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Ifeanyichukwu Ezike

Ifeanyichukwu is a certified customer service professional with over 12 years of experience in the corporate world spanning from advertising to banking and is the founder of The Service House Consults Limited. She loves to read, meet people, and is very passionate about helping small business owners achieve business growth through exceptional service delivery and customer experience design. You can reach her via theservicehouseconsults@gmail.com.

Selling with Empathy: The Peculiar Nigerian Scenario

The world generally is experiencing some levels of economic hardship. There’s a lot of pressure on the world economies to strike a balance between opening their doors to the influx of immigrants and ensuring the standard of living of its citizens does not change due to the new economic pressure. We all know that the economic situation in Nigeria has taken a downward turn and more people are losing their ability to afford the kind of lifestyle they could boast of say some ten years ago or more. Selling with empathy is fast becoming the new tactic to ensure that businesses do not lose their clientele and can remain going concerns. Empathy has emerged as a powerful tool for building meaningful connections with customers. It’s no longer enough to simply provide a product or service; businesses must prioritize understanding and addressing the needs and emotions of their customers. This shift towards empathy-driven selling not only fosters trust but also leads to long-term customer loyalty. In this article, we will explore the five principles of applying empathy in customer interactions across all touchpoints of a business. Whether you run a school, hospital, supermarket, etc. employing empathy in dealing with your customers differentiates your business from your competitors. 5 Strategies for Selling with Empathy 1. Active Listening Active listening is the cornerstone of empathy in any customer interaction. It involves not only hearing the words spoken by the customer but also understanding the underlying emotions and concerns. When a customer feels heard, they are more likely to trust the business and feel valued. The rising inflation and hike in fuel prices have put a lot of pressure on the populace. Tips for Active Listening: 2. Understanding Customer Perspectives Empathizing requires putting oneself in the customer’s shoes and trying to see the situation from their point of view. This means recognizing their emotions, concerns, and motivations. By understanding their perspective, businesses can tailor their responses to better address the customer’s needs. Ways to Understand Customer Perspectives: 3. Responding with Compassion and Kindness Empathetic selling involves responding with compassion, even when faced with challenging situations. It means showing genuine care for the customer’s well-being and aiming to provide solutions that benefit them, rather than solely focusing on the sale. Practices for Compassionate Responses: 4. Customizing Solutions Empathetic businesses recognize that every customer is unique. They go beyond generic responses and seek to offer tailored solutions that address specific needs and preferences. This level of personalization not only enhances the customer experience but also builds trust and loyalty. For example, creating sales packages that will cater to your diverse customers such as installment payments, discounts, etc. Strategies for Customizing Solutions: 5. Follow-Up and Continued Support This is the road less traveled by most businesses. Empathy doesn’t end with the sale. It extends into the post-purchase phase, ensuring the customer feels valued and supported even after the transaction is complete. Regular follow-ups and ongoing assistance demonstrate a commitment to the customer’s long-term satisfaction. Actions for Continued Support: In conclusion, empathy-driven selling is a transformative approach that not only leads to increased sales but also builds a loyal customer base. To remain top of mind of your customers in our present economic realities, businesses need to step out of their comfort zones and demonstrate to customers that they understand the emotional key drivers of customer experience.

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Unhappy People Cannot Serve Happiness- Part 2

As a continuation of the last article, creating an enabling environment for employees is key to improving their levels of productivity and making them serve happiness to customers. Employee delivery of a wholesome customer experience can be negatively impacted by the following factors, which can be detrimental to your business if not addressed as quickly as possible. These include: 1. Emotional baggage: Unhappy staff may carry emotional baggage from their personal lives that can affect their ability to serve happiness. Negative emotions such as anger, sadness, or frustration can be contagious and impact others’ moods. 2. Lack of motivation and enthusiasm: Unhappy employees may lack the energy and enthusiasm needed to make others happy. Their negative mindset and low mood may prevent them from demonstrating the cheerfulness and positivity that happiness often requires. 3. Inability to empathize: To serve happiness to others, it is essential to understand and empathize with their needs and desires. Unhappy staff may struggle to connect with those around them, making it difficult to deliver a genuinely joyful experience. 4. Lack of self-care: People who are unhappy may struggle to take care of themselves physically, emotionally, and mentally. Neglecting self-care can lead to burnout, exhaustion, and emotional distress, making it difficult to focus on others’ needs. 5. Inconsistency: Unhappy employees may find it challenging to deliver happiness consistently over time. The negative mood or emotional state may become more prominent and affect their ability to provide a consistently positive and uplifting experience for others. More Winning CX Strategies for the Team 1. Create a working atmosphere where staff feel comfortable to speak about what’s bothering them. Everyone needs a listening ear and having someone to talk to about it helps to relieve the burden no matter how little. 2. Have Team bonding sessions with your employees. Everyone needs some time off work. Periodic fun activities with your team creates a relaxed atmosphere and you might glean a few insights about your staff which helps you know them better. 3. Every human is vulnerable. Earn the trust of your staff during these vulnerable moments. Lend a helping hand and reassure them of your support. 4. Have a financial aid system tailored to help them. It could be a soft loan which can be deductible from their salaries. The harsh realities of present day Nigeria is taking its toll on the workforce. In conclusion, one of the pillar of the success of a business’s customer experience design lies in the happiness of its employees. The satisfaction of a employee is closely tied to the satisfaction of the customer. Indeed, it is vital that businesses factor this into the overall experience design to achieve its goal – increased profitability.

