Newsletter February by ULOMA UMEANO

Centric Hub

Vol. 1 Issue 12

APTITUDE, ATTITUDE & ALTITUDE© -‐ The

CORE with Uloma

Going Beyond The Call Of Duty – The Kind Of Service That Works!

-‐ Myles Makafui

Customer Service Training And It’s Challenges. -‐ Nneka Obuotor

Petals of Steel

WELCOME to the

CENTRIC HUB!

Hello friends, How has the month of January been to you? Have you gotten right into the swing of things or is it starting off a bit late? Either ways, we are here to spice things up a bit for you by sharing some interesting and educative materials. This month, we’ll be sharing some notes from a few of our facilitators, Nneka Obuotor is a fantastic facilitator with a special ability to connect with her audience whoever they are, she’ll be sharing some insights with us. Myles Makafui is our dynamic facilitator who always has an anecdote guaranteed to crack you up so sit back, relax and enjoy. Remember, we look forward to your feedback so please share! Check us out on Facebook and do take the time to like us.

Enjoy! 2

“Literally everything we do, every concept perceived, every technology developed and associate employed, is directed with this one objective clearly in mind – pleasing the customer.” -‐  Sam M. Walton, CEO Wal-‐Mart

How you personally de>ine a word subconsciously in>luences to a great extent how you respond to that word. For instance, the words ‘Local’ and ‘Indigenous’ literally refer to the same thing i.e. anything that relates to a particular locality or neighbourhood. However, these words have different kinds of feelings associated with them. If I were giving a speech in support of ‘Made in Nigeria’ products, I would use the word ‘Indigenous’ to refer to them. On the other hand, if I were giving a speech against ‘Made in Nigeria’ products, I would use the word ‘Local’. ‘Indigenous’ has a patriotic feel to it but ‘Local’ has inferiority feel to it.

The way we personally de>ine, perceive and feel about service is very important because it shapes every interaction we have with our customers. When we de>ine service based on the exchange of monies for goods and services, we miss the overall point of Customer Service. Service is beyond the delivery of a product or a service – it is about the experience that the customer takes away from the encounter. For a lot of service providers, service is simply giving the customers want they want and meeting their expectations. 4

There is nothing wrong with meeting our customers’ expectations only, however, except you have monopoly of your industry, you have stand out amongst your competitors. The recent war going on within the telecoms industry that has witnessed Telcos creating adverts that are clearly aimed at their rivals using subtle pointers such as brand colours and numbers , just goes to show how far some companies are ready to go to attract rival customers – it’s a jungle out there! A jungle where the rule that works is not necessarily-‐ ‘the survival of the >ittest’ but rather, ‘the survival of the smartest!’.

When we provide service exactly how customers want it, it’s cool. However, when we go beyond what is expected, when we choose to put in extra effort, when we decide to use our initiative and engage proactivity, we cannot go unnoticed – we must be talked about! Our customers will be thrilled and can’t help but tell others about the great experience they received from us. We live in a society where circumstances such as poverty, deprivation, crime and leadership neglect has conformed many to not being nice. It’s so bad that when someone seems overly nice, it becomes strange to people.

(Con:nued overleaf)

This simply means that any organization that To make this pays the price to consistently deliver uncommon, happen, we have unusual and u nequalled Customer Service will be to make them see on the lips of everyone. what they have Remember that the objective of exceptional never seen before, hear Customer Service is loyalty, advocacy and long-‐ what they have term relationship building. never heard To make this happen, we have to make them see before, feel how what they have never seen before, hear what they have never they have never heard before, feel how they have felt before and never felt before and experience what they have experience what never experienced before. Therefore, the capital they have never responsibility lies on us to begin to do the experienced things that we have never done before. We before. have to think and act outside the box and break free from the ‘Conventional Service Mind-‐Set’. To achieve this dimension of stellar service delivery, three key things amongst others must be engaged. The ability to take INITIATIVE. Initiative is the difference between adequate Customer Service and Customer Service that wins you a customer for life. It’s the ability to act before you are prompted to. Initiative is when a plumber >ixes a broken tap and calls back a week later to see if it’s functioning well. It’s when a petrol station attendant washes your window and checks your oil while you buy fuel, it’s when the power company tells its subscribers beforehand of an intended maintenance that will result in a power outage and humorously, it’s when Uche or rather ‘Usey’ is told “face ya work” when she calls a customer who just ported to her network to know if he has any complaints.

2 ATTITUDE. It’s important to have the right attitude to reinforce

it. Attitude is something that will always be talked about again and again in every Customer Service situation because it is the most important element of service delivery. Initiative on its own may not be effective because what you do is not as important as how you do it. A positive, ‘Can do’ and ‘desires-‐to-‐do’ attitude reinforces the greeting, the conversation etc. and demonstrates both a willingness to help and thoughtfulness in meeting the customers’ needs. EXCEED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS. It’s important to Under-‐ Promise and Over-‐Deliver. Under-‐promising helps to reduce customer expectations and when expectations are low, it’s easy to meet and ultimately exceed them. When we Over-‐Deliver what we Under-‐Promise, it heightens the impact of our service delivery. Under-‐Promising and Over-‐Delivering creates the perception that we are more effective and ef>icient than we really are – and it’s all about perception! Always remember……. There is only one boss, and whether a person shines shoes for a living or heads up the biggest corporation in the world, the boss remains the same. It is the CUSTOMER! The customer is the person who pays everyone’s salary and who decides whether a business is going to succeed or fail. In fact, the customer can >ire everybody in the company from the chairman (CEO) on down, and he can do it simply by spending his money somewhere else. Keep making your customers happy and keep the service >lag >lying. -‐ Myles E. Makafui | Growth Strategist™

February Birthdays!

