Know Your Customer: The CRM Advantage for Business Growth

Hello and welcome. My name is Tavi Shima Ayede. I saw sales and marketing challenges and I'm making today's recording in my living room. So you're going to hear some interruptions, you know, neighbour's house being renovated and all of that. Now the goal of this podcast is not to talk about my neighbors, but why we gather here is to do some business education. So when you're done listening to the podcast, 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, any player of their choice. And if you in particular have any sales and marketing questions, then bring them to me. You can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp me on 08064662140. So today on the podcast, I want us to be brief and I want us to look at reasons why every business needs a CRM. It's something I used to talk about in the past. I haven't mentioned it in a while, but some stuff has gone on.

You know, my personal life that has just hit home again as per this is a reason why every business needs a CRM. And I'll keep saying this because lots of you running businesses now, you don't have ACRM, you don't even know what the CRM is. And because of that, you don't even know why this kind of thing is important. So let's just get straight into the cocoa. So it is the background. My my wife, she has dreadlocks. She has really nice hair.

And I've always been telling her, you know, right from toasting stage to courtship to marriage, as in she has good hair. And it took her a while before she got these dreadlocks was a very long time because, you know, consulting with, you know, people at work, talking to her friends, talking to other people who have dreadlocks, you know, people making referrals, you know, how doing research online, you know, stuff like that.

You know, those of us who are meant, we don't really appreciate the, the mental gymnastics that women go through, you know, before they decide on some of these things. Because for we guys, if we want to cut our hair, we just stand up and cut our hair. You know, it's that simple. But The thing is for some kind of businesses like this, you know, salon space, hair making space, sometimes a potential customer like my wife is taking months and maybe sometimes years in the making before they decide, now let me do dreadlocks or let me do Gerry Coil or let me do this or let me do that.

Sometimes it's a very, very long time in the making and to be honest, this whole thing of natural hair and you know, or whatnot between me and my wife, you know, it's a discussion that we've been having since like 2000 and nine, 2010, you know, up until now. So picture this, pretend now that you have a salon, you have a hair kind of business. My wife has been considering this thing for a very long time. She finally settled on one place in Guerinpa.

The place was highly recommended that I know if you go here, they know how to lock your hair, they know how to do this and how to do that. So that's what we've been doing. That's why my hair, my wife went to unlock her hair in Guerin Park. Then I used to think was a straightforward something that once you go and do the dreadlock does it, you don't finish. But actually it turns out that when you do the dreadlock, you're supposed to go back and then they'll do something again.

They'll say, they'll say they are relocking your hair or something like that. So you guys go for touch up every I don't know whether it's every month I'll be every two, two months or something. So anyway so she has done the dreadlock then she has been going back to now be relocking the thing. So 2 days ago now my wife said time don't reach it's time to lock the hairs. OK no problem. So where am I be I need to know so I'll go and drop her.

She said, no, no, no, I'm not going to go and I'm going to say to so, so, so, so so Plaza. I said, what happened now? She said, well, don't worry about place. That the ogre, the person who runs the salon, the woman who runs it, that she's the one that has the main skill when it comes to locking and everybody else, they know how to lock the hair. See, I'm not a hair person, so don't I can't explain to you how you lock somebody's hair when it comes to dreadlock.

So the same way those of you who don't understand, the same way you don't understand the same way me, I don't understand. But Shard is the process. You go and lock the hair first, then you now come back, somebody will now relock it and continue to be relocking again I think for like 1 year before you know you're good to go. You now resemble Bob Marley or what's her name, Whoopi Goldberg. You now have that kind of hair,

Tracy Chapman, that kind of, you know, correct dreadlocks. So I said that your guy is the main person who has the skill when it comes to locking the hair. Then the people, the employees in the salon, they know how to lock the hair, but they don't know how to do relocking. That's the part where you go and do touch up. So because of that, now my wife was not happy with the relocking sessions. So picture this, you're a business owner, you have a customer.

The customer was happy the first time, but the customer is not happy the subsequent times. You understand what I'm saying? My wife went for the locking, she was happy, She went back for the relocking. Since then she has not been happy. So because she was not happy with the relocking sessions, that is how she now discovered this new location in Wu, say 2, from a colleague at work, another person who has dreadlocks as well.

And you know, when our customers, when they find each other, they start forming small, small communities. And that's how these recommendations get made. So in the beginning was me and my wife talking about these things. Later on, my wife started finding other people, excuse me, who are in the dreadlocking community, you know, people who have locked their hair since a long time ago. So that's how she discovered this new location in Wu Say Too.

So that was it. I went and dropped her in Wu Say too. And to be honest, when I picked up me and my children, the difference was clear. I won't lie, I don't understand how you lock her, but I just know that once I saw my wife the way the thing was looking clean and was not just looking clean this way that the thing I can't explain it here, but I could see the difference and I was like OK, OK, no I understand. So from now on this is the place I'll be.

My said of course that this is the place that these people they know what they're doing and the thing was even quick because the other place when we go and drop my wife to do relocking will take like 6 hours. This will say to place I think was like 2 1/2 hours till I finished even myself. I was surprised. So anyway that's how the episode ended. Some of you now be asking now look what does this have to do with me? I'm not in business of doing here.

So this whole story you told me now, I don't understand, you know, like was my own. This is your own now. The owner of the saloon just lost the customer. All of us list on this podcast right now. We're all business owners. There are times when we will lose customers. But the owner of this salon in Guerinpa who does dreadlocks, she has lost the customer. And guess what? She will never know why. Let me repeat, this woman has lost a customer but she will never know why XYZ number of customers did not come again for their appointment last week.

