Dr. Lucy Kiruthu

As it appeared in the daily nation of September 29th 2015 by Lucy Kiruthu Roger Smith and Sons was my ideal Auto Service station. All I needed to do was sit back, relax and expect a call to remind me that the car was due for service. An outstanding vehicle service history was maintained and the team was great at what they did. I recall they had a 4-point check-up and 9-point check-up at alternating services. That was about 10 years ago. Fast forward to today, I can write a book about my experiences with many automotive service providers. Many other motor vehicles owners have not one but many stories about their experience too. Most of these stories depict poor service or absolutely ugly incidences in the hands of motor vehicle services providers. For some, such motoring experiences go way back to the driving school. Pat’s driving school which was along Moi Avenue may have no…

As it appeared in the daily nation of September 22nd 2015 by Lucy Kiruthu intro When I visited an electronics retail shop last week four out of the five ladies that were on the first counter were on their mobile phones. One was talking on the phone while the other three were either just scrolling through social media, photos or possibly just texting.  Is this how the mobile phone is transforming the customer experience? Is the mobile phone transforming the customer experience for the worse or for the better?  Could it be that the 3 ladies scrolling down their phones were actually transacting on the phone with their customers? Possibly not. Several reports on the future of the customer experience have shown without doubt that people across the globe are increasingly becoming mobile. The mobile phone has transformed the customer experience in many ways. The debate on digitalization of customer experiences has been going on for…

As it appeared in the daily nation of September 15th 2015 by Lucy Kiruthu In exactly three weeks the world will be abuzz with Customer Service week celebrations marked during the first full week of October. The celebrations have been running in the USA since the 1980s and were proclaimed a national event by the US congress in 1992. This year the CS week falls on October 5th to 9th and many organizations have their plans all ready. In Kenya, the Institute of Customer Service Kenya (ICS-K) has been coordinating the celebrations for the last three years. The body indicates that several organizations have confirmed their participation. The plans in place are likely to make this year’s celebrations bigger and better than ever before. The key question is “Is your organization ready”? Whether a small or large organization, we can all celebrate our customers both internal and external with the rest of the world in our…

As it appeared in the daily nation of September 8th 2015 by Lucy Kiruthu Last week several organizations were recognized at the Service Excellence Awards ceremony. They had attained high customer loyalty ratings in various categories.  This second year of the awards saw some new corporate join the list of winners. The SE Awards  are organized by the Institute of Customer Service Kenya (ICS-Kenya). I suspect that though a number of names may remain, new names will show up next year. Many organizations are continuously reinventing themselves. I often acknowledge that Loyal Customers are Good for Business for two reasons. They keep coming back and they tell others. As I sat in the room listening to Dr. Njenga the chief guest make his keynote speech at the ceremony, I had several thoughts cross my mind.  I wondered how many organizations really care enough about how their customers feel. How may care whether their customers will come…

As it appeared in the daily nation of September 1st 2015 by Lucy Kiruthu Last week we all witnessed the passion with which Julius Yego threw the Javelin to hit the 92.72M mark and win the gold. Like all other athletes that scooped a medal, he was full of enthusiasm and energy before, during and after the event. Passion, enthusiasm, zeal are all words used to describe this level of energy or the strong desire to win. Sports aside, how passionate are we about that we do? How passionate are we about winning our customers? Passion is often seen as a key ingredient in customer service. We often know that one has passion by their mindset, how they act and how they react. In fact without passion about what we do it becomes quite difficult for us to serve our customers both internal and external with excellence.  We all know people who are passionate about what…

As it appeared in the daily nation of August 18th 2015 by Lucy Kiruthu Have you ever entered a new retail store and felt like you were in a jungle and could hardly find what you needed? This is not how it was initially meant to be. Retail stores were modelled after libraries and were meant to make it as easy as possible for the customer to find what they needed. Today much thought goes to the layout of retail stores sometimes at the expense of the customers’ convenience. Have you for example ever wondered why some essentials such as milk and bread are almost always stored at the back end in most retail stores? This is a gimmick by retailers to entice us to pick non-essentials products as we go to and fro the milk back aisle.  You may also have noticed the racks of chocolates near the cashier area meant to tempt bored children…

As it appeared in the daily nation of August 11th 2015 by Lucy Kiruthu We may know of organizations that proactively develop their managers to enhance their managerial skills and to make them better leaders. These organizations invest time and money on specific leadership and managerial skills and more often than not they get a return on their investment. Improvements in productivity, in performance, in staff engagement, in innovation, in customer satisfaction etc are realized as a result of the high quality managers. Unfortunately though, investments in developing managers across the organization are not commonplace. Many other organizations spend little or no effort to raise the competence levels of their management team and yet expect them to perform well.  It is no wonder that management practices of the 19th century that focused on basic delivering of a good or a service are still widely witnessed in many of our organizations today. Any student of business has…

As it appeared in the daily nation of August 4th 2015 by Lucy Kiruthu The Kidero grass phenomenon got many of us talking on social media. I am certain that the grass was not in readiness for the Pope’s visit nor was it to beautify Nairobi for its esteemed everyday residents. Many recounted that the grass was under so much pressure to turn green in just three days, in readiness for the Obama homecoming. Why was the grass not planted in good time? Many of us that made fun of the Kidero grass are not much different. We postpone certain tasks till the last minute. We delay writing our term papers till the last week of the semester. Despite having the instructions from week 1, many students prefer staying up all night a few days to the due day. We go shopping on the day the guests are visiting and we arrive for meetings late or…

As it appeared in the daily nation of July 28th 2015 by Lucy Kiruthu Assume you are in a new neighbourhood. You go into an unfamiliar hotel and notice that it is deserted. It is lunch time and you are the only guest and it seems there is not much activity, would you stay for lunch? Possibly not. I would not. Even if the hotel staff tried to beg you to stay you might not be comfortable. Like many customers we like to interact with familiar business or at least businesses frequented by other customers.  To a business too, lack of customers can be frightening, it is possibly the scariest business occurrence. Without enough customers, business have difficulties making ends meets. It becomes unsustainable to run a business because customers bring in the much needed revenues to finance the operations. Most businesses keep track of their customers. They know their most important customers. The founders never…

As it appeared in the daily nation of July 21st 2015 by Lucy Kiruthu This week many investors and visitors from around the world will be in Nairobi for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2015 (GES2015). Many of us keen on business are aware about this global event.  Some of these investors and visitors will be visiting Kenya for the first time while others have been here previously.  It has been reported that all the five-star hotels in Nairobi are fully booked. In addition to staying at the hotels and attending the summit it is likely that some of those coming for the Summit will visit other places in Kenya. More importantly they will interact with many Kenyans from all walks of life from housekeeping staff, to waiters, to security officers, to drivers, to airport staff, to entrepreneurs, to company executives and the political class. What is their experience going to be like? Many upgrades have been…