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Hello and welcome to the show. I'm taking today's recording at my desk but some of my in laws are in the house so you know there might be some interruptions here and there. Now the goal of the show is free business education, so if you're just tuning in for the first time, you are at the right place. When asked you a favour. If by the time we're done with this episode, you get some value, then please share, promote and talk about the show 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 Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any podcast player of your choice. And then if you in particular have any sales and marketing questions, then bring them to me. You can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp on 08064662140. So today's podcast episode is going to be one of those two in one, if I can mash it up together. The main thing I want us to look at actually is how to answer customer service enquiries over WhatsApp.
And of course, you know, the reason why is because there are lots of you who are trying to run your business and you're trying to use WhatsApp as a customer service channel. And I've had some experiences in the past, which makes me think it's about time again because I know I've done lots of WhatsApp episodes in the past. So it's about time to hop on the microphone again and run over a few case studies and come up with a simple framework that we can all agree to for how to use WhatsApp for customer service purposes.
So that's going to be the main thing that I want us to talk about. However, before I get there, I just want to make a general comment because you notice I give up my phone number at the beginning of every podcast episode and at the end of every podcast episode, sometimes two or three times in the middle. So lots of people reach out to me. Some people have questions I do my best to answer. Some people end up being clients.
You know, I'm glad for that. And for those of you who have questions, So I mean, those of you who have general questions, especially those of you who are younger and especially those of you who are guys, I'm noticing a trend and I want to speak up about that. There are lots of you who, well, because before I reply everybody's message, I mean, you guys know that anybody who reaches out to me, I first of all, I take the phone number, I
run it through Truecaller because I want to know, you know, the name, the sex, the location, the whatever of whoever it is and I'm dealing with. So I've already made a broadcast episode before about how that is my primal, that is my basic stock that I run everything through. Take the number, put it on Truecaller and I don't know who I'm dealing with, man or woman, young or old, Yoruba, house, IBO, you know, Cameroonian,
whatever. So take the number, get a name, paste it in Google, and I have a sense of who I'm reaching out to. And then and I'll get in touch with the person. I continue the conversation from there, you know, just follow the person they are. But then another reason why I do that is because it's also a good way to weed out four Niners because since I'm putting my phone number out there, you know, I got to protect myself.
So there's sometimes that I'll take the phone number, I'll paste it and then true call, I will say reported by, you know, 60-7 people as spam. And then of course, I just block the number immediately and, you know, just warm my life. So against this backdrop, now that Nigerians are afraid of four Niners, you know, things are insecure, you know, that kind of thing. It doesn't make any sense for a young man who is in business now.
First of all, you have a phone number that is associated with your business and then you don't want to register your full name. It doesn't inspire anybody with confidence. And I'm just being broke with you guys, especially if you're going to be doing these kind of strategies or reaching out to people over on WhatsApp. So it's not a real name that is showing. You know, the name that is showing is, you know, Sergeant X 46 or something like that.
It doesn't inspire anybody with confidence. Then on WhatsApp, where there's supposed to be a profile picture. Remember, I'm only talking to people who use this for business. Now for my wife who doesn't use WhatsApp for business, whatever she wants to do is her own business. She can put her WhatsApp name as Minnie Me. Mickey Mouse misses Hot 46. No, doesn't matter because it's private use. And her profile picture can be Mariska Haggerty or can be Minnie Mouse or can be Michelle Obama.
It doesn't matter. So private use, but then when you have a number that is a survey with you and with your business, it does not inspire confidence if an air avatar comes up and then you're not even making any effort to put out your real name or to put out your business name. So young men in particular, you're a business person. You do different kinds of things, whether is you design websites or whether you run car wash or what else, or whether you're a bad meeting coach or maybe you're a music tutor or or you teach forex or whatever it is.
It's anyway, let me not preach so much on this guys. Just take care of all these small, small things and appear reputable. At the very least appear human or from the beginning so that people can calm down and know that they can have a conversation with you without being worried or whether they're going to be scammed or not. So young men listening if you are running afoul of this thing, the next time glow or MTN or Airtel or whoever sends you a message saying come and verify your whatever.