Chinedu Duru Ibrahim Muhammad Kingsley Nwachukwu Nkechi Ndidi Uchelor Ijeoma Nwachukwu Henry Itohan Igbinovia Mary Folarin Adeyemi Idris Ibekwe Johnkennedy Uchenna

Rachel Nwankwo Edward Idemudia Agboare Chinonyerem Nwanguma Asolo Santus-‐Michael Onyinyechukwu Chineme Agogbua Kizito Chineme Okorie Rhoda Tolani Jenyo

CELEBRATING ONE OF US

Happy Birthday Ibrahim

Petals of Steel is exhibition to watch

Petals of Steel

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This will be totally different from your average Art Exhibition. It will showcase the beauty and strength that is ‘Woman’! Please be a part of this wonderful experience, you will be glad you did.

Watch this space for more information and for sponsorship details please call 07065559525

LAUGH IT OFF 10

CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING AND ITS CHALLENGES. - Nneka Obuotor

The ability to communicate the need for excellence in Customer Service delivery in most cases is met with a lot of road blocks. In my experience, I have noticed a "closed mindedness" in some participants when we try to impart the importance of treating every customer like a king. This attitude is very common with mid level management, they always feel that they already know everything and therefore, there's nothing else you can teach them. They feel jaded about their jobs and that there's nothing you can add to their wealth of knowledge especially concerning handling dif>icult customers It is always an exhilarating challenge to get them to change their mindset about excellent Customer Service delivery. It requires con>idence, patience, and in some instances relating true life experiences, to get them to sit up and listen and then consequently put to practice what was taught. It can also be nerve racking at times when they bring up scenarios that seem to have no solution and then look at you to provide an answer. For some of these examples, there are no clear cut answers. In the end the customers issues might not even be resolved but the attitude that the service provider puts out there can make or break the customer; and consequently alter (good or bad) the customer’s perception of the company’s image/brand. 11

Customer Service is not a Department, it is all about the attitude. Not just any attitude but the “RIGHT” attitude

Attitude to work is so vital! When one comes to work with a positive attitude it goes a long way in helping one handle even the most dif>icult situations At this point I would like to say that sometimes when we facilitate/train mid level staff, threats are also used, we remind them that if they cannot bring the right attitude to the job, the organization will look for people who can bring it and then consequently they will be replaced. At the end of the training, it’s usually heartwarming to see people change their preconceived ideas and become open minded to try out new approaches to handling and dealing with customer objections and dif>iculties. This is the beauty of what we do and the source of the passion behind our job and success.

Laugh Out Loud!

behavioural sciences, it is ever evolving. Customer Experience Management is one of those few organisa:onal competences that must always stay on the “up”. There cannot be an off day! You must always strive to go beyond what the customer expects. In serving the customer, we must always reach for the sky and hope to end up on a treetop at the least, because aiming for the treetop may mean that you never leave the ground! In our classes, we make it clear that Customer Sa:sfac:on is not Customer Service… It only becomes Customer Service when the customer is absolutely delighted! That demands a stretch on the part of the service-‐giver and usually results in a Moment of Magic (for the customer) who therefore happily shares his wonderful experience with up to 9 – 12 people. APTITUDE A service giver can only give what he has. This is a sec:on that ensures that the par:cipants understand what is right and what is wrong. Knowing the fundamentals establishes a standard Ground Zero and therefore what the employers can begin to build expecta:ons. It is really a “breaking in”, a series of “aha! moments” that begin to help the par:cipants view service from the point of view of customer experience. ATTITUDE Service is all about aWtude. When the aWtude is wrong the service will definitely go bad. The larger chunk of our training goes prac:cal with ac:vi:es and role plays that aim to achieve convic:on that aWtude can change. We tell, we show and then we get them to demonstrate that a change in aWtude starts from a change in thinking. Posi:ve, solu:on-‐ oriented thinking will always breed good service. ALTITUDE The overriding inten:on must always be to not only meet, but surpass customer expecta:ons every :me. I borrow from a friend’s expression here. Briefing us on the amendments required in the training content for the bank’s orienta:on class the Head of the Training Academy said to us, “I want grace under fire. No maêr what may have gone wrong and is yet to go wrong… stay calm and giving”. The trick is in refusing to accept the actual situa:on as “out to get you”, but to insist that a posi:ve story can s:ll be told! Uloma

A PublicaAon of Customer Centricity Limited Contact Address: 15 Biaduo Road, Oﬀ Keﬃ Street, South-‐ West, Ikoyi, Lagos. Nigeria TwiXer: @c_centricity Facebook: hXps://www.facebook.com/pages/Customer-‐CentriCity-‐Limited/ Email: www.customercentricityltd.com Telephone: +234 0 7065559525

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