Evolve Insights

The Changing Consumer Behaviour in Kenya

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on February 27th, 2018 Every day, we choose what to buy, when to buy, where to buy from and how often to buy among other purchase decisions. Over the years, consumers have changed how they make these choices and what informs their decisions. Today, the Kenyan consumers are very enlightened and demanding. More than ever before, they respond to products and services in a different way from their parents or grandparents. Though I am not a consumer psychologist, I believe that the changes in consumer behaviour have resulted from many stimuli. Access to information, availability of options, changes in technology especially the digital revolution, and consumer rights advocacy are some of the stimuli that many of us have witnessed here in Kenya. These days, consumers are more informed when making purchase decisions. Some of us turn to online search engines before buying a product. We compare product specifications and…
robert
February 27, 2018
Evolve Insights

What targets have you set for your team?

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on February 20th, 2018 Many businesses have set very clear revenue and or production targets. These targets are tracked and reported daily. In addition, most sales persons have targets. Every week they submit a report on the status of their sales pipeline. Most call centres also have set clear metrics that are tracked daily. Many other departments such as operations and credit control also set targets. However, most businesses struggle with what to measure and as a result, most have no well-defined targets. Have you set targets for your team? Performance targets are a very powerful management tool used to measure and reward performance. Performance is often measured at the corporate, departmental, team and individual level. In most organizations, targets and key performance measures or indicators are one and the same thing. Some organizations have set very clear targets at all levels. Setting clear targets helps the staff to…
robert
February 20, 2018
Evolve Insights

Building and Sustaining a Culture of Service Excellence

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on February 13th, 2018 How would you describe your organizational culture? I often pose this question to company executives and to entrepreneurs. Many are hard-pressed to describe their culture. Others describe it in an amorphous way. However, the few that have been intentional about their desired culture, describe it with ease, and live it daily. Smart company executives and entrepreneurs know that organizational culture is within their control. They also recognize that culture gives them the much-needed sustainable competitive advantage. With this knowledge, they do not leave culture to chance they build it and they sustain it! An organizational culture resides in the hearts and souls of its leadership and the staff. Culture is intangible but it is seen in the set of shared beliefs, in how the leadership behaves, in how work gets done, in how staff communicate with one another and with customers. Culture is lived in…
robert
February 20, 2018
Evolve Insights

Why Customers Never Come Back

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on February 6th, 2018 Every smart business desires to hold on to its valuable customers for life. Unfortunately, not many businesses are able to keep their customers year in year out. Many businesses tussle with customer inactivity and attrition. Some customers only come back once in a while others never come back. For such businesses to survive, they have to be on a constant look for new customers to replace those that leave. This means that businesses spend heavily on their sales and marketing efforts. Therefore, a vital setback that every business needs to interrogate is why customers would choose to discontinue the use of a product or a service. Why do some of our customers go away never to come back? Why do they stop using our products and services? There are many reasons why customers never come back or stay dormant for extended periods. There are customers…
Dr. Lucy Kiruthu
February 6, 2018