I know you are also trying to protect your identity all right, but this is how it works. Go there, when you do the registration and you do the vitals and you do whatever, use your real name so that when your number pops up or people decide to search you, they will see that, oh, it is a real human being that is associated with this. If you think that that is violating your privacy, then there are ways that you can take phone numbers and attach to businesses only so that you're not trying to put yourself out there.
But what I'm just trying to say is this, if you go ahead and you do this in the future, you feel like, oh, this is something I should not have done, Just destroy the same and throw it away with what happens in Nigeria. Anyway, after a while, the service provider will mark the number as being dormant. When it's dormant, it will now go back into public domain and somebody else is going to register it and start using it in the future.
So whatever violations of your privacy that you think you're running away from, you know, don't worry, it's not that big of a deal. So if Glow says come and register your whatever, go there, do your biometrics, do everything, submit your real name then on your WhatsApp. Put a real picture. Let it be your own face. Let people feel as if I'm dealing with a human being and not as if I'm dealing with a scammer. All right, so let me stop there because there's a big issue that I want us to tackle, which is,
like I said, how to answer customer service enquiries over WhatsApp. Now, first thing we have to define what customer services. Now, customer service is one of those things that is very hard to define because it's very wide, but the definition that I'd like to give is, you know, anything that you're doing that gives value to the customer or satisfaction to customers, we can kind of look at that as customer service. So if I'm on the phone with you and I'm doing these analysis,
trying to figure out who you are and stuff like that, you know that is more sales, not customer service, but you can see that because it's all driven towards making you satisfied and giving you value. You can say that, well, I'm taking a customer service approach to that. So whether from the beginning of the transaction, in the middle of the transaction, at the end of the transaction, you know shall we can say on our customer service because it's geared towards the value and satisfaction that will get to the customer.
So before doing business, during doing business, after doing business together on our customer service. And this is the reason why customer service is difficult to define. However, in Nigeria, we have a very specific meaning when we say customer service, but I'll get to that. But the main thing that I want to say is this, customer service should be planned. Lots of Nigerian business people, we're getting into business and we don't come up with a plan for customer service.
We plan for every single thing else. And then when it comes to customer service, we just allow our people to freestyle. When you you're on the phone resolving the customer service matter, you, you're freestanding. Your sales people who go out into the field, you leave them, they're freestanding. Let's say you have account management people back in the office and that's people who man the phones or have proper customer service reps When somebody calls in, they're freestanding.
Everybody is freestanding. You're not giving any thought to making sure that there is a single unified customer experience that people get when they call in. And that's a mistake. Customer service should be planned. Now, I'm not a customer service pro, so I'm not going to be able to give you the principles around how you would define, I mean, let's say define how you will determine what your customer service processes are going to be.
But as you're listening, just make a note down in your charter on your phone. OK, This is something I have to do some research on, have to talk to someone. We need to make sure that this thing is planned, this thing is coherent And that no matter who a customer talks to, whether they call me or they call the customer service agent in the office or whether they interact with our sales people in the field, there is going to be a unified and coherent and well thought out and well planned and well orchestrated customer experience, customer service experience.
So first thing, let's talk freestyling when it comes to customer service. Then customer service is supposed to have defined goals. Now, if you go and check on the Internet or you talk to some people, you find a couple of goals. Number one is customer retention. That is the one I mean I like the best because after all, this podcast is about sales. It's about bringing in the cheddar, bringing in the naira and Kobo, bringing in the money.
So for me, customer retention, a perfect goal for customer service. So whenever I look at customer services, customer service lapses within the business or with my client, that is precisely the viewpoint that I'm looking at. I'm looking at you to say, hey bro or Madame, you know what, this gap that we have here in customer service, the way that you could answer this person or the way that came answer this person or the way that Abu Kadir handled this thing, it is going to cause lapses and breakdowns in the sales process.
And so we are not going to get repeat business. We are not going to get referrals. So that's the angle of me. I come from Naira and Cobo, nothing fluffy. So that's one goal of customer service offer me I think is the best. I don't think you can run foul looking at customer retention as a goal for your customer service processes. Then next, this one is kind of fluffy. One of the ones I do not like is brand reputation. But yes, some of you listening to this thing, brand advocates always want to make sure that the brand is on point.
