October 2018

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on October 30th 2018 Dr. Lucy Kiruthu What makes a clock tick? The battery - not quite. If you put a new battery into a faulty clock, it will not tick. One can find out what makes a clock tick by looking at it from the inside out and understanding how it operates. What about customers, what makes them tick? What inspires them to behave the way they behave? What motivates them to keep coming back to us, or refer others or to never return? Do businesses have the ability to make their customers tick? One of my regular saying is that “customer are people first”. To understand what it means to tick and what makes customers tick we first need to understand what makes people tick. By “tick”, I mean what causes someone to behave in a certain way. As people, we are all so different and we…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on October 23rd 2018 Dr. Lucy Kiruthu Companies gather all sorts of data knowingly and unknowingly. Most have data that is financial in nature; they know their revenues per location and even per customer and the have other data relating to their financial performance. Those in retail know how many customers are visiting their shops every day and even every hour and why they are visiting. Other companies have data relating to the usage of their products and services and the variation in usage around the year. Many others are aware about web traffic. Companies are also collecting data relating to the demographics of their customers as well as the satisfaction and loyalty levels. In addition, companies have access to data relating to their staff, partners and even suppliers. The big question is “are companies just gathering data or are they analysing it and using it to make better…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on October 16th 2018 Dr. Lucy Kiruthu I often observe staff at their places of work or during training sessions. My observations largely revolve around their behaviours and attitudes and to some extent their skills. As I make these observations, I often wonder about the staff’s understanding of how they individually and collectively contribute to their organization's performance. I also wonder about how their individual performance ranks. Are they A, B, C or even D performers? Sometimes, I am quick to pick the extremes. On one hand, the A-performers are more often than not upbeat, eager to learn and ready to make a difference. On the other hand, the D-performers have a negative attitude towards work, do not really care and like to blame others for their poor performance. To win in today’s business environment, it is not enough to conduct an annual appraisal. Organizations need a high performance…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on October 9th 2018 Dr. Lucy Kiruthu Last week, I lost count of the number of messages received. Of interest were the messages received to appreciate me as a customer. Many companies seemed to have joined in the week long celebrations this year. Some of the messages took me back to the customer service milestones that I have watched companies make over the years. A few messages upset me as they reminded me of unresolved service issues with certain organizations. In addition to the messages, the week was filled with lots of fun fair. Some of the fun activities were part of the overall customer service strategy to remind staff of the need to focus on sustainable service excellence. Unfortunately, other fun activities might have overshadowed the need to focus on the customer all year long adding little or no value to sustainable service excellence. As I reflect on…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation on October 2nd 2018 Dr. Lucy Kiruthu It is that time of the year again when customer-centric organizations around the globe create awareness about the importance of customer service excellence in their organizations. Celebrated by many organizations, the Customer Service Week (CS Week) is commemorated every first full week of October. Many organizations have held different activities to mark the CS Week since 1992. In Kenya, CS week continues to be a flagship event and a number of organizations have been celebrating this special week for the last three to six years. I take this opportunity to wish all a Happy Customer Service Week and reflect on what CS week really means. Organizations that participate in the CS Week celebrations do so for a number of reasons. Many do so to communicate the strategic role that customer service plays in their organizations. Others do so to raise awareness about…