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Unhappy People Cannot Serve Happiness- Part 1

“Unhappy people cannot serve happiness” I was privileged to listen to the Founder of Ruff n Tumble, Adenike Ogunlesi, outline the simple yet effective ways she has used customer experience strategies to scale her business to a multi-million enterprise. Her words made me reflect on why it might still be a long journey to the promised land regarding service delivery in Nigeria, especially with MSMEs. It is sad to note that despite the plethora of write-ups and voices clamouring for an improvement in how startups handle their service delivery, little or nothing is being done about it. These businesses often forget that customers now have options with minimal attention span. This means they can easily take their money somewhere else. One then wonders why it seems to be such an unachievable feat. Entrepreneurs such as Mrs Ogunlesi, who have realised the goldmine an excellent customer service offers to a business, have jumped on the train, and they sure are not looking back. Let’s see what these strategies entail below. CX Winning Strategies for Small Businesses The below may sound mundane or even trivial, but you would not know just how powerful they are in bringing huge ROI (return on investment) to your business. Let us examine a few of them: Conclusion The entrepreneurial path is never an easy one, especially in Nigeria coupled with the growing economic difficulties.  As you seek quantitative ways to boost your business, the qualitative weigh twice as much and do not think these are not measurable because they are. It requires a lot of investment. As we round off the first part of this article, be sure to be on the lookout for the concluding part in the next publication. If you enjoyed reading this and think it is useful, please drop your questions and/or comments and don’t forget to share this. Read more: Unhappy People Cannot Serve Happiness- Part 2

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Customer Service: A Customer Retention Strategy

This is a little insight of how customer service has taken the front burner as a customer retention strategy post the Covid pandemic. Let us face it, COVID-19 really opened our eyes to a lot of things and has indeed changed the modus operandi for businesses. 2020 saw a gravitational shift from focusing on just the sale of the product to attending to the convenience of the customer. Two years later there is still an urgent need to use customer service as a pivot for your business and it will be so. We have witnessed the shift of businesses from the usual brick and mortar to the online space such that the cost-benefit of running your business online, so far, has made the cost of having a physical presence pale in comparison. Needless to say that managing your brick and mortar has taken on a new dimension. So have you thought about how applying great customer service can help retain your customers? Your goal should be to ensure that the entire experience of the customer while interacting with your business should be positive, commendable, and memorable. This is achievable if you have a customer-centered mindset which entails creating loyalty magnets at each interaction of the customer within your business. A Simple Customer Retention Strategy Most small businesses erroneously think that it is only when they do the “big things” that customers appreciate them. NO. It is more of a case of moving from doing the “little things right the first time to doing the great things. Whether you agree or not, the size of your business has a way of conditioning the psyche of the customers in their expectations of what your service delivery should be. Aim at getting those mundane things right. Attain the minimum expectations and you will see that it really doesn’t cost much to turn a customer into your brand advocate. The word “PLEASE” as simple as it sounds, possesses the spark to improve your customer retention. Let’s see how….. P – Pay attention to what your customers’ needs are. It could also be what they are telling you, some customers may not even speak at all but will simply act. L – Listen to your customers, your suppliers, your staff, your competitor and your business environment generally. This will help you stay updated and even help you anticipate areas of improvement before your customers tell you. E – Execute on the feedback you have received. If you ask customers for feedback and you don’t do anything with it, what’s the use then? A – Ask questions in areas where you may not be knowledgeable. As business owner, you also need training. Make it a way of life, you are setting a standard S – Serve! This is critical to the success of your business. Also bear in mind that your staff are watching. Let them see you serve not just hear you say it. E – Exceed your customers expectations.  Because customers have a minimum expectation, consistently exceeding that expectation is the magnet to increasing the number of customers who will remain with your business. The Bottom Line Using customer service as a customer retention strategy can be done in varying degrees. However, it is noteworthy that whatever scale you decide to undertake, the focus should be on ensuring that it is maximized for ROI.

