Experts have predicted that by the year 2020, service, or customer experience will overtake price and prod-
uct as the key differentiator for businesses. In other words, the 2020 customer will literally be extremely
demanding, perhaps even overbearing.
July - September 2015 •
The Lion King
• 9
I’m not “a Customer”
I Am “Miss KeMi”
By Kemi Fashina
I am not “a Customer”. I am “Miss Kemi”. |
Cover Story
seemed like some huge joke and I sus-
pect that LOL was erroneously deleted
from it, while being transmitted.
So I wonder; how come I am being
sold a N100 daily internet subscrip-
tion? I am a post paid customer, my
subscription is valid anytime I receive
the message, the line is official (paid
by global, award winning Employer)
and I am on a non-stop monthly plan.
Perhaps, if someone kept records they
should have known that N100 per day
internet plan cannot be this custom-
er’s headache, especially when my
subscription is on auto-renew.
But I know what the problem is. It is the
same problem that made me receive
a Happy Father’s Day message, when
I clearly filled “F” for gender, from
another provider. This same problem
made me get an e-mail on loyalty for
a product I never purchased. And it
is the same problem that got me a
Happy Birthday greeting five months
to my birthday.
So, I sort of figure out that I am just
another CUSTOMER and nobody really
cares whether I am male, female or
hermaphrodite, as long as business is
“moving”.
However, businesses that must stand
the test of time know that their suc-
cess will depend on how well they
know their customers. And “knowing”
means understanding the seemingly
insignificant details about that one
customer.
Imagine if you shopped new born
baby milk from a certain store con-
sistently and after one year, got an
e-mail from that store about the best
toddler milk types. Would that not
make you think that the store has
been following your journey and has
anticipated your needs, even before
those needs became apparent to
you? How would that make you feel
– special, thought about, cared for?
Organisations must leverage data and
analytics to provide
individualized ser-
vice.
It is about one customer at a
time, not a group or a data set. They
must also be willing to invest in the
technologies that will make this pos-
sible. The focus should be customer
intimacy and the time to devise effec-
tive customer service strategies is now,
not later. It is no longer about selling
products or services, but selling posi-
tive, memorable experiences.
But there is GOOD NEWS!
At UBA, we are not just mouthing it.
We understand this fully well. And we
frankly admit that we are not perfect
yet, but we are continuously evolving
strategies and devising methods to
provide individualised service to every
one of our customers, regardless of
how many millions we have across the
continent. We will devote our atten-
tion to each customer as if we have
just one customer to serve.
Our new Personal Banking strategy
underpins our commitment to this
goal.
This segmentation approach revolves
around the principle of bespoke
service which focuses on individual
desires and needs of every customer.
So, while some people are waiting till
year 2020, we can say that we already
living in that future.
C
ustomers will be in charge of the
experiences they receive and
expect personalized service irre-
spective of the number of customers
a service provider has to attend to. It
goes even further - customers then will
no longer expect that their needs be
met, they will demand that their needs
be anticipated. Tough job?
Well, that is fast forward five years from
now. Let us attend to the present.
I personally think that “Service” is one
of the most touted terms. If this sounds
hyperbolic then glance around and
think of some mission statements,
tag lines or catch phrases frequently
thrown around by brands - how many
times did “service” feature?
If everyone is saying it, does this mean
that every organisation understands
the importance of providing good
service, or could there possibly be an
unwritten code which mandates its
inclusion in every corporate position-
ing message?
And if you are like me, you are possi-
bly wondering if proclaiming customer
service has suddenly become a fad
without a genuineness to know the
customer and treat him or her as an
individual rather than a data set.
So how well do our service providers
actually know us or how much of us
do they know?
In the past couple of months, I have
been receiving a text message from
my GSM operator telling me that I can
browse for just N100 a day. It reads
something like “who says you too
can’t use the internet?” The message
