go on Spotify and who say this is the best thing since sliced bread. I didn't know this kind of podcast was available in Niger. This is the best podcast I've ever listened to, blah blah, blah. If I had one lady, she even said, where have you been all my life? This is the reason why I respond to all of you. I really, really appreciate you all my ambassadors, you guys promoting the podcast. I salute you, all of you.

Thank you for the encouragement, Thank you for the publicity. Thank you for talking about the podcast. Thank you for sharing the links in your in your groups. Thank you very much. I really appreciate all of you. And that's the reason why when you guys send messages on WhatsApp, I respond, I know sometimes I'm late, maybe 48 hours, but I respond right. Those one babe, I was staying like, oh, I'm really sorry it took so late.

He said no and they even responded itself. I was surprised. See, that's the level of service that we expect that people expect in Nigeria. They expect that you love a podcast, you reach out to the podcaster. It is expected that the podcaster is not going to respond to you. So when I respond, even though I am 48 hours late, I am two days late, people are still tripped. You see how I say we can begin to set ourselves apart in Nigeria?

People don't even expect much from us. So the small that you do as a podcaster, I respond two days late. People are still tripped because they know the other podcasters that they reach out to, They won't even acknowledge them at all anyway. So when you have these people now that are your ambassadors, recognize them, appreciate them, acknowledge them in public, in private, give some of these people early access. Like a printer that I used to deal with in my photography days.

The guy used to give me any access to stuff. When he moved to a new building, he sent me WhatsApp message. You know, boy Alpha, I'm no longer in, in UTC. I've moved here. This is the new place. If I we bought the new machines and what which is that issuing this and this and this. In fact, bring some stuff. Let me give you discount. I want you to try some things and just just tell me how this thing feels because I've been asking the guy for canvas.

I'll need to print photos on on canvas. He didn't have canvas, sorry, on texturized wood, but he didn't have texturized wood. So the moment he moved into his new space and he got a canvas machine, he sent me a message and then we spoke on the phone that look, I know you want to do texturized wood, but I'm guessing that you're actually trying to get that canvas feel. And I say, Bros, you're correct. Canvas feel is what I'm looking for.

But I didn't know that we can do canvas. I said we can do canvas. The machine is just here. Then when you're ready, come through, I give you small discounts. Just just, you know, just make one or two wrongs and just see how this thing is. Just let me know. So I didn't have anything to do. Well, my cousin wanted to do some stuff. I took my cousin there, give us healthy discount and they were printed. And it's like, you know, just this one is not about the money.

Just let me know how The thing is, how people feel this thing. That's how you treat ambassadors. The guy gave me early, early access. I've just rolled out this, I've just rolled out that. I'll come and try this one. Give you 50% off 1 return. Just let me know you know how they receive it. Give your ambassadors incentives. Some people like to give financial rewards. In my own opinion, I beg for now, stay away from financial rewards because it can get tricky, especially in a Nigerian context.

Think I'm backfire. There was a skin skin care professional that I was advising and she was talking about how she wanted to give gifts out to her ambassadors. But then one of the ambassadors got very angry and I said what happened? What did you give her? She now told me what she gave and in my mind I was thinking, OK, this thing is OK now. Like the hamper seemed OK until I started asking some more questions about the things that woman had bought in the past.

By the time I looked at it, I was like, OK, I understand, I understand. It can't be tricky. Somebody cannot spend, let's say 2 millionaire with you. Then by the time you're giving any gifts, the financial value of the gift is like 20K. This nature, you're insulting the personnel after somebody I spent like 2M with you, you now buy her something OF20K. Like for what? Because she told you that 20 K is our problem. So that's why for me, I mean,

financial rewards, it's it's good. It's just that I don't know how to make them work. So I just hope with a look at this financial rewards like you only give somebody money to say thank you. Hold off on that first. Nothing can backfire. And then there's another one of my clients, Well, not really my clients. His daughter was my client. He's a former governor. And there was 1 bottle of wine that he used to live on the table and quite frankly was a cheap bottle of wine.

And I was always wondering that this guy is a big boy. Now I can't believe in his bottle of wine here until one day now in the middle of a shoot and somebody came and the person asking that question that Bros, how can we have this one here? So this bottle of wine, you know how I got this one that you know so, so, so so everybody knew the guy, but you know me, I don't know politics. So I don't know the guy is somebody that here hooked up for something on the national level.

He said that this is the wine that so, so and so brought to me to come and say thank you. Everybody laughed. So that's the reason why I leave this one here. So the way people come, I will show them that this guy that I've helped see the thing that he brought to me to come and say thank you, even me, that I'm not a wine connoisseur, even me, I looked at that one. I was like, no, this one is a, you know, like color Rossi and all these wines, they can just get any, just go to any pharmacy and just buy any bottle of wine.

You know, that kind of wine was not even the the correct bottle. So when it comes to gifts and financial rewards, I've seen that one backfire too much. So for me, I'll say just hang up on that one, you know first or going to receive advice from somebody who knows these sorts of things. But if you're going to give gifts, just know that you're pegging it to the value of, you know, the kind of business that somebody has brought to you in the past.

Then also these Niger. So also you have to gauge the relative status of the parties. These kind of things are important. You know, if the person is a big boss, a big Madam, a bigger boss, you know, sometimes the fact that you even think you can give a reward of monetary value itself is an insult. So you can find some creative ways of thanking some people. Like in Mumsy's case, there was somebody that Mumsy helped. That's back when I was in university.

The person didn't come and give my Mumsy money. What the person didn't say was the person said, oh, Tavi Shima has almost finished university now be mom. She said yes. I said, OK, I thought as much, Madam, there's no way I can say thank you to you because anything I bring will be too small because it's not as if there's anything you need that you know me, I can provide. But at least Tavishma, I know that Tavishma does not have a mobile phone.

So just take this Samsung blue face and just, you know, give to him. And that's how I got my first mobile phone was a Samsung blue face. And that's when I fell in love with mobile phones because I remember looking at this Samsung, this blue face, I held this thing in my hand and I said, hi, this thing is going to make me lots of money. Then I just knew that the mobile phone was going to make me rich. And that's, that's a podcast for another day.

And so that's how I got my mobile phone. So in Nigeria, yes, we play that game of relative status and we're trying to say thank you. There's nothing you can give orga or Madam in a monetary value or a give value that will make sense. So sometimes we play these, you know, small games. You do something for our girls on Madam's daughter, you know, whatever, you know, to say thank you. So this has almost been an hour. I think this is the longest podcast episode I've made in 2025.

But I was trying to make you comprehensive so I don't come back and record, you know, two or three episodes. But in summary, if you want to wow somebody, you first of all need to know what the person is expecting before you can go and exceed that expectation. So make sure you're having conversation. Make sure we are doing needs analysis, make sure our understanding is on point, be proactive, be professional about this whole thing.

And then what else? When it comes to acknowledging our ambassadors, Please remember when it comes to money, you want to give somebody money to say thank you or you want to give somebody a gift to say thank you. Nothing can be tricky. You know, gauge it well, especially where the person is a high person is a high net worth individual, a high paying customer, the person has spent correct money with you or you guys are have unequal, I don't know how to say it now, unequal status.

So that's an unequal status on equal social standing, let me put it that way, because we all have equal status as human beings. So me and the president, we are the same. But you know, social standing of the president is different from my own social standing. So yes, we need to have on equal social standing. So let me leave it there since I've said enough of trying to be comprehensive. So that's it and that's all. Remember, if you'd love to connect with me, you can call,

you can SMS, you can WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you for your time and attention. I will catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.