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Five Basic Customer Needs

Customers come in contact with businesses because they have a need that those businesses can cater to and make life easier for them. Their awareness of what a business does comes about through various means. It could be word of mouth, social media, newspaper, business listings and the likes so regardless of the size of your business, customers will always look out for five basic things as it plays a vital role in their purchase decision. With the pandemic, it became clear that businesses must make every effort to ensure that their activities are centered on giving customers their best if they want to remain in business. In addition, customer’s expectations are on the increase and so it is important to keep these little reminders in mind as they implement their business strategies for the year. The 5 Basic Customer Needs Value for money: Job loss is on the increase because business income lines are thinning out. This has made customers become more deliberate about how they spend their money: the focus is now on getting the essential items like food, shelter, etc. To stay topmost on the minds of your customers, you have to be a value giver at every interaction. Ensure that what they are getting measures up to the amount invested. If you exceed their expectations while at it, fantastic! Favourable pricing: In Nigeria, for instance, parting with cash is increasingly a hard thing to do. Customers are looking for businesses who will not only give them value for money spent but whose price is equally pocket friendly. Agreeably, the cost of running a business is on a daily increase so if you want to attract premium customers, it is imperative that you deliver top notch customer service and that your product is of high quality. Swift action: Customers are increasingly impatient and they want to spend as little time as possible with their transactions. This is a consequence of having within their reach ample information to inform their buying decision and a plethora of alternatives to choose from. It’s no longer enough to just be available, you’ve got to also be swift in your transactional activities. Respect: This probably ranks about 75% of the reasons why a customer would continue their patronage of a business. Remember repeat purchases is what keeps your business going. Each customer you let go is you letting money go to your competitor. Respect for customers and staff should be entrenched as one of your core values within your business. Appreciation: Customers will keep flocking to businesses who appreciate them and make them feel special. Your customer shouldn’t be just another addition to the number. Appreciate them for choosing to spend their money on your business and this can be done in various ways and may not always require you spending money. Conclusion Regardless of the size of your business or organization, all customers tend to want the same things: your attention. When customers get to receive these basic human considerations from you, it becomes easier to align with customers needs and can even raise the bar in your service delivery. If you want premium profits, you’ve got to give premium value. Found this useful? Please leave a comment.

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How to Create a Customer Journey Map

The importance of understanding the customer’s journey through your business remains an important aspect to be considered when designing processes that are aimed at enhancing the smooth running of your business. Regardless of the size of a business, one common factor is that there must be a customer journey. Determining what that journey is, depends on the aim of the business and the strategy it has adopted. It is vital that small business owners know the importance of understanding the customer’s journey as it aids the customer experience design and management. To appreciate the concept of the customer journey, let us attempt a definition. From the first contact with your business to the completion of the transaction, there is a story to be told…… the customer’s story. The customer journey simply refers to the summation of the customer’s experience in making a purchase, be it a service or product. It is a tool used to visualize what your customers’ experience is through your business. It is the assessment of your business value promised to the customer. Say you own a boutique along Adeniran Ogunsanya in Lagos and your value proposition is “your one-stop-shop”. Anyone walking into your boutique will be expecting to get everything relating to fashion there, right? Let’s draw up some questions to help us identify the possible customer touchpoints in this kind of business. 1. Is it easy to locate (brand visibility)? 2. In comparison to your competitors, how likely is your prospective customer to find you? 3. Available parking space for customers who drive-in? 4. Is it easy to park a vehicle without it being towed by the government authorities? 5. Is there available security personnel? 6. Is he or she warm, welcoming, and helpful? 7. Upon entering the boutique, is there personnel to welcome the customer? 8. Are the items displayed properly with the price tags attached? 9. Is the sales personnel knowledgeable and helpful? 10. Did the customer find what he or she was looking for to buy? 11. If not, what was the next course of action, the customer walks away? 12. If yes, was the price competitive? 13. If not, did the sales personnel cross-sell or offer an acceptable alternative, or did the customer walk away? 14. If the Customer wants the item, how was it packaged? 15. Did the salesperson thank the customer after the transaction? 16. Transaction completed, what next? With the questions above, one can pretty much draw the customer journey map for this business. When business owners have a clear picture of what their customers go through within their business, it makes it easy for them to spot a point in the journey that needs to either be removed or reviewed. It is recommended that when creating a customer journey map for your business, do it with an outside-in approach. This simply means designing it with optimizing the convenience of the customer in mind. Benefits of Having a Customer Journey Map   Having a customer journey map brings many benefits to a business including: It will help you identify ways to serve your existing customers better. It helps you identify your potential customers. It helps you identify shortcomings in your business. It helps position the business to increase productivity It gives all stakeholders in the business a bird’ eye view of the customers’ experience and guides their role in enhancing it. Tips to Note When Creating a Customer Journey Map Identify your buyer personas. Knowing who your likely buyers will be, will guide your design process. Identify and include all participants in the customer’s journey. This means that you can’t design it alone. Involve your staff. They get to interact more with the customers and can provide valuable insights to improve the customer’s experience. Build the map around measurable KPIs (key performance indicators) so that each outcome can be measured to check its impact on business profitability. Be mindful to include points for empathy. In our sample questions above, you will easily identify moments of empathy. It is a major customer experience driver in today’s business world. The above tips are not exhaustive. Your customer journey map can be designed uniquely for your business. The essential thing to note is that when your customer’s moment of truth reflects your own moment of truth about your business, it would be one of two things: you may either be doing something correctly or you need to review your business process. Hope you found this useful. Your thoughts?

