Dr. Lucy Kiruthu

As it appeared in the daily nation of February 24th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu How often do Customer Service news make it to the headlines? For example; thousands of customers not happy with the continued power outages or students hold a press conference to complain about long wait for exam results or customers boycott hotel following numerous complaints about the quality of food or bank launches state of the art customer contact centre to respond to increased social media requests or it now only takes a maximum of 2 minutes to check out at the store down from an average of 15minutes last year. Despite such stories not getting regular business news numerous changes continue to happen in the world of customer service.   Today’s customer is different in many ways. He is more informed about product quality, about pricing and even about his rights. Many customers today will compare prices online, send email requests to multiple…

As it appeared in the daily nation of February 17th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu More than 50 years ago, discussions around strategy started. Many organizations have gone through the strategic planning cycles and others have strategic management in action guiding their everyday activities. The benefits of having a strategy have been applauded by many managers. In Kenya, strategies have informed overall corporate direction as well as the customer service courses of action in leading organizations. This has been most evident in the last decade and is considered by many as a source of competitive advantage. Many Medium Enterprises (MEs) however still wrestle with the need to be strategic in their customer service approach.  Many have left it to chance and although a few have succeeded many may struggle with customer retention and attraction into the future. Being strategic is different things to different people but at the core of strategic customer service are better customer experiences and…

As it appeared in the daily nation of February 10th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu A recruiter once said that I had overused the word customer on my CV. Interestingly this made me the best candidate for a customer service role 10 years ago. The use of the word only reflected who I had become; a customer service champion.  This status has not changed much, 5 years into management consultancy and training my world revolves around my customers. Today, the realization that my customer is my employer is closer home than ever before. Does everyone realize how important customers are to their company? Irrespective of the industry, the customer remains core to any organization’s existence. Teams in sales and marketing bring in new customers and retain existing ones. Finance teams seek to maintain a healthy income statement whose top line is the revenue collected from customers. Human resources practitioners aim to develop staff who serve the customers. Those…

As it appeared in the daily nation of February 3rd 2015 Lucy Kiruthu When Dave Corroll the Canadian musician sung the widely talked about protest song “United Breaks Guitars 1” he possibly never imaged that it would get to the current over 14 million views on YouTube.  It does not matter that Dave sang a second and even a third version of the song soon after, his first release was the greatest hit in the customer service arena. The song has attracted lots of interest and it gave Dave the much needed attention from United Airlines. In the process, Dave become a customer service crusader and by the time he was done being mad at United as he says in his third song, he hoped that United would change. He pointed out to the fact that there were many other customers who did not write a song but shared their frustration elsewhere. The song “United Breaks…

As it appeared in the daily nation of January 27th 2015 Lucy Kiruthu Should sales own the customer experience or should it be marketing? Better still, why should customer service not fully own the customer experience? Why not operations, or information Technology, the CEO or even the customer? Does anyone have control over the customer experience or has the customer experience become like a hot potato being tossed from department to department and from person to person sometimes even landing on the customer’s lap.  Who must own the customer experience? For years, organizations have talked about being customer focused or customer centric in the boardroom. Many sales managers have put their full weight behind these conversations. In addition, organizations have in recent years invested heavily in customer care centres, customer service training, customer relationship management and customer feedback systems among other efforts to improve their customer experience. Today, most chief executive officers, sales and marketing directors,…

Every day we have numerous interactions with our customers and our colleagues. These interactions can have either a positive or negative impact. Today I share 5 lessons that make a difference when we interact with one another. Be Respectful Jackie Robinson once said “I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being” Every human being craves for respect; respecting oneself and others is a basic necessity in life. Being respectful is an important aspect in maintaining good interpersonal relationships and it means many different things. It means showing consideration for others, listening to what they have to say, having regard for their space, time and opinions, being sensitive, being courteous and being polite among others. Being respectful shows that we care about how others people feel. When we respect each other we lessen the conflicts and enjoy more harmonious interactions. When we respect ourselves…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation of January 6th 2015   by Lucy Kiruthu Why do we really celebrate a New Year? Is it because we have made it through another 365 days or is it because we are looking forward to something exciting in the New Year? Looking back over the past year provides an opportunity to reflect, take stock and assess how we did. Looking ahead into the New Year provides an opportunity to resolve and to plan to do better going forward. I have no doubt that many organizations have resolved to improve their customers’ experiences this New Year. Here are my top 4 insights to give 2015 a good start. Listen more to your Customers Do you know what your customers both internal and external are saying? This New Year is an opportunity to listen more. Listen to what your customers have to say when they come to your office or when…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation of December 30th 2014 Lucy Kiruthu Year after year some businesses put together their work plans while others meander through the year without any sort of plan. I hope your business had some sort of a plan for 2014. A salient feature of many annual work plans is the action items. Some of the actions especially in the forward looking business relate to the customer experience. In any case customers are the reason for business existence and the businesses provide not only a product or a service but an experience. Answers to questions such as: - 1. How can we better serve our customers? 2. How can we make them happier? 3. How can we make them loyal for life? etc are well articulated in these work plans. The key question though is does the customer feel an improvement in the experience year in year out? Did the Customer Experience…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation of December 23rd 2014 Lucy Kiruthu Service is rated by oxforddictories.com as one of the top 1000 frequently used words. Perceived by many differently, service whether as a verb or a noun is a word that makes our world go round. To some it is the simple act of assistance while to others service is what they do every day.  The word whose origins according to different sources range from slavery to religious devotion is used across sectors and across borders. In the military for example we have service men, when we take a car to the garage we say we have taken it for service. We also make reference to public service, to community service, to food service and so on. In business, customers want service and staff provide service and even on Sundays many Christians refer to their religious gatherings as a service.   There is no doubt…

As it appeared in the Daily Nation of December 16th 2014 Lucy Kiruthu At a past speaking engagement in a leading bank, the CEO sought to know what I foresaw as a key game changer of the customer experience in the banking sector. Technology was my best bet. In recent years, the customer experience has been greatly enhanced by technology not only in the banking sector but across all other sectors. George Colony and Peter Burris’ report "Technology Management in the Age of the Customer" points out the importance of customer experience as a common language for information technology and customer-facing groups to build successful customer experiences. To support business performance, managers in charge of information technology and those in charge of the customer experience must work together to improve the overall customer experience through use of technology. One or two decade ago many things were inconceivable. Who would have imaged that one can transfer money to a bank…