March 2016

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on March 8th 2016 Lucy Kiruthu There is a quote by Richard Branson of the Virgin brand that has become a favourite of many employees. It reads “If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers”. Many versions exist and there is even one that starts with “Clients do not come first, employees come first”. I am yet to trace whether indeed this part of the quote is from Branson as purported. This quote on taking care of employees has provoked an interesting debate on the customer and employee positioning in organizations. Who comes first? The customer or the employee? Without the employee a company would not be able to serve its customers and without customers a company would not be able to pay its staff. At the center of the customer service debate is the employee and employer relationship or the staff and…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on February 23rd 2016 Lucy Kiruthu Is the Customer Always Right?  After corporate Customer Experience pep-talks and even during trainings this question always comes up. Why would someone ask this question yet they know the answer already?  It is quite interesting because I know that most participants wish that I could quickly jump in with a YES. Once in a while I request the participant who asked the question to answer it and sometime if time allows I involve other participants. What do you think?  Do you really think the customer is always right? All of us are customers, are we always right? Are we not sometimes wrong? For instance, if I erroneously send money to the wrong person via the mobile phone why blame Safaricom? Or if I do not ask the waiter to make my chicken curry mild and she delivers it hot– whose fault is it?…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on February 16th 2016 Lucy Kiruthu In determining the best strategies, smart companies look at many aspects of the internal and the external environments. Every student of business can tell you more about identifying strengths and weaknesses from the internal environment as well as opportunities and threats from the external environment. Most will also happily go on to detail the political, economic, social cultural, technological and even ecological and legal environments. Others in business are keener on the industry analysis looking at the ease of entry or the availability of close substitutes amongst other aspects. Smart companies in addition to being aware about what is happening in the environment spend considerable time and effort understanding their customers and building a strong bond with them. They know who their loyal customers are and their first priority is to hold on to these customers. Unfortunately, there are companies who put their…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on February 2nd 2016 Lucy Kiruthu Companies need policies, this is indisputable. In many companies staff and managers alike are well aware of the key policies whether written or unwritten. These policies empower employees and guide them in thinking and in decision making. Good policies in addition make allowable discretion clear. When staff need to take action such as create a new account or managers need to discipline staff, it is much easier if there is a guideline. Polices increase management effectiveness; they do so by offering predetermined answers to routine problems, reducing uncertainties, driving uniformity, and helping standardize many repetitive decisions.  Companies without policy guidelines are less effective since managers and staff have to consult often and use their discretion in everyday decision making without clear guidelines. Most companies have written policies especially in the area of human resources management. A few companies also have written customer service…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on January 26th 2016 Lucy Kiruthu I had the opportunity to work in the airline industry. The complexity of this industry baffled me and to-date it still perplexes. Do customers really like to fly?  What do they like? What don’t they like? Why are they charged different fares? Why are the no-frills airlines having high passenger numbers despite having the most customer complaints?  These are just some of the questions of interest. Simply stated, airlines offer transport from point A to B. It is a service that is offered with many other considerations. A top consideration is safety. Other considerations include pricing, on-time performance, inflight experience, airport services, baggage service etc. There are numerous customer interactions before leaving point A, during the journey and after getting to point B.  The interactions happen during booking, security-checks, immigration, check-in, lounges, boarding, inflight, disembarking, baggage service among others. It is as a…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on January 12th 2016 Lucy Kiruthu Do you ever visit a hospital, a restaurant or a supermarket or call an airline, a bank or an internet services provider and choose not to give them your valuable feedback? Why do we often withhold such important feedback? A few customers that I spoke to indicated that the number one reason they do not give feedback is because they suspect it will not be valued. “Will anything really change as a result of my feedback?” One customer retorted. Despite customer feedback being a key business driver most service providers are indifferent about it. Indeed most frontline staff can confirm that nothing often changes as a result of customer feedback. Most managers seem to have a hate/love relationship with customer feedback. This makes it extremely difficult for businesses to benefit fully from valuable customer feedback. Many organizations operate in the dark. Most feedback…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on January 5th 2016 Lucy Kiruthu Happy New Year! Does 2016 provide us with an opportunity to get better? Possibly yes. Every New Year is a new opportunity. The beginning of a new one particularly provides us with an opportunity to reflect deeply on the past year. During such reflections, we are able to identify what we did extremely well, what we need to improve and most importantly what we learnt along the way. The customer experience is at the centre of our businesses’ existence and survival. At every opportunity a Smart Company must yearn to make their customers’ experiences better. Smart Companies know that the customer experience is critical in retaining the customers and even in attracting new ones. They as such pay attention to the overall customer experience. They serve their customers in a way that makes them feel important, appreciated, respected, cared for, happy etc.  For…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on Dec 29th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu Many retailers are smiling all the way to the bank like they often do same time every year.  Retailers such as supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, bookstores, general shops, petrol stations and many others are having their best season. This is because many Kenyans often go on some sort of shopping frenzy during this time of the year. For many, it is time to celebrate with family, friends, colleagues, customers, partners and the like and this celebration involves some transaction. The process of transacting can either be a delight or a pain to the customer. Most of the delight and the pain of the shopping experience is evident. The delight adds to the joyous moments of the celebrations whether Christmas, New Year or back to school.  No doubt that all the transactions done during these celebrations leave a dent in many pockets. This is possibly…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on Dec 22nd 2015 Lucy Kiruthu Every Christmastime I like to write about joy and I do not tire because the world would be very dull without an ounce of joy. Christmas is in a few days, for many it will bring with it considerable joy. For others the joyous moments will be a missed opportunity and yet for others there may be no reason to celebrate.  The kind of joy that I have a keen interest in is however different. It does not need to wait till Christmastime. It is a special kind of joy; the joy of service. This joy that results when we serve one another every day, at home, in the office, in school, in our neighbourhoods, for our country and just about everywhere.  This service may be as a result of duty or it may be voluntary. Dictionary.com defines the word service in 29…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on Dec 15th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu I have been reading Bossidy and Charan book titled Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. As I have read it together with other material on the subject of execution, I have realized just how much organizations are struggling with putting strategy or plans into action. On the contrary, considerable amount of time is being spent putting together very good strategies most of which are never implemented. Why is execution so difficult? Why is it such a daunting task for executives to lead their organizations into doing what they have planned to do? Most organizations want their customers to be satisfied, they want them to come back and spend more, they want them to tell others about their good experiences and so on. All these are indeed very good intentions, but good intentions are not adequate if they are not followed by action.…