So yes, you know, for the sake of brand, we have to make sure that we plan the customer service experience well. So yeah, it's a good guiding thing. Then revenue generation, OK, well that's close enough to what I said, customer retention. So you know, all joint. So you already understand how that works. So revenue generation and then feedback and improvement, that is also another one that I like. So for me, it's about customer retention and then it's about feedback and improvement because as a business, we need data to be able to inform how we innovate on our product or our service and then how we improve our sales and marketing processes because everything can always be improved.
You can always have a better understanding of your ICP, That's your ideal customer profile. The people you're you are targeting. You could always have a better understanding of am I chasing the right people? You could always have a better execution on how you greet people or how you welcome people or how you engage in conversation. How you do need analysis, how you try and figure out what the problems are, the options that you show them when you are in the middle of sales conversations, how you make an effective proposal.
So with the things that we need to improve all of these processes, we are going to get them from customer service conversations. If. 10 people call in and eight of them say, let's say you're able to have your friend conversation with them and by the time they calm down, they say that look, the way that your boy spoke to me, I didn't like it or the way he greeted me, I didn't like it. You now know that, OK, one of the parts of the sales process or the customer interaction process that you guys have to improve upon would be the early stuff, the greeting.
Is the greeting appropriate? Are you building rapport? You know, all those sorts of things. So we're going to get all that information from customer service, from people calling in, from interacting with customers. So that's why I say feedback and improvement. Oh, and then even self the product or the service that you provide, Let's say you're a fashion designer. If people keep calling and saying that look Madam, your dresses are on point, but your zip keeps breaking down.
By the time 20 people call, 15 of them say Madam, there's probably with your zips. It's only common sense that we now know that when it comes to feedback and improvement that we need to buy better quality zips or change the supplier, the person who has been supplying us for zips, or, you know, you get the whole point. So that is also a goal of doing good customer service, feedback and improvement. So you brand people.
I'll give it to you. Yes. Brand reputation. Yeah, it's a good reason. Well, for me, sure. Customer retention. Are people buying from us? Are they buying again? Are they increasing the amount of money that they spend? And are they referring their friends, their family members and their associates? That's the reason why we engage in good customer service And then feedback and improvement based on the conversations that we're having.
How we forget our problems with our product, let us fix it. How we figured out problems with the process, the way that we're delivering this thing or the way that we're having a conversation with people, let us fix it. So for me, these are the main reasons why we should engage in good customer service. Brand is too fluffy in my own opinion. Washa, let me give it to you. Brand people, yes, you can have that one. So remember I said that customer service is hard to define because it covers every single aspect of the business where we're giving value to a customer or satisfaction to a customer.
However, there is a particular Niger definition of customer service which all of us already know and which we're going to explore right now. Now the Niger definition of customer service. Is. Wahala de or castle I don't bust or the customer don't they provoke or all is not well with the customer. That is the Nigerian definition of customer service. So if there's any situation where somebody can say Wahala de or castle I don't bust or the customer don't they provoke or all is not well with the customer, then we have a customer service issue.
And the reason why this is the Nigerian definition of customer service is because the only time that Nigerians interact with customer service department of any business is precisely to call up to say what the hell is going on this and this happened. Are you guys mad? After I paid all my money, I have been waiting for delivery. Who is in charge of you don't understand? So that's the reason why in Nigeria when we hear customer service, we exactly we think immediately of all these negative stuff.
So those are the big questions that we tackle in Nigeria when we talk about customer service. So Nigerian companies when it comes to customer service, their preoccupation is what are we going to do when all is not well. So remember, customer service definition too wide. But in Niger for us, customer service has a very, very small definition. And that is what are we going to do when all is not well. So generally on this podcast,
when I've spoken about customer service issues in the past, I have spoken about some principles, OK, let's say more like guidelines, spoken about some guidelines that we can use to make sure that we resolve customer service issues. Adequately. Or somewhat adequately, remember, I'm not talking about customer service now in the universal definition, the wide definition, because those of you who studied customer service maybe in business management or something, you know, those of you who that's your professional background.
