July 2015

As it appeared in the daily nation of June 30th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu Many of us are thrilled when we watch a great football game or the Olympics or the Marathon or the Super bowl. We observe with awe as the sports men and women put their best foot forward. A few days ago we celebrated our national women's volleyball team after they beat Algeria to win the African Nations Championship.  The coach at an interview on NTV said that they were very well prepared physically and mentally. The same could be said of an excellent student, a distinguished staff, a great manager or successful business. Like winning, excellence is never an accident, it is intentional. It is always as a result of putting a little more effort time and again. More than three decades ago, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman published the book “In Search of Excellence”. In the book, they shared insights on eight characteristics of…

As it appeared in the daily nation of June 23rd 2015 Lucy Kiruthu Once in a while, I run errands refilling my mom’s prescriptions. I often wish some Pharmacies would do home delivery or even allow a re-order on phone, on email or online for collection at a convenient location. I have had varied experiences with different pharmacies some located at hospitals, others at malls, others at the Nairobi Central Business District and even some upcountry. What has been evident is that there is nothing outstanding about the level of customer interaction at most pharmacies. Worse still is that none of the pharmacies I have ever interacted with has a system of capturing the prescriptions for ease of reordering. Reordering is not the only concern; many of the front line staff at the pharmacies seem uninterested. Why do they not show any sign of empathy? Do they understand that most of their customers or patients are…

As it appeared in the daily nation of June 16th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu I once took up a sales role. Like many in sales, I was expected to close deals and bring in the business.  However, unlike many sales people, I had the luxury of picking a title which I was most comfortable with. The title I choose was rather unusual; I opted for Customer Development Director. Initially there was the proposal to consider Business Development but I did not find it fitting and neither did sales and marketing director interest me. But what exactly is customer development? Could it be akin to conversion, to sales or even to business development? Recently, I came across Steve Blank a key proponent of customer development. Steve a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley and an entrepreneurship professor at Stanford University looks at customer development as the process that start-ups should adopt in building their business. He proposes the lean…

As it appeared in the daily nation of June 9th  2015 Lucy Kiruthu Is getting customers a hard task? What about keeping them? What makes customers want to come back? What makes them want to tell others about you?  These are questions that many in business ponder. Loyal customers are often seen to have two tendencies; they come back and they bring others with them.  Businesses that pride themselves with many loyal customers find it easier to do business. On the contrary, businesses that keep losing customers have to work much harder to get new customers to replace those that leave.  As customers what is it that makes us loyal to some businesses and not to others. Today, I share with you 4 insights that I believe drive customer loyalty across different businesses. Deliver Value First, customers become loyal when they see value in the products and services they use.  As customers we find it worthwhile…

As it appeared in the daily nation of June 2nd 2015 Lucy Kiruthu Sub-standard service is commonplace in majority of businesses. A doctor, a lawyer, an airline will keep us waiting without an apology. A retailer will sell a poor quality product and not be ready to replace it. A restaurant may not go out of its way to provide a special requirement not on their menu. A drycleaner will misplace our button and think we are not telling the truth. A public officer will not call us back as promised. A bank will not respond to our email request on time forcing us to call or visit in person. The list is endless. In many such instances, we have become used to the mediocre service; it has in fact almost become normal and acceptable. Have you ever noticed that very often organizations or people that provide such a sub-standard service have someone or something to…

As it appeared in the daily nation of May 26th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu How do we respond to a customer dissatisfaction posted on social media? Should Social media interactions be managed by PR, marketing or customer service teams? These are queries I often get when interacting with various organizations. Both business executives and those keen on customer interactions are seeking to know what the best approach is. Has your organization thought about these questions? How are social media interactions from dissatisfied customers currently handled? In the recent past we have seen a significant growth in the number of social media interactions from customers across the globe and indeed in Kenya. Starting off with the later question, I believe it does not really matter who manages the customer interactions as long as it is done well. However, in many organizations the customer service teams are taking the lead in managing such interactions. These teams are often equipped…

As it appeared in the daily nation of May 19th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu Last week I was invited to speak at an internal service awards ceremony. The awards launched about a year ago are part of a service improvement initiative. Having  spoken at past events, I sought to find out what my client would consider interesting. The response was simple – something on internal customer service. Internal service relates to how we serve each other within our organization. It starts with basics such as being respectful, listening to one another, being courteous among others. I knew that we had covered these already and I thought of something more creative. I coined the topic “Deadly sins of internal customer service” and today I share the insights from this session. I believe there are many sins committed daily at our workplaces. Some are minor while others are deadly.  I chose four sins which I believe have a major…

As it appeared in the daily nation of May 12th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu Various studies have shown that customers are willing to pay a little more for a better experience, for better product quality and for convenience. It is no wonder that when we buy basic items such as water from a convenient store we pay more without complaining about it. We also pay more when we have a meal at a finer hotel, pay more for VIP tickets and pay more for genuine products. However, I often wonder is the price we pay always right?  Do we always get value for our money? What is the possibility that we might find the exact product at a similar store for less? When we travel by air it is likely that the people sitting next to us paid half the price or even double the price. This does not often concern anyone because the pricing model for…

As it appeared in the daily nation of May 5th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu We celebrated labour days on Friday May 1st, as we did, a number of questions crossed my mind. How many organizations can confidently say that it is our people that make the difference? How many pride themselves in having a great team? How many of us love what we do and are great team players? How many people are making a positive difference at their workplace? Many great business leaders acknowledge their people as their greatest asset and spend time and effort to get the best. On the other hand some leaders complain about their people and see them as their greatest impediment. People not only make organizations who they are today, but are also critical in determining who these organizations become tomorrow. I strongly believe that the quality of staff, managers and board members, their commitment and dedication as well as their…

As it appeared in the daily nation of April 28th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu Your Call is Important to Us, please hold on until the next available agent! Seven minutes later I was still patiently waiting because I desperately needed help from my internet services provider. In addition I wanted to know just how long it was likely to take for my call to be answered. As I waited, I wondered if this call was really that important to the company in question. If it was that important it should not have taken that long to be picked up. When I sought to find out why the long wait, I was informed that the volume of calls was high. I knew why the volume of calls was high; there were many other customers calling in need of help. The telephone has been in use for many decades as an important business communication tool.  Millions of business calls…