Executives seek better customer experience

L-R: Ajibola Bamidele, GMD/CEO Certification Edge; Oluwatoyin Bakare, ED/COO SAS Textiles limited; Deremi Atanda, MD/CEO Remita; Charity Babatunde, Managing Partner, E-Access Hub; Laide Gana, Partner, E-Access Hub; Adetoun Akinsunmi, Chief of Staff, Seamless Technilogies; and Austin Okere, Founder CWG Plc, at the EAH Service Excellence Conference held to mark the Customer Service Week in Lagos.

Business leaders and service-excellence experts have urged Nigerian companies to prioritise customer needs, effective processes and service culture over technology alone, warning that digital tools cannot compensate for poor organisational practices.

 They made the call at an e-Access Hub conference held as part of activities marking Customer Service Week, where they identified weak processes, poor leadership mindset and inadequate understanding of customer expectations as factors undermining service delivery.

 Managing Partner of e-Access Hub and organiser of the conference, Charity Babatunde, said poor customer experience in Nigeria was partly driven by what she described as a mindset of “anyhowness”, in which organisations approach service delivery without the discipline and systems required to achieve excellence.

 “The truth of the matter is that it is low simply because there is a mindset of anyhowness,” Babatunde stated.

 She said organisations needed to recognise that better customer experience required deliberate processes rather than wishful thinking, adding that technology could improve service delivery only when businesses understood how to deploy it effectively.

 Babatunde, however, noted that customer awareness was increasing, putting pressure on companies to improve their services.

 “Yes, we may be lagging behind, but there’s a lot of awareness. The customers are also getting very aware. They know what to expect, so they put pressure on the organisations,” she said.

 Also speaking, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Remita, Deremi Atanda, said service excellence should be embedded in an organisation’s philosophy rather than treated as a one-off activity.

 He stressed that businesses needed to understand the different expectations of their customers and continuously improve their ability to meet them.

 “Technology will not deliver excellence. Technology is a means to an end,” the representative said.

 According to him, customer service begins with an organisation’s attitude towards its customers, with leadership responsible for establishing a culture that places service quality at the centre of business operations.

 He added that even customers who were not paying directly for a service deserved dignity and quality treatment, particularly when service failures occurred.

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 He said technology could support this process by helping organisations anticipate problems, respond to complaints and recover when service delivery fell short.

 The Founder of CWG Plc, Austin Okere, said another challenge was that businesses often assumed they already understood what customers wanted.

 He said some organisations developed products and services before trying to persuade customers to buy them, rather than first identifying customer needs and using those insights to shape their offerings.

 “What does the customer say is important to him? And that should inform the customer’s promise,” Okere said.

 He illustrated the point with an airline that might not offer business class but consistently took off and landed on time, arguing that some customers could value reliability more than additional features.

 Okere said businesses must also consistently deliver on their promises and measure customer experience to identify shortcomings and improve service quality.

 He linked customer experience to business performance, arguing that organisations that satisfy customers are better positioned to retain them, generate sales and grow revenue.

 “When you have sales, you have revenue. When you have revenue, you have margin,” he said.

 Okere said businesses could reinvest the resulting revenue in their operations and brands, helping to support further growth.

 The experts’ recommendations highlight the importance of aligning technology investments with customer expectations, operational processes and leadership priorities, rather than assuming that digital tools alone will improve service delivery.

 They urged Nigerian organisations to build customer-focused cultures, strengthen internal systems and use technology to support reliable service and long-term customer loyalty.