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Entrepreneurs and Customer Service Delivery

Entrepreneurs, customer service delivery begins with You! Not every purchase will work out well!  Agree? Every business owner must accept this reality so that they can channel their energies properly. Let’s look at the possible reasons why you may not make that sale. 1. Your Customer Avatar –  Do you have one? A great number of small businesses fail to see the need to create a customer avatar. There is also the understanding that many local business owners may not understand what a customer avatar is so I ask, what customer pain is your product or service addressing? If you can answer this, you’re already building a customer avatar. Next, question – Is your product or service properly aligned to address this customer’s needs? If it is not, what are you doing to ensure it is well-aligned? It could also be that you missed a sale with an existing customer, have you taken time to find out what went wrong? According to Forbes, you not only create an ideal customer avatar but you can also discover one. 2. Response Timeline Having an online presence for your business is fantastic because COVID-19 has opened our eyes to the treasures of the online market but then it has also presented business owners with another problem – highly impatient customers!  I have been disappointed times without count by businesses with a large social media followership but with terrible response timelines. If you have a social media page for your business, how do you cater to customer inquiries made when you’re not online? You’re leaving lots of money on the table if you don’t have a strategy to address this. 3. Selling Skills Some people are born with the ability to convince others that stone can be melted to form water and that water can become a human being! Yes, this is me pushing my imagination but you get my drift? Some people are that good while some need to acquire the skill. You can’t make a sale if you cannot convince customers of how your product or service can ease their challenges. The fact that you are an entrepreneur does not mean that you do not need further education. What you would be thinking of is the magnitude. The advancement in the use of social media has opened up avenues for people to offer coaching services at an affordable price. Get a business mentor that will guide you on how to sell better. You will be amazed at how much the knowledge gained will change your business for the better. 4.  Employee Experience If you are in the habit of barking orders at your employees, you’re not doing your business any good. Do you know that your staff are the first customers to your business? Do you know that your employee experience translates into your customer experience? “When employees are happy, they are your very best ambassadors” – James Sinegal Strategies for improving customer service delivery As a business person, ensuring that your business stands out in excellent customer service delivery should be at the forefront of your business growth strategies. You might be in a market saturated with competitors but not all will serve the customer in the same way. Here’s where you should aim to stand out positively. The following tips are to serve as a guide for you to design your customer service approach: It all begins with a smile: If as a small business owner your countenance does not encourage amiability or approachability, you are sending the wrong message. There is a tendency that your staff will take it as a norm and behave the same way to your customers. The art of saying “Thank You”: It is only humane that you express gratitude to the one who makes your life easier by helping you grow your business. The gratitude shown to your staff at any given opportunity rubs off on them and indicates that you see them as co-creators a sense of respect Your poor attitude may be killing your business without you realizing it. Customers are watching your every move. How you conduct your business says a lot about who you are. No one pours from an empty cup. When you champion the cause of excellent customer service as a business owner internally through your workers, your customer will keep coming back.

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