Because remember, all this is not my professional background. I mean, I'm good at stuff like this and I picked it up on the field, but I didn't study in school. So some of you, I want to look at these principles that I talk about and I say no, no, no, that these are too restrictive and it's not going to help you to come up with a good customer service framework. And I agree, but that's because I'm only looking at customer service the way that we in Nigeria look at it, which is something is wrong.
What are we going to do? So, so First off, we have to listen, we have to show empathy and we have to show support, which is the first thing that makes the average Nigerian to seriously vex. Like you call in because there's a problem, the delivery is late or the zip has broken, or the dispatch rider says he's outside your house. But you clearly know that he's not outside your house because you're standing outside the house or you've been trying to call in for the last five hours and nobody has answered the phone and blah, blah, blah.
So that's the first thing that vexes people when somebody picks up the phone and the person is just nonchalant, you know, like they don't care. It's just like, anyhow, anyhow, that kind of thing just it makes somebody's blood just boil. Now, there are some folks like me and my father-in-law, you know, we tried to be on the calm side, so we take it easy. But then there's some people that are hot, like my wife for instance, you know, that's where all the shouting and everything comes from because clearly there's an issue been trying to resolve for like 3-4, whatever the person picks up the phone,
the person is rude or nonchalant or whatever, of course there's going to be a blow out here. Now, what do you expect? So all our beginning, trying to get some empathy, trying to build some rapport, trying to provide some emotional support, listen to somebody, all those things very, very important and #2 apology very important in Nigeria. Even if you take responsibility, you're trying to solve the thing. Why do you apologize?
There will still be some small anger there and then some of you might say, look, what do I care so long as we resolve the issue. This is the reason why you can't remember that. I was talking about possible goals of customer service and I said customer retention. Customer retention means somebody bought from me before. I want the person to buy from me again today. They bought from me yesterday. I want them to buy today.
I also want them to buy tomorrow or next tomorrow. That is customer retention. Before we have done business. Currently we're doing business. In the future we will do business. The reason why that's important is because sales and marketing is expensive. So if you increase the number of people that yesterday we did business, today we're still doing business, it means you're spending less in marketing. Some of you might not understand, but just take it.
The just take it as a gospel truth. I'm saying for now. In the future, I might make a podcast episode to explain why. And then if they come back in the future, these are people who are calling to you to do business, but you did not spend time or money running after them to try and market your business to them. So that's the reason why you should care whether you give an apology or not because it's time to customer retention.
If somebody's having negative experiences, if somebody's having, if you're introducing what's it called unnecessary attrition to the whole process. It reduces the number of people who before did business with you, right now currently doing business with you and in the future we'll do business with you. I keep saying the time and time again, if I let me use the wedding photographer example so that some of you understand if your wedding photographer, I
don't know how much they charge now. So I'm going to use the rates that we used to charge back when I was still in the field. If you do business with a bride, the package you put together for her was four, 54150 K and then the materials and you pay boys and you pay everything, design book, everything cost you 200 K. What entered your pocket is 250K. If that person never refers anybody else or never comes back to do baby photography or something like that, that means the only money you have profited from that bride is 250 K.
It's not bad, it's just that things can be better if you profit 250K for the wedding and then six months later she comes to say, I want to do maternity shoot. And your profit on that is maybe 80 K. And then one year later don't want to go and do baby's first year birthday. And your profit on that is another two hundred 250K. And then after that they call you again to say Mumsy is doing 60th birthday anniversary. So a 60th birthday, they call you again, the profit on that is another 200 K and then they call you in two years time, Mumsy and Popsy are doing 45 years wedding anniversary and then your profit on that.
Maybe it's like 300 Ki. Hope you're beginning to see what we mean when we're talking about customer retention or we talk about CLV, customer lifetime value, maximizing lifetime value. It is good to receive small coins from somebody in the beginning, but the big money happens in the future. The relationship, the coming back, the calling other people, the referring to other people. That is where the sweet money comes. Especially since this future money is not money that you have to work for.
Technically speaking, you can be there minding your business saying, ah, it's time for school fees. What the hell am I going to do? And all of a sudden you just receive one phone call. And then as in school fame, school fees, money just enters like that, you know? And we rejoice and we say we thank God for provision. Yeah, we thank God for provision. But also it's because you did something good in the past. You did something good in the past.
