Competition and Customer Loyalty

     

Introduction

It takes about 20 times more energy to get a new customer as you will need to keep one you already have.  To keep a customer is to treat him with a measure of quality and excellence.  Whether the customer is an individual or organizational buyer, they all have expectations of the firm they deal with.  The basic determinant of whether they will become loyal to that firm or to a competitor is premised on whether those expectations are met or not.  This discourse is targeted at helping the participating firms to meet and exceed their customers/clients’ expectations.

The Effect of Competition

Who is a competitor?  Someone who produces and/or sells similar products to yours is your competitor.  All such companies involved in similar trade are in competition.  You are all in competition for the customers’ money; striving, trying to outperform one another, etc; but the choice of who to stay with, is the call of the customers to make, but you can help them.  Never let your competition shows your customer a better product than yours!  Do you want to avoid losing your clients to your competitors?  Then help them avoid seeing a better product in your competitor’s.  How?  Make your product the best in the market.  The same principle applies to both new and existing products/sellers in the market.  There are key areas you must focus on to keep your customers.  These will be examined shortly.

Why Customers Quit

1% die

3% move away

5% other friendships

9% competitive reasons (price)

14% product dissatisfaction, but

68% quit because of an attitude of indifference towards them by some employee.

A research conducted by Stanford University revealed that, money made in any endeavour is only 12.5% by knowledge, and 87.5% by your ability to deal with people.  John D. Rockefeller said, “I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun”.  Besides several other factors that could take your customers away and give them cheaply to your competitors, the attitude of your employee, or people who relate with customers matter the most.  Customers consider themselves your most priced assets, and they want to be treated as such.  Anything short of this, meets with a beckoning from competitors.

The single most important ingredient to the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.  Always realize that, any activity you engage in is capable of being a benchmark with which customers evaluate you, particularly in the earliest stages of their contact with you.  That is the customer’s privilege, not yours.

Do you want to have an edge over your competitors with regards to the battle for customers, then have an edge first, with your company attitude.  The customer has no business differentiating one person from another in your firm, every singular misbehavior by any one is seen as company misbehavior.  Customers don’t even see their own wrong, the company must just have a perfect attitude.

How to gain customers’ confidence and keep them

1.      Establishing contact with customers is a vital part of any company’s success.  The ability to maintain a welcoming environment involves a combination of the physical environment and the way the staff members communicate with the customers.

2.      Make sure you acknowledge and greet your customers within 3-4 seconds, as this is how long it takes for them to make a first impression on you and your business.

3.      Greet your customers with a smile and a ‘hello’; this will make a huge impact on the rest of your service.  If a customer is not acknowledged and does not feel welcome, they will leave the business and go elsewhere.

4.      Keep in mind the quality of customer service can never outweigh the quality of the people who provide it.  By making sure you keep those who work for you happy will ultimately improve the quality of service and experience your customers have.

5.      Treat your customers how you would like to be treated; its an easy principle.

6.      Management should lead by example, and set the standard.  If the management leads in excellent customer service, the customers will notice it every time.

7.      Try to remember your regular customers; welcome them back; make small talk of how they are; what have they been up to?  This builds rapport and makes them special; use their name.  Their regular attendance pays your wages.  Treat them with the respect they deserve.  You will keep them happy and returning to your business.

8.      Go out of your way for your customer, if they are after something specific, do everything you can to get their needs met.  For example, if a customer wants a specific product and you don’t have any left, make the effort to track one down from the warehouse or another store.  They will be really impressed and happy with the excellent service they have received and will return to your business again.

9.      Train your staff in proper customer handling procedures so everyone in the business is consistently providing the same high standard of service.  All staff needs to be trained how to handle difficult situations as this will add an overall good impression of the customer service your business provides.

10.  When you are hiring staff for your business, you want to make sure you are employing people who can fit in with your customer service standards.  Someone who can is not afraid to talk openly, smile, and be approachable.  The mistake some companies make is hiring people because they are desperate.  In turn, employ people who are not suited for the customer service industry, which in turn will hurt your business and reputation.

