Loading…
Auto-generated; may contain errors.
Loading transcript…
Today I want us to explore some ideas around customer service and this is the reason why because this is a sales podcast and once in a while we talk about things marketing related. So for those of you who are loyal listeners, you've been listening for a while, you know, weeks, months, maybe years, OK. Now those of you who've been listening for years, you know this will come as a surprise. But for those of you who've been listening for a couple of days or a couple of weeks, you're going to be surprised that why are we talking about customer service on a sales podcast?
And this is the reason why. Remember that, you know, since it's a sales podcast, we're focused about the money. Any single thing that can help us get money, we will talk about it. So the reason why we're going to talk about customer service on a sales podcast is because customer service is tied into key, two key ideas. 2 main ideas that sales people are really interested in #1 is customer lifetime value. The idea behind customer lifetime value is every single time somebody comes and buys something from you, the person is not just worth that single purchase, but the person is worth several purchases.
Let me give you an example. I did business with my business partner, one of my business partners, and we came into some good money. And now, because there's some excess cash rolling around, I figured it's time to get my wife a new phone because our phone is currently four years old. And yeah, you know, my wife can be rough when it comes to phones. So I think it's time to get her a new phone now because the place that I bought the phone the last time, that's her phone and my own phone.
The salesperson did an absolutely stellar job. She did a good idea of figuring out who we were and recommending phones that work for our personal circumstance. Because in fact, the phone that she sold to me, that's the Xiaomi 13C is still, sorry, the 12 C is still the phone that I use for Business Today. In fact, that is what I use to. I've used to record every single podcast for the last maybe like 4 years. So it's a pretty damn good phone now because she has done a very good job.
We're going to come back and we're going to buy more devices from her. So the value of me as a customer to the lady who sold the phone to me and to my wife, it's not just that's first purchase when we bought the phone four years ago. So four years ago we bought 2 phones from her. I think my phone was just short of 100 and I think so short of 200. And I think my wife's phone was just over maybe 120, maybe 140 or something like that.
Yes, some of you will be shocked, you know, but like I said, this was four years ago, so the economy was in a different state and you could get good phones then for, you know, 100 grand, 150 grand, you know, now things are different anyway. So if this salesperson only just looked at us as the value of that single transaction then, and she didn't do a good job of not only selling us the phones but of keeping in touch, then she'll be losing out on future revenue, which is the purchase that we're going to do soon by getting a brand new phone for my wife.
And then who knows future devices that we're going to buy, tablets, laptops, you never know. So in a business context, whenever you're having a conversation with someone and you're selling a product, you're selling an item, the value of the person is not just that single item that they're buying from you. So if you're in real estate and you're talking to someone and the person buys the plot of line from you, let's say 63,000,000,
the customer is not just worth 63 million. We want to do a good job and hopefully the person will come back, you know, in a year or two, maybe five years and buy another plot of land maybe worth 500 million or worth, you know, 7 million or whatever. But The thing is, we're looking for, we have a concept of a customer lifetime value, that the customer is not just worth a single purchase, but the customer is worth an aggregate of several number of purchases that we can expect them to make,
that we can expect them to buy over the course of XYZ period of time, depending on what your business is. So customer lifetime value #1 sales people are interested in that because customer lifetime value means we're making more money not just today or making more money over time. Then another thing that sales people are preoccupied, preoccupied about is repeat purchase. Repeat purchase just means somebody buys something from you today and the hope is the person will come back and buy something from you tomorrow or next month or next year or in another five years, but want people to come back again and again.
So sales people or at least traditional sales people, traditional business people are preoccupied with customer lifetime value and repeat purchase. We are preoccupied with how many times people come back to buy again and how many people customers refer us to. That is the reason why we pay attention to customer service, because customer service is directly tied into something called customer retention or client retention.
That just means of the customers we have, how many of them are we going to keep? Because if we do a really good job of bringing in 100 customers into the business this year, so whatever business it is that you do, let's say you get 100 new customers this year, you clap for yourself, you're doing good. What if next year eighty of those customers leave and take their money someplace else? It shows that there's serious problems in your business.
You're hemorrhaging money and you're making your life difficult. Because if you get 100 customers this year, in 2026, a hundred clients and next year, let's say 80 of them remain with you, that is easy income that you're going to make next year, in 2027, that you won't work as hard because they did business with you the year prior. They already know you, they already trust you. So closing the deal is going to be a lot easier.