You handled the business well in the past. Because of that, God is able to bless your efforts to make sure that the people call again in the future. So apology really, really important. So listen, empathize, show support, give an apology. Then you also have to take responsibility. Whoever is on the phone has to take responsibility. Now, the average business, Nigerian business owner that I talked to, excuse me, they don't like this part.
Nigerians think that if you take responsibility, it means that you are wrong. That is your fault. No, no, no, that's not the case. Because actually to be honest, you know, we're Nigerians now. Sometimes you know, the person is just being an idiot. So sometimes it's actually it's their own fault. But taking responsibility doesn't mean you're at fault. It just means you're taking an active role, a proactive role to try and.
Resolve the situation. Nobody in Nigeria does this, which is the reason why when you do it, it will make you stand out and lots of times it will make people calm down. Because it will be clear that the person is not trying to evade responsibility, is not trying to shift blame, but the person is trying to engage and come up with a solution. A lot of times this is enough to make somebody calm down. So just take responsibility.
It works different ways. You can do it in different ways. The way that I advise people to say it is, oh, I'm sorry for this da da, da, da, da, da. That is not the way we like to do business here. I'm really sorry that you know that happened to you. Don't worry, ma. Don't worry Sir. I'm going to take responsibility for the situation to make sure that we can resolve this issue. If we can't, I'll try and escalate it to my oga or to my Madam.
But I will personally be in touch with you until we can resolve this matter. So Sir, Ma, is it OK if I ask a couple of questions? I need to figure out exactly what it is that happened. That is the way that I recommend people to take it. And you find out for lots of Nigerians, you'll make people to calm down because in Nigeria, it doesn't matter whether you go to the hospital, whether you go to the police or whether you go to your tailor or you go to your caterer or you go to Napa or you go to wherever.
The average Nigerian has not received this kind of treatment anywhere from anyone that somebody said, oh, I'm absolutely sorry this thing happened to you. This is not how we like to do business here. Don't worry, ma. Hi, my name is Kuli Adigo. I will take responsibility to make sure that this matter is resolved. If I can't resolve it, I will call my Olga and see what we can work out. But my please. I beg no Vex. I just need to calm down.
Let me ask you a couple of questions. Let me figure out exactly what it is that happened, then we'll see. We can come up with a solution. The average Nigerian has not heard that by you taking that kind of approach. You're standing out already. I remember what I said. Customer retention, these are the things now we'll make sure that somebody did business with us yesterday, they'll do business with us today, and God willing, they will do business with us for the near future in perpetuity.
So that's the scope. You see why I say for me, customer service, the best goal, it's costing my attention. You know, brand reputation, you know, Yes, yeah. But you know, who cares about brand? If you're doing good business, brand will funnel. I know some of you brand advocates who like to argue, but anyway, no problem. When we see one-on-one, we can we can't quarrel that one. So as I take responsibility, in fact, I haven't heard someone say is this hotel chain in America?
I can't remember what it is or the way that they how do they do it? I can't remember something like, oh, I'm really sorry that this happened to you. This is not how we like to deal with our customers. My name is so, so, so let me help you. Let me help you take care, Abby. Let me take care of this for you. So for that hotel chain in America, I can't remember the name right now. Hopefully before the broadcast episode ends.
You know, that's their own formula. Let me take care of this for you. Somebody's taking responsibility. Then I've already tossed an action, which is needs analysis. You know how asking some questions to figure out what happened? Because remember. Like I said. Sometimes the customer is just being an idiot. So if you ask, yes, the zip broke, but then you found out that instead of asking her husband to zip her up, she was trying to use cloth hanger to pull up the zip for herself.
Because I've heard that some babes do that. Like if nobody's around, you just use cloth hanger and hook on it and then you zip yourself up. I would like to see how that is done because I've not seen it. I've not seen it done before, but I hear that people can do that. So maybe she wanted to use cloth? Hanger and then zip herself up and then she now damage the whole thing. So in that case, she's known as being an idiot.
But at least you need to know so that maybe you can tell Madam or maybe you can use zips that are, I don't know, doubly reinforced or whatever you fashion people, you will know what to do so that even if somebody's being an idiot and trying to use cloth hunger to zip themselves up using, you know, on your Immaculate designs, the zip on damage so needs analysis. You need to ask questions. Who did you talk to the last time?