How to Sell Yourself to the Top

Mastering Your Products:   The Salesman Talisman

Introduction

Good sales actually begin with a good knowledge of the product to sell, and with good presentation, everything sells.  A terrific salesman is adept at both knowledge and presentation of his products and services.

By the way, let us establish first that a product is anything that is offered to the market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want.  That implies that, even you are a product.  Second, a product is the consumer’s solution.  The market is anywhere the product is presented for sales.  This includes the office where you go to submit your CV for a job opening. 

Third, everyone is a salesperson.  The world we live in is altogether a marketplace.  Your demeanour, vocal-ability, etc. are all part of the presentation process.

Mastering Your Products: To have a magic wand by which you can achieve exceptional sales level, the following keys are essential.

a)      Know Your Product

The first statement in this discourse already gives impetus to this point.  A man cannot give what he does not have; you cannot sell what you don’t know about.  Every salesperson must first take time out to understand the products that he is expected to sell.  Your knowledge must be convincingly deep.  If you are supposed to sell a variety of products, you have to pick the ones that appeal best to you, and study them deeply, knowing all that their functional dimensions.

b)      Be convinced about your product and constantly increase your confidence level:

Your customers can no more be confident about what you sell than you are yourself.  Do not try to talk anyone into buying anything that you are not sure of yourself, except you are ready to make a tool of yourself.  The confidence you have in the product will give you some measure of pride about it, and then influence the way you talk about it.

c)       Be versatile, understand your competition

A major highlight in any salesman’s presentation is when he (she) has to compare what he/she has to sell with the competitors’ products.  You must know about your competitors have to offer and be sincere enough to examine whether they are better than yours.  Whatever information or knowledge you get from this is a major point for you. 

d)      Be enthusiastic about your product

No matter what your competitors think about your product, it still has the potential to succeed in the market.  The onus is on you to love, cherish and be proud to present that product.  Your own enthusiasm will go a long way to help sell that product to the most important customer.  Note:  Your most important customer is the one sitting or standing before you at the moment.

e)      Understand what is unique about your product

To make good sales, to start with, your product must have a unique identifiable feature.  There must be something that distinguishes your product from your competitors’.  One of your sales pitches should be competitive advantage of that product compared to the competitors’ product.  Whenever you sell, emphasize the competitive advantage your product has, however, DO NOT bad-mouth your competition.  De-marketing your competition does not improve your own product or services.  Another sales pitch should be the benefit of that product to the customers, in other words, the solution that product offers for their problems.

In using uniqueness of your product as a tool, examine these two things:

-                    How that uniqueness will appeal to your target consumers.

-          

            What particular problems that uniqueness will help solve for your customers.

We will continue this discussion next time.  Keep a date with me.

Nigeria: Are we on the brink?

These are not ordinary times in Nigeria.  We are on the brink, to put it mildly.  Yet some people who claim to be our leaders are carrying on like we have no emergency in our hands.  I never really stuck my head out for anyone during the last elections but I had a soft spot for President Goodluck Jonathan and I don't know why.  I didn't like him that much but I felt for the sake of continuity, we didn't need a fresh person in Aso Rock.  Besides, he cut a picture of a person who somehow knew what he wanted to do and was ready to run Nigeria with a paradigm shift mentality.  But I was wrong obviously.  Nothing seems to suggest to me right now that Mr. President is different from our previous leaders.

I had expected by now that he would have sent an Executive Bill to the National Assembly to do a death blow on extravagant expenditure in government.  He didn't... The cost of running government is much higher today than it was 5 years ago. 

I had expected that the President would be very proactive with security matters by picking highly skilled security people and not follow the traditional pattern of appointing service chiefs on the basis of "next in line".  We have chiefs in our security services who are all confessing that the Boko Haram phenomenon caught them "unawares".  Security people using the word "unawares"?  It can only happen in Nigeria.  In saner societies, that statement alone can earn them an immediate sack.  That is why I like President Babangida for his security proactivity.  I was a mere teenager when a one-time Governor of Benue State (for 3 days) made a careless statement to the press.  The man was fired the next day and retired from the Nigerian Army.  You don't make statements like that in security circles in public!  Not even when you entertain the thoughts and entertaining such defeatist thoughts are even uncalled for!

