October 2014

Is everyone out there monitoring and responding to what their customers are saying in social media? Social Media platforms mainly Twitter and Facebook have gained popularity as channels for customer feedback all over the world and Kenyans have not been left behind. For a number of days there has been an interesting discussion on twitter with the taglines #GoodCSKE and #BadCSKE. On Face Book, a quick scan on several Companies’ official pages signals an increase in customers’ engagement. Many have tweeted, blogged or updated their status highlighting bad experiences expecting to receive feedback. I come across information indicating that on average 58% of the tweets on poor service are not responded to. In Kenya this figure could actually be over 90% since the majority of the companies are even not aware about such tweets. Those that have Social Media presence do not always have a seamless follow up system. It is no longer true to say…

A case Study of Stima Sacco’s Continuing Journey to Service Excellence The journey started with a single step, a commitment by Paul Wambua the Stima Sacco CEO to lead a service improvement initiative. Soon after, a customer service conversation with the entire leadership team was in full swing. I recall alerting the team that the discussions we were about to have and the actions we were about to take were likely to touch on every aspect of the organization, and for sure they did. The Dilemma For the last 4 decades Stima Sacco has served its members. Members have had access to a wide variety of credit products and services and they have also enjoyed the front office banking services. After having been appointed CEO in 2010 Paul felt that there was a missing link in how the Sacco viewed and served its members. “Was it the culture, the strategy, the people, the processes or all…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation of July 17th 2012 By Lucy Kiruthu The ethics debate goes on. On one end it is driven by the insertions in our new constitution. The chapter 6 on leadership and integrity has especially raised many points to ponder and so has section 46 on consumer rights. On the other end the debate has been initiated by scandals that leave us with many questions than answers on commitment levels to customers. It is for this reason that I feel we need to take a look at the ethical dimension of customer service. Most will agree that many of the issues in business ethics have been about leadership, human resources, production, accounting and marketing. Why has customer service been left out on this list? It is no doubt that it has a straight forward ethical dimension. It has been a must have value for many of our organizations. Values and…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation of December 10th 2013 In 1965, 2 years after Kenya, Singapore became independent. The country has attracted many admirers and seems to live its values of integrity, service and excellence. It leads the world in GDP per capita and it is renowned for high integrity levels. Last year it was rated by World Bank as the easiest place in the world for SMEs to do business. Additionally, its urban planning and its education system are among the world’s best. As we celebrate 50 years of independence here are 5 lessons we can learn from Singapore. Driving a culture of service Singapore continues to drive a strong service culture. You probably have heard of Ron Kaufman, in 1990 the government of Singapore invited him to help create the Service Quality Centre to improve the nation’s service culture. If you have visited the award winning Changi Airport, you have witnessed it.…

Many Organizations aim to Train their Staff in Customer Service this Year Lucy Kiruthu In a competitive environment, repeat business should be every smart company’s desire. Customers return mainly when satisfied or if loyal both of which are directly influenced by how the staff interact with the customers and with each other. A common skill gap that most staff continue to attest to is customer service. Many seek to find out how best to interact with the customers and with each other. Learning departments in conjunction with line managers have been putting in place comprehensive skills training plans for 2014. In the first week of this year I have received calls from several Human Resources and Customer Service managers who intend to roll out Customer Service training. With millions in training budgets set aside, the next step and usually the most critical one is rolling out the training. If you Google Customer service training you get…

By Lucy Kiruthu (An abridged version of a speech shared during the KCB monthly tea break on Wednesday 29th January 2014) Do you have someone that you can call at 3am and they will not complain that you have interrupted their sleep? Do you have people that do not consult their diaries when you have an emergency? Do you have people that never leave you out? These we call our friends! We all have friends. We also have another group of people, they pay our salaries; we come to work every day because of them, without them our companies would not exist. These people are more demanding than ever before, they live in the microwave generation, they use instant showers, the mobile phone and the internet are the greatest inventions of their times, they want it now. These people are very informed, they are smarter but also they are less forgiving, and above all they have…

The book is a quick read with large prints and is a compilation of 202 short thoughts that make a big difference in how we serve our customers! A worldwide survey conducted by the Rockefeller Corporation across a range of industries to find out reasons why customers leave reported that 1% of customers die, 3% move away, 5% develop other business relationships, 9% leave because of being persuaded by the competition, 14% are dissatisfied with the product or service and an alarming 68% leave because of an attitude of indifference on the part of the staff that they deal with.   Improving a customer experience to a brand or product are some of the reasons that prompted Lucy Kiruthu, an experienced and accredited professional in customer service to compile 202 thoughts on great customer service. It has taken her over 10 years to share her best thoughts with her readers. Each thought if applied will delight…

“What is your problem?” “Hang on a sec.” “If you had read our company policy….” “Calm down!” “You will have to wait.” “No one else has complained.” “It is not my job.” These and many more are phrases that when used can be disastrous to customers’ interactions. They not only damage our credibility and that of the companies we represent but they leave our customers with a bitter aftertaste of the service experience. In the past month, I have taken time to evaluate many common phrases with participants at customer service training programs. The main aim has been to build positive customer communication skills. What has been most interesting is that many of the frontline staff and managers alike admit to using these phrases either unknowingly or deliberately. The use of these phrases they confirm ends up turning simple customer conversations into somewhat ugly interactions. I am certain that you may have heard these phrases in…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation of August 5th by Lucy Kiruthu I am glad to resume and ready to share with you regular insights from the field of customer service. During my just concluded customer service study tour, I had a chance hold a conversation with Shep Hyken a luminary in the field of customer service. In the last 30 years Shep has been working with many companies who want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees in the United States of America. The various customer interactions I had left me with mixed feelings. On one end were organizations such a CACHÉ clothing store going all out to make the customer experience painless and on the other hand was United Airlines staff that seemed to care less. What did Shep Hyken have to say about the customer service levels in the USA, could it be getting worse? Certainly not, Shep quoted Barak…