What happened? The delivery person was his name. What time was he supposed to come? What exactly did you order? Do you have a tracking number? You know, as in ask any conceivable question. Because the more questions you ask, the more information that you have to now come up with solutions also so that if you need to escalate this thing to your girl or to Madam, you have enough ammunition to give them now. Olga, this. What's up?
My mom called, she did provoke, she did rake. Based on my investigation, I think this is what happened. I'm not sure what to do next, but these are the details and maybe these are the options or I can now come up or Madam can now come up with a solution for the problem. So need analysis. And then when you profile a solution, you always have to ask for feedback. Feedback just means OK in this situation. Now feedback just means are we on point?
Are we OK? So you propose what it is that you're going to do and I see for feedback, would that be OK? Ma, would that work for you? Let's say what else? How we put it. Any I'm sure you get my point because how you're going to ask for feedback will be different according to your temperament, your style of speaking, your personality and the level of rapport that you built with the person. But either way, we have to get some kind of feedback because we want to be sure that what we have proposed to solve the problem is going to be fine.
Now, there are some situations that you've run through all these things and you can't come up with an educated solution. And remember when I was talking about taking responsibility, that is where that whole part of you know, my name is Kuniya Digun. I am promising you that I'm going to take responsibility for this thing to resolve the matter. If we can't, I will escalate it to Mahoga or to my Madam. But either way, ma.
Don't worry, I. Will be in touch with you to make sure that this thing is resolved. And by the way, if you're the customer service Rep, if you're the only adigo, you will not help in this case. If you run through a couple of things, you come up with some options she's not happy with either. You escalate to yoga, but then people don't get back in touch with her. And then the customer is the one who calls back again. That's the kind of thing that makes Nigerians, that's the kind of thing that makes their heads not boiling.
So once you escalate, you need to be keeping the customer up to date. OK Ma, I spoken on my OGA. He's also appalled at what it is that has happened. He wants me to tender he's he's unreserved apologies and we are currently working on. You know, whatever, we're currently working on a way to resolve this matter. Please give us two hours. And I'll be in touch again to let you know how far that kind of thing, that kind of update,
being proactive, you know, that's all stop people from calling back and provoking. So let me stop here. But I hope you can see how there is a framework or there are possibilities for come up with frameworks to deal with all these sorts of things instead of letting people freestyle. So the problems occur because organ Madam owner of the business, you haven't thought of a framework for yourself or you have thought of the framework but you have not communicated it to other people.
Or you have communicated it to other people, but you didn't communicate it enough and you didn't role play enough or try and troubleshoot the system enough to be sure that it works and that is adequate. And that is going to cover different kinds of possible scenarios that occur on a customer service call. So no freestyling. Think about this ahead of time before there's a problem. Write it down. Don't leave it in your head.
If it's in your head, you can't help anybody. If I'm a customer service Rep and you have the call, the perfect framework for dealing with this thing, but you never taught me like what do you expect? Of course, if somebody calls, I'm going to be, I'm going to start freestyling. So make sure it's written down somewhere on a piece of paper on Google Docs or whatever. Then you should be having sessions every now and then where you guys will you train the people and then you troubleshoot.
Sometimes if there's a very difficult issue that won't be a special case. And then you call meeting. In fact, there's a family member that I know who had some medical issues and, you know, the hospital didn't handle it properly. Apologies were tendered and, you know, we had some conversations. But after that, I noticed that in the hospital, that particular issue was a subject of a management, you know, something, something where they called everybody.
OK, look, unfortunately this is what happened in the future when these sorts of things happen. This is how we have to deal with this thing. So we should also be taking advantage. We should also be doing these sorts of things. Now, some of you are going to say, Bros, I thought you said this is about customer service over WhatsApp. And since you started, you've not said anything about WhatsApp. Yeah, you're absolutely correct.
But The thing is, if you realize that all these principles that I've spoken about so far, listen, empathize, show some support, tender an apology, take responsibility, do some leads analysis to figure out what's going on, get some feedback. Madam, I've given you two or three solutions. Which one do you like? Which one works best? Would this one make you happy? If nothing works, escalate it to organ Madam. At that point, you've done what's within your own control.