The other day, the President told the nation that he was not a "general" nor was he "Pharoah of Egypt" and that we should not expect him to confront the challenges we have with a military mentality.  My question is?  Who then is the Commander in Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces?  If the president cannot think and act as a Commander in Chief, who does he expect to think? If we have a President who speaks in this manner, why would Boko Haram not become more audacious with their attacks?  Why should we have Damaturu turn into a killing field last week?  If the security services were on top of their jobs, wouldn't it be good security sense for them to become proactive in neighbouring states to Borno where the sect is operating from as its headquarters?

When the nation is reeling under heavy economic challenges, we have a government that should be protecting the defenseless citizens even thinking of taking away from them what they have as a cushioning effect.  Petrol at N65 is even expensive for a nation living on generators which is powered by fuel!  If we take the price above N100 per litre through subsidy removal, now that there no electricity, are we saying the ordinary Nigerian should not even fuel their generators again?  Are our leaders thinking?  If you are removing subsidy, can you correctly account for the funds that have been entrusted to you in the past? 

In my facebook page today, I have been advocating that the President and his team should take a pay cut by 50% and the National Assembly members should forgo 50% of their allowances and lead by example by engaging in deliberate sacrifices.  The truth is this:  these leaders do not really care about what happens to the ordinary Nigerian.

Ordinary citizens who try to galvanize others to protest the injustice and misgovernance are now being hounded by the State Security Service (SSS) wasting valuable man-hours that should have been spent working on the real criminals who are ravaging our streets with bombs.  Poor managers always major on the minor.  That is what is happening. 

Without sounding so pessemistic, I want to state clearly that we are heading for the status of a failed state without even taking a closer look to confirm this.  We must not forget that the average Nigerian is becoming restive daily through consistent frustration.  When a government fails to live up to its name and responsibility, it may end up bearing the brunt of the consequences from a population pushed too far to the wall.  A word is enough for the wise.

Things Won't Get Better; You Must Get Better

We are constantly living with the hope that the economy will improve - the reality is that the economy the world over has grown worse than it was 10 years ago.  The recent economic melt-down in the Western world is not ebbing.  There appears to be a respite but check out what is happening in the entire European bloc - Greek is about to pull the rest of Europe to its kneel.  The American nation is experiencing arguably its worse economic problems in all of its national history.  Unemployment is at its worst.  Their credit rating has nose-dived.  If these things are happening in so-called Developed World, what hope then is there for Third World or Developing nations like those in Africa?  

Things are not getting better.  Nigeria is sliding fast towards a failed state.  Insecurity is as its worst.  We have just joined the league of nations experiencing suicide bombing by its citizens.  This was never contemplated even five years ago.  Our roads are death-traps.  Recent alarm raised by the Corp Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission reveals that of the 192 nations with bad roads, Nigeria ranks second to the last on number 191!  This is inspite of the government's huge funds deployment to the building and rehabilitation of our roads.  Corruption is at its worst.  A minister in the cabinet was recently caught red-handed exchanging text messages with a private citizen and insulting him yet boasting that the citizen was poor because he refused to cooperate to get the minister to line his pockets with some government funds.  Our public officials are public thieves.  Their prosecution is like a show.   They now take pride to be docked and released as they continue to enjoy their loot.  Things are certainly not getting better.

It is no longer correct and right in our clime to count on the government.  Nigeria and most Africans are citizens on their own.  Its a survival of the fittest.  Our schools are poor and overwhelmed with malpractices as they are now certificate awarding centers.  Any wonder then that we should not expect better leaders tomorrow?

Is everything about doom?

Much as there is no hope in the horizon from civil authorities, the individual can rise above the dispair and make a mark.  In nations like America where the economy is on its kneel, private citizens who have discovered their God-given gifts and talents, developed them through sheer determination and created platforms for their deployment are making money daily and living large, oblivious of the storm around them.