So you have to spend less money and you have to spend less time running after new customers in the coming year. So these are the reasons why we pay attention to customer service, because customer service is directly tied into customer retention, is directly tied into client retention. And if you have good customer service processes, it means you're going to be able to maximize customer lifetime value. How long are people going to stay with you?
You're also going to be able to maximize repeat purchases. They stay with you. How often do they buy? How frequently do they buy? And then of course, customer lifetime value also tied into referrals as well. So it's not just how many times they buy from us, but it's also how many people that they bring our way. So that's the reason why those of us who are traditionally focused on sales also like to pay attention to customer service because these ideas help us to make more money.
Now before we continue, if you'd like to connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. If you're interested in the 15 minute sales audit, you can WhatsApp me on the same number, 0806466 2140. And if you'd like to join my WhatsApp channel, you can WhatsApp me on the same number and then we're going to hook you up. So now let's do a little bit of, let's handle some definitions.
Now in Nigeria, whenever we say customer service, unfortunately, the idea that we have about customer service is very reactive. In other words, we only remember customer service in Nigeria. Wendy's problem, we only think about customer service. Wendy's busy. We only think about customer service when people are dissatisfied with us. We only think about customer service when the brand promise of the business has fallen short.
You promise somebody one thing, the advertising says one thing more people experience something else when they work with the business. So in Nigeria, that is only when we think about customer service. I mean think about it. I had an interaction with the bank last week and I had to reach out to the customer service department. I wasn't reaching out because I was happy, I was reaching out because I was terribly upset about something.
So in this part of the world, in Nigeria, when we say customer service, unfortunately we still have very reactive ideas. Customer service are the people who pick up the phone when people are angry with us, when this busy, when people are unhappy, when this quarrel, when this issue. Now, if you look towards Western countries, they have a much more wider conception of customer service, much, much broader. But then again, you know that I'm a sales specialist, I'm a business development consultant,
I'm a sales coach, I'm not a customer service specialist. So because of that, I'm not going to bother looking at the wider definition of what customer service is. So if you want to, you can go and do that research on yours by yourself. So excuse me, but there is something that we can do better though in Nigeria. We need to be much more proactive with our customer service functions. Now, customer service is also related to two other business functions that we should pay attention to.
Number 1 is customer success and then #2 is customer satisfaction. So let me repeat, yes, I know we're hearing customer, customer, customer. But just remember, every single time we talk about all these things, the reason why we're discussing them is because it is going to help us make more money. It is going to cause people to stay with us longer. It is going to cause people to buy from us regularly. It's also going to cause our customers to send their friends and their family members and their associates to buy from us as well.
So I focused on the money here. OK, so don't worry, we're using too many fancy terms now. Customer success just means when somebody bought from us, were they successful? Were they able to achieve exactly what it is that we promised them? So if you sell solar panels, the customer success function of your business just means you sell them the solar panel. You promise them they were, they were going to be off the grid for 24 hours every single day for 365 days of the year.
So you don't just deliver the solar panels and then you don't keep in touch again, you deliver the solar panels. And then like my client in Lagos, because what they do is they also install remote monitoring capabilities. So what they do actually is they install today, let's say they install on a Saturday, Monday morning, they give a call and that's one of the things they want to find out. The remote monitoring that we put up is the thing working over here in the office.
We can see that the panels are working. They're working at this capacity and this one is working and this one is working. Mr. Customer, can you see that The thing is working from your own end as well? If it is not working, let us know. Let us send a team out so that we can rectify these things. Sharp, sharp, sharp. These are the kinds of things that we will do in a Nigerian context, in a Nigerian environment that will help us to stand out and will make us seem more professional and then we will maximize customer lifetime value.
They will stay with us longer. When the system is old, when they need replacing, when they need upgrading, they will call us because we are the ones who seem like we are the superior alternative. Then we'll also get referrals because if somebody asks and says Odugu Mazi, Chief Alhaji, so, so, so and so I like this. Your solar, whatever, how much? Where did you get it? Chief or Alhaji will confidently say, call these my guys, they're the ones that hooked up the whole thing.