You can see that that applies whether it's a phone call or whether it's a WhatsApp message or whether the person comes into the office. In fact, for WhatsApp messages, in my own opinion, if you can switch to phone call, you'll be better because sometimes you type some things and the effect is not there because trying to say I'm sorry in a WhatsApp message, it's not the same thing as you're on the phone with all my say, ah mommy, ah mommy, I
beg, I'm very sorry. The approach is different in text message. You just put I'm sorry. It's not the same as when both of you are talking and there's lots of things that are being communicated in voice. The principles also apply. Like I said, if somebody comes into the office, well, just be aware that sometimes people come into the office and they are very, very angry. Don't break somebody's head if that's the case, do the best you can.
In fact, maybe you get your line manager to handle it. You know, somebody who is better trained to deal with these sorts of things. But anyway, these things apply over WhatsApp. OK, almost 40 minutes. So let me bring this to a close now. The reason why I thought about this and specifically for WhatsApp is because I tried buying credit recently, net back credit and then there's a failed transaction with the app. I'm not going to say the service provider.
So what I did because that was around 2 PMSI reported the thing. There was phone number. I tried calling, phone number was not going through. I said OK, no problem. I saw WhatsApp number. So I now sent WhatsApp message that was around 2:00 PM. Then when I sent that message at 2 PMI attached the payment receipt and then I also attached the screenshot of what else screenshot of the failed notification, you know, thing in the app and I was trying to buy the credit.
Then I got a message back saying that OK, sorry, I'm listening on phone. Remember what I said that you're able to sometimes you can resolve customer services issues easier over the phone precisely because you can be more empathetic over the phone. It was unfortunate that the phone number was not working, so we had to be texting back and forth. Then I know what they bought. Message back saying that all agents are currently busy,
someone was going to assist me. That message came. I say OK, no problem. Then 3:00 PM is like one hour. I've not had anything. I sent another message, an automated prompt came back. Aliens are currently busy. Something, something, something someone will call to assist you non blah blah. 5:30 no response and I'll send a message saying how far the same bot response. All agents are currently busy some some some some blah blah blah blah, blah, blah, whatever.
Then I have some wrongs to do that day. I can't remember if my sister-in-law was around or anyhow, so you know one or two things and then plus there was not an emergency like would have been able to go another two or three days before the Nepal credits ran out. That's the, oh, sorry, those of you who are foreigners who are listening to this, when we're saying APAC credit, we mean utility electricity, electricity credits, yes, electricity credits and put it that way, the units that you need to keep the lights on.
So anyway, OSHA eventually, oh, that guy 11 PMI got a message, bring him. That's from the app saying vending successful. So I went down because our meter is downstairs in the new house. I went down and I just entered in the meter number. Everything loaded so there was no problem. So I now sent the customer service people a message saying that oh, my earlier complaint ignore thing has been ratified, Abby is ratified, rectified.
Everything has been rectified. I sent it and then our stupid air prompts bot prompt came again. All agents are busy. Something, something, something somebody will call you back to resolve. Like you see the reason why I say for Nigerian business people, some of us are jumping on this whole bot automated something too, too quick. We have not given the bots, we've not fed it with enough data. To be able to anticipate different kinds of situations where people are trying to reach out to the business.
And so because of this, the responses are painfully inadequate. Somebody has spent good money to buy credit through your app. The credit is not working. 2:00 PM bought response, which is useless. 3:00 PM bought response, which is useless. 5:30 AM bought response which is useless. 11:00 PM But response which is useless, this is not a good way to do customer service. In case some of you haven't figured this out, it's not a good way to do customer service.
And can you see why the average Nigerian, they provoke? Anyhow, by the time somebody, like I said, for me, I like to be calm, I like to be cool. So even if I had 11:00 PM, somebody eventually called me out. I've tried to have a cool calm conversation but you can see how for the average Nigerian, let's say the average person now for instance they had they used their last 20K to buy Nepal credit. The thing now says credit unsuccessful and maybe the unit now came unfinished.
