Don’t disregard your customers

One of the things I find most disgusting with businesses in this clime, whether small or big, is the penchant to disregard the customer. Recently, I called at a customer centre of one of the telcos operating in Nigeria to buy a Sim card. The customer service lady attending to me suddenly disregarded me and was attending to a call that was obviously personal without excusing herself or apologizing. For her, since I had already come to buy this Sim Card, I had no option but to bear with her un-courteous attitude.

Every business derives its existence, value and profitability from its customers. To treat these customers with any semblance of levity is to plan to fail. I do not want to say that the customer is always right. But every customer deserves to be heard or treated with dignity. In this free and competitive market place, customers should be courted with care, in order to keep them and continue to have them become your business ambassadors.

In our business environment, we have seen how businesses that never cared about the changing needs and demands of their customers gave way for emerging businesses that latched on these changing customer profiles.

Periodic customer satisfaction surveys are necessary for any business. Even when your business is enjoying customer loyalty, do not take this for granted. Always try to remain on top of the game by offering your customers more value than they are paying for. By so doing you would literally hold them ‘captive’ and continually remain competitive.