I am a Christian, and I know there are many Christians reading this right now.  We were told that darkness, even gross darkness will cover the earth but we must arise and shine in the midst of the darkness.  If you wait for anyone to lift you, you will wait in vain.  It is time to dust ourselves from the shackles of discouragement and dispair - seek out what God put inside you and connect with Him for necessary wisdom to be the best you can be.

I have made up my mind not to cave in to any storm because I am an eagle!  The eagle is immuned to the storms. 

Can we meet and sharpen our minds?

If you in the Kano area of North West Nigeria, I will be huddling together with a group of friends under the auspices of the LoveHouse International Gospel Center to host a series of teaching/discussions on CHILLING OUT IN THE STORMS every Sunday evening throughout the month of November.  The event will feature practical discussion sessions on how to remain afloat in the storms and flood of economic depression and challenges.  The Royal Tropicana Motel on Zungeru Road, Sabon Gari, Kano is the venue and time is 4.30 pm every Sunday.

I am looking forward to meeting you this Sunday, 6th November, 2011.  If you miss out this Sunday, there remains 3 more weekends and the dates are 13th, 20th and 27th November, 2011.  Mark your calendar, adjust your schedules and come with your friends.

Its time to chill out in the storms!

In Search of Nigeria's Purpose-Driven Leadership

Nigeria is at a very critical crossroads as a nation.  And the nation is in dire need of a pragmatic leadership to stir it out of troubled waters.  For over 50 years, we have tettered along as a nation which drifts along without a clearly defined path.  Every successive government has tried to carry out "sweeping reforms" that practically erases whatever little gain its predecessors in office had garnered while it was in office.  This is partly due to the incessant military incursions in the polity of the country and coupled with the lack of leadership foresight and pragmatism by their civilian counterparts while in charge. 

This is the 21st century and the whole world is grappling with unprecedented economic challenges.  While a purpose-driven economic agenda is the immediate desire of a sane nation, Nigeria is contending with more other fundamental challenges that deserves critical attention if any economic theory is to have a lasting effect on its soil.

Multi-cultural/religious crisis

Our nation is sharply divided between the North and South, Christianity and Islam, Tribes and Ethnic groupings and all these interests are seeking very selfish portion of the soul of the country.  The question really is this:  Are we ready to dwell together as one people, one nation with one destiny?  This is not about some politicians forcing us through laws made by a few people in the National Assembly or some 1914 forced coallition made by Lord Lugard's British Colonial masters.  Can we sincerely ask ourselves from Sokoto to Calabar, Maiduguri to Lagos and from Kano to Port Harcourt if we are ready to dwell together as one nation and place other considerations like religion, tribe and regional groups aside as secondary?  Can we sincerely first and foremost be Nigerians before we break into our tribes and religions?  If we cannot get a leadership to resolve this seeming and intractable jig-saw puzzle for us as a nation, no medicine can possibly cure the many other social vices that confront us as a nation.

President Goodluck Jonathan does not look like that kind of leader who can confront these questions and ask Nigerians to debate on it.  He seems to have towed the line of other leaders who just pay lip service to the cliche "unity in diversity" without addressing the fundamental questions.  Are we really ready to be Nigerians indeed?  We need a leader who can confront this question and get answers and go for the jogular!  There is no point being afraid of breaking our nation down into nation-states for the sake of sustainable development.  There is no point being a giant with no direction in focus.

This may be the most audacious blog post I have written on the Nigerian state.

The Current Debate on Oil Subsidy Removal

The oil subsidy appears to be the only thing the impoverished Nigerian enjoys from its clueless governments over the years.  I have had issues in the last couple of years lambasting the late Colonel Gaddafi who ruled over Libya with iron fists for 42 years before going down to a popular revolution that started early this year.  Gaddafi was a maximum ruler but he provided infrastructure for his people.  He gave the Libyans water, gave them good roads and the average Libyans never really complained of extreme poverty the kind we have in Nigeria.  They just wanted a better society than what they had.  They wanted freedom in the political space, a democracy where they can be free to choose their own leaders.  That is what really caused the frustration which resulted in the revolution which has been carried out now.