Since they did it, we've not had any problem. In fact, the time that we had problem, I called them 9:00 at night. By 5:30 in the morning, engineer was already on site trying to solve the problem. These are the things that you're going to do that will help us to maximize customer lifestyle value and get lots of repeat purchases and get lots of referrals. So we have to be proactive. Customer success just means what we said this thing will do.
Did it do it? So get into the habit of calling the person after you deliver, after you install, after you have your session, what we promised did the thing work? That is a customer success function. Then customer satisfaction goes one step beyond. It's not just a matter of did the thing work, it also moves into are you happy? Because sometimes, yes, the thing works for 100%, but then the person is not entirely happy. He said, Madam, what is wrong?
He said, well, you know, I was also thinking blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then in that case, you realize that Madame had some expectations. She was hoping that there were a couple of things that should be able to get extra, but that she didn't get. So in this case, everything works 100% as you promised. You just didn't on earth some expectations that she had coming into it. This is what the customer satisfaction function of the business is about.
The thing works very good. Customer success. Now customer satisfaction. Are you happy? Oh, Madam, you're not happy. We're terribly sorry. We must have missed something. Please just tell me, like, what's the issue? OK. How did this start? OK. Oh, what are you feeling? Oh, OK. You're also hoping for this. You're also hoping for that, see, so those things are important. So it's from doing having a customer satisfaction function in your business.
Are you happy that we can maximize customer lifetime value, that Madam will continue to buy from us again and again and that she will also refer her friends and her family members and her associates. Madam will say that, you know, yes, I like them. You know, initially, you know, they mess up on one or two things, but they handle it well. I trust these people because they are professional. So these are some of the things you should be paying attention to and we should be proactive when it comes to customer service and not just reactive as we are in Nigeria.
Stop waiting on today's basis and somebody picks up the phone to say where are you? How can you do this? You're useless person. Your engineer did this, your delivery driver did this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This thing is broken. Something, something, something out of the warranty. Don't wait for all that basic to happen. Don't be reactive in Nigeria. We need to be proactive. And the reason why is not because we are forming UIBO.
No, the reason why is because we're trying to maximize customer lifetime value and we're trying to get repeat purchases and we're trying to get referrals coming in through the door. So how can we be proactive? Now I know some of you are listening, especially if you've never heard things like this before, it's sounding kind of scary. That's not a problem. Applying these principles, yeah, can be tricky. So if you need me to look at your particular circumstances,
just call me, send me a text message or send me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. If you want a 15 minute sale audit or you want me to audit your customer service processes, I can do that from a sales perspective. Just call me, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064 662140. If you'd like to join my YouTube channel, just WhatsApp me on the same number. I will get you hooked up. So how can we be proactive?
I've already hinted about a couple of things #1 after installation, after delivery, after finalization, after groundbreaking ceremony, after ribbon cutting ceremony, after whatever it is, after onboarding, after whatever it is that you do in your own business. Call the person and have a debrief. You call them, you say thank you very much for doing business with us. As you're aware, the team installed last week. Saturday morning, 10 AM.
I'm just calling now to be sure everything is OK. Everything is smooth. No problem. This one is working OK. OK, good. We also discussed this. We discussed this. Should be. This one is working well. This one is working well. There's no problem, Abby. OK, We thank God. I just wanted to know that. But before I go, Madam Bros, you know, whatever. Are you happy with how everything is so far? Have the the conversation. So you call to do a debrief.
You thank them for their business. You thank them for their custom. You confirm that things have been delivered. You confirm that things are working. You confirm that nothing is broken. You confirm that nothing is missing. After that, you want to be sure are you happy if the solar system that you delivered, It's not just a matter of are you happy, it is also. I hope Madame is happy now that you will have like 247, you say?
In fact, since we installed that thing, Madame has not stopped watching Desperate Housewives. She has been watching her real Real Housewives of Lucky back-to-back to back. She has downloaded everything on the DSTV Compact. I shall just be watching it back-to-back to back. In fact, now, Madam, they enjoyed the solar pass. Not even the children. By the time you talk like that and the customer is saying all these good things and they are hearing themselves say all these good things about your product and about the quality of service that you have delivered.
That is the kind of thing that will come to cause them to call you when the system is old and it's time for a new system or to call you when it is time for an upgrade. You know, maybe they have more children. They want to move from 10 kva system now to a 25 kva system. That is what we'll call them to call you. They want to upgrade. They want to change batteries. That is what will cause them to call you. That is also what will cause them to refer their friends to you because you've had this conversation.