They don't have another 20 K to try again. You can see how the person is angry and is bubbling from 2:00 PM until 11:00 at night and people say Nigerians are rude. It's not that Nigerians are rude, we just have crappy service in this parts of the world. So lots of people are angry and so they lash out. I'm not excusing that kind of behaviour. Well anyway, funny thing is eventually the business responded to me. Guess when at 3:00 AM in the morning.
Hello TGA, how can I help? 13 hours later, that was their response. Hello, Tara, Shima, George, Eddie. How can I help? 13 hours later, I reached out to you. 13 hours ago, there was a problem. I was sending messages, the silly agent says. How can I? They didn't even bother to read all the messages that came before to even get a sense of what the problem was. You want me to now repeat the whole thing of what happened? Anyway, let's just take some general lessons since we're already at 45 minutes with the phone.
You can be more, more empathetic. You can be more responsive. It's easier to put people to put people at ease and to get people to vent. So please make sure your phone lines are working. That'll be the easiest and the quickest way to resolve this because we're trying to resolve customer service issues by pinging back and forth this thing. Sometimes it can take hours and hours and hours. It's even worse if you're trying to e-mail back.
You'll find that you're taking several days now, you haven't resolved an issue. Meanwhile, if somebody took the initiative to pick up the phone, you'd be surprised that 15 minutes, 20 minutes when I don't finish, you resolve the matter. So please make sure the phone lines are working. Then when it comes to these things of bots and auto prompts, please, if you're going to use them, make sure you have the data set, you have fed it with enough scenarios and data sets and everything so that these things can adequately respond when somebody reaches out.
But in my opinion, I think too many of us are rushing to these bots and auto prompts. We are not there yet. The average business person is not there yet. Another problem that I have with the bots and the automated prompts is it usually gives people the illusion that all is good because the customer has been responded to. Well. Surely you can see that all is not good. All is not well because if there's been a response but the response has not been adequate,
then there's still room for the person to be angry. So left to me, most business owners, please kill this whole bot thing or do you have enough data to train these things well so that they can respond? Then please respond quickly. In Nigeria, we are not too all. I put it even by Nigerian standards, 1313 hours, that's bad. So respond quickly then let's see if you're a customer service Rep, please get into the habit of reviewing the history in the chat, in the e-mail, review the material.
Because too many customer service people, I noticed they pick up the phone or they e-mail you back and then they ask you, how can I help? What do you mean how can I help? I've already sent 567. Can you at least read it so that when you reach out in touch, the attitude will be more like, oh, Mr. Heyde, I'm really, really sorry. It looks like this and this and this and this and this was the problem. Is that the reason why I reached out earlier?
Yes, it was. Or has it been resolved or hasn't been resolved? Oh, I'm terribly sorry. This is not how we like to do business. My name is Kami. I do go. I'll take responsibility to make sure that this is resolved adequately. But before I do that, can I ask you a couple of more questions on to be sure that I have all the information that I need, you know, to rectify this. So please review the history, review the material.
Don't come and ask. We couldn't come and be asking how can I help? If somebody came into the office and the person provoked in front of the customer service Rep, the customer service Rep goes inside and then they call you, the manager. Don't come out the manager and ask you also, Madam, how can I help? The customer came in, I was angry, I provoked, I vented, I harassed somebody for 15 minutes. If you go and you come out and say, Madam, how can I help?
You're making matters worse because nobody wants to repeat themselves under those difficult conditions. Then let's see what else. Anyway, so that's basically. So those are the lessons said a lot about customer service. I just hope that somewhere between the 45 minutes of talking that we've been doing, they'll be able to get some good Nuggets about how to organise our customer service processes. But I guess the main thing that I want to pass across today is do not freestyle.
This thing is supposed to be planned, and it's supposed to be planned well ahead of time before somebody even gets angry. So plan it ahead of time, come up with the response, come up with the philosophy, come up with the framework ahead of time, put it down on paper. Make sure that everybody has been trained on your team. Practice it with everybody. Do role plays. When those situations happen where something breaks down terribly, take that.
That will serve as a case study for the next time. You will have sales meeting, you will have marketing meeting, departmental meeting. You will discuss it and then take the lessons that you learn from that and add it into your customer Service plan for the future. So that's all for today folks. If you have got any sales and marketing questions, bring them to me. Call, SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your time and attention.
I'll catch you, dear listener, at the next episode.