In fact, to be honest, the way we Nigerians run our businesses, it will be at the end of the year when it's now time to be sending everybody Christmas message that they will now discover that oh, this woman that has been doing relocking with us, she didn't show again. So it's in December, they realize. And by that time, of course, you know, it's too late. If somebody has been relocking here with you every two, two months, every 3, three months and then they stop coming in February.

March is only in December that you discovered. Don't you know that by then? They've moved on. They found a new hair place to be relocking their hair and the things you don't know why? This is why every business owner needs a CRM, because most of U.S. business owners listening on this podcast right now do not have CRMS. We have no system to find out whether our customers are happy. We have no system to find out whether there's a problem with our customers.

We have no system to schedule the next appointment with our customers and we have no system to follow up and confirm appointments with our customers. There's a technical way of defining CRM and I think sometimes the technical definitions, excuse me, the technical definitions of CRMS don't allow you to understand why this thing is important. All these things I've said now for the purposes of today's episode, that is a CRM.

That's what the CRM does. CRM, customer relationship management tool. If you run a salon, it will help you to know, are my customers happy? What are the problems my customers are facing? When is this person supposed to come for the next appointment? How will we schedule this appointment when we have scheduled the thing? How are we going to follow up with this person to confirm that they're coming for the appointment? That is the definition of ACRM,

and too many business businesses are losing customers and they don't even know why. And there's nothing to prevent them losing customers. Now, if the hair salon had the CRM, in this case, let us pretend that they don't want fancy CRM. So all they need is just diary, physical diary in the studio. Now the reason why I'm starting from Diaries, because my initial professional background was in law. And when I graduated school, you know, it's not as if computers were everywhere like that.

So back then it was diary that we used to use. Every lawyer, the junior lawyer, you have your own personal diary. Then there'll be 1 master diary in the chambers where the head of chambers, or should I say like head of operations is in control of that diary. And so from the partners, the auger having their diary, from we, the juniors having our own diary and from the office itself having a central diary, That is how we used to manage everything.

Who is supposed to go for what case, what time in which location? Who is supposed to have a meeting with this client where and to discuss what issues it is from diary, paper, paper, pencil, pencil and byro as I wish to manage everything. So back then that was our CRM, our customer or client relationship management tool, Diary, pencil and paper. It doesn't have to be pencil and paper, but I'm just trying to show you how.

Anything that you use as ACRM can help prevent some simple business problems that people are facing in their businesses. So the owner of the salon in Guerin panel, if they had paper and pencil diary there, there will be something there to say. Missus Ososo. And so came for today's session at 8:00. You will now be able to schedule a customer service Rep to call the person next week or two days later to say thank you very much for coming in for the session.

While you are there. I hope there was no problem. The hairstylist was not rude to you. I hope there's no problem. I hope you're enjoying your services. Is there any particular problem that you have now? Guess what? At that point in the conversation when they say, I hope there's no problem, is there any particular problem? Is there something we could have done better? There are some customers who will say this relocking that your girl did for me.

I am not too happy with this relocking. Say Madam, what's the problem? I don't know. It's just the way that The thing is looking. I don't know, I'm just not happy with this relocking. OK, Madam, we're very, very sorry. Please come in. Let's Madam have a look at it. Because Madam is the one who is the pro when it comes to draglocks. Let Madam have a look at it. When she now comes here, Madam has a look at it. Since Madame is the professional, Madame will now know OK that this is the problem.

That may be Ching area and in case you don't know how to lock very well, we need to train the two of them, you understand? You see how a CRM is going to help you improve your business and make sure you don't lose customers because you have something, even if it's pencil and paper, that is prompting you. Call the customer, are they happy? Is there a problem? Call the customer, remind the customer this is the next session.

When are you supposed to show? This is where you're supposed to show. Follow up, confirm appointments, anything that is prompting you to do these things, that is ACRM. So if you don't want to do anything fancy, because there's one that I use, I won't. I use Zoho. That's what I use. Excuse me if you don't use anything fancy, Google Calendar is there. Use your Google Calendar, use your notes in phones, use your reminders apps, use your whatever.

There are options if you don't want to do anything tech. I told you that there are some of us that we started off with with diary, pencil and paper. That's how some of us started. You can do the same thing as well. There are some people, one guy I know who is still in the event space, his own is Excel sheet, Microsoft Excel, Excel, that is what they use. They'll put everything in Excel sheet, whatever it is. Every business needs ACRM.

Everybody, every business needs some kind of system that is going to help you figure out are my customers happy? Is there any problem? When next are we supposed to see them? How are we going to schedule this thing? How are we going to follow up? How are we going to confirm appointments? So CRM, the definition is wide, but for the purposes of this podcast, anything you use to do this, that is ACRM and every business needs ACRM because you are losing customers.

You have no idea why and it's so sad. Such a pity because I can assure you that my wife is not the only person who has left this, who has left this salon to go and find another place. The tragedy is just that you'll never know why the customer you've lost, you've lost no problem. But at least if you know what the problem is, you will know how you can fix it. You know how to can say, oh, sorry, please come back. We'll do it again at half the cost or we'll do it again for free or thank you very much for the information.

It was so so who hounded your hair? We'll make sure that he's properly trained so that by the time you come for the next session, you will not have any problems. Like, I don't know, whatever the solution, at least you will know what the problem is. So that's why every business needs ACRM. So that's all for today, folks. Remember, if you have any sales and marketing questions, bring them to me. You can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp me on 08064662140.

Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.