Oh, by the apologies for the noise in the background, the house is being cleaned. Today's a Tuesday morning, so and I've taken some precautions. So hopefully the noise that will come in won't be too much. All right, so you confirm that everybody's happy and you confirm that your product or service is delivering on every single thing that you promised them. Now, the reason why some of you don't want to make these calls is because you are scared.
I understand, I understand perfectly because early on I didn't want to call and find out are you happy with the album? That's when I was in the event space because I was afraid. Then I'll call the bird and say, are you happy with the album? And then the bird would say no, I don't like page 5, I don't like page 12, I don't like page 6. That was my biggest fear. But see, you know what? We need to face this fear because if this customer is unhappy, they're not saying anything.
It doesn't change the fact that they are thinking it and it is going to absolutely mess up our items to maximize customer lifetime value. It will mess up our attempts to get them to do business with us again. It will mess up our attempts to try and get referrals from them. Think about it, as a young wedding photographer, you delivered something. In your mind you think it's OK, but maybe the bride is not happy because on page 6 she sees a pimple, on page 12 she saw a mole, and then maybe on page 14.
She thinks you make her. You made her bom bom look too big, but she didn't say anything. You are now asking her to refer you for her sister's wedding. Do you think she will refer? She will say no. She will want to give you her sister's number because as far as she's concerned, you leave pimple on her sister's forehead, you change her sister's color, and then you make her sister's bom bom look too big or too small as the case may be.
Be brave and call if there's a problem. We are better off finding about this problem now and trying to deal with it instead of letting this thing faster and faster and then we're messing up our reputation. They'll come to the house or say bring your album now let us watch picture. And then she says no, I said I was wrong. Now I said that guy just messed up my my pictures. He just totally messed up my picture. In fact, I don't ever want to see it again.
She would not tell her husband take the album away. Go and put it away. See this is a real life something I have seen it. A friend of mine got married and my brother and I just keep come and greet her like you know happy married life that kind of thing. So see how far now we will see picture. That's what she did. She told her husband that if I only take that thing off this table, I've told you I don't want to see this thing again.
These people completely ruin my day. That is what they said. Now assuming I was not in the event space and I was looking for somebody to handle my wedding photos and videos, do you think if I was, let's say I was a female like her best friend, now her chief bridesmaid, do you think I will ask her give me the phone number for those your guys who handled your stuff? No, because as far as she's concerned, she said only take this album away.
I told you don't put this thing here. I don't want to see it. These people completely messed up my day. It happens. So even though it is scary call if there's a problem, let us know now and let us start working on it now. Because we're trying to maximize customer lifetime value. We want them to buy from us again and again. We want them to send people to us, their friends, their Co workers, people from church, people from mosque, people from village town hall meeting.
We want them to keep doing business with us again and again and again and again. If you have the conversation and you on earth any problem, what you do is you thank them for their honesty. So Madam, I'm terribly sorry I did not know about this and thank you very much Ma for being very, very honest. We want to take the best care we can for we can for our customers. And so because of that, Madam, I'm going to take responsibility to make sure that we solve this problem and I won't stop until you're happy.
So Madam Novak's, I just need to ask you a couple of questions so we can figure out exactly what the problem is and then I'll know how we're going to solve it. Once she opens up her mouth, once he opens up his mouth and they tell you what it is, you can use this information to put a new proposal on the table. So this is a much more proactive way for how we can handle customer service issues in Nigeria. And remember, the focus is not we're trying to copy Oyibo or we're trying to be like Oyibo.
No, the focus is not with a form professional. No, the focus is customer lifetime value. We want them to buy again and again and again. In fact, as they're buying again and again, we want them to be buying more expensive, more expensive, higher grade, higher grade. Then we also want them to send their friends and their family members to come and do business with us. People in church, people in mosque, their friends want them to send people our way.
So that is the focus and that's the reason why I pay attention to customer service. So that's it for today. If you've gotten value from today's episode, you can connect with me. You call me, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Remember, I'll file a 15 minutes, they'll audit. Or if there's any business process you want me to audit, that's not a problem, Call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on the same number 08064 662140.
Or you can join me on my WhatsApp channel just by WhatsApp, ping me on the same number and we will get you started. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you some other time.