Nigerian leaders talk about freedom of speech and a democracy which is actually meaningless to the ordinary Nigerian.  The other day, I took a trip to nearby Jigawa State in North West Nigeria from my base in Kano.  What I saw on my way (pictures of which I posted on my facebook page) really shocked me.  A little less than 20 kilometers outside the sprawling commercial city of Kano, mud houses littered everywhere on the route to Dutse, the Jigawa State capital.  These people who live in these mud houses were completely cut off from civilization without electricity and water.  They live in houses that were good only in the first decade of the last century!  Yet they live in a Nigeria where leaders steal billions of dollars which were allocated to their states for the development of the country!  Are they not worst than Colonel Gaddafi?  Shouldn't they be executed publicly for corruption?  Didn't Gaddafi deserve a better treatment compared to his Nigerian counterparts?

What really is the Nigerian enjoying from its government?  How does the billions of naira realized from the sale of crude oil trickle down to the Nigerian?  Only about 20 million Nigerians actually work for the government agencies, Organized Private Sector and quasi-governmental agencies.  Of a population of 160 million people, does the government create any conducive environment for the entrepreneurship of the remaining 140 million people?  The rest of us who survive by any means are simply lost and have no consciousness of government.  We are not secured - the police is just a relic of whatever it was meant to be - even milking the citizens who are trying to eke out a life by collecting N20 naira bribes from them on the street.  The entire country is wallowing in a huge darkness that is a huge embarassment to our size and resources as a nation.  The entire country in urban centers now run on generators.  We are emitting more gasious substance than the entire industries in the world - causing unprecedented global warming.  Why are we complaining of the spate of flooding in our cities this last raining season?  Check out the gas emission from our generators.  Someone should take the measurement and the shock we will find from the revelations will be awesome.

Has the government of Goodluck Jonathan considered these issues before contemplating the removal of the subsidy?  Whatever is draining the purse of the government is not the subsidy they give to the Nigerian people.  They should do a massive pay cut for all legislators for starters!  Lately I heard of the House of Representative members asking for money to buy N2.5m cars for each of them!  Imagine how much that will amount to.  Does anyone consider how much impact that can do on the lives of the people who are unemployed if they were given soft loans to start their own small businesses with just N500,000 each?  Now the legislators are going to spend that money on cars!  Don't they have cars before becoming representatives of their people?  They should use their old cars and SERVE the people!  That is the subsidy that should be removed!

The furniture allowances that Senators are paid every session is needless.  Remove that subsidy.  They already have houses.  Most of them are not poor people.  If they really want to serve and they know the condition of the nation's finance, they should give up their furniture allowance which runs into hundreds of millions of naira per Senator.  That sum can be channelled to build infrastructures through which employment can be generated for the suffering Nigerians.  That is where the subsidy should be removed.

No governor should enjoy any more security votes!  Their states are not secured.  They can't secure it.  Remove those votes and rechannel it!  Please the people's subsidy and cut your allowances and the excesses in the maintenance of government officials. 

I will come back and write further on the need to avoid the meaningless desire by the government to remove oil subsidy.  That will finally muzzle the common man out of existence.  Any palliative measures they want to use to cushion the effect will make no difference.  It will end up within the circle of officialdom. 

President Jonathan, please seat up and protect the Nigerians you swore to serve on May 29, 2011.  Stop running 250 kilometers in the wrong direction. Make a U-turn for the sake of the common man in Kotangora, the farmer in Ojigo, Benue State and the fisherman in Takum, Taraba State.  If you fail in this duty, the goodwill you garnered during your campaign will be washed away and you will join the rest of Nigeria's leaders who bore the name but had no impact on the lives of the people.  Is that the legacy you want to leave behind for your own children, and kins men in Otuoke?  I think not.