The customer service officers treat you courteously, not because you are Mr President. There are many variables. One is the level of service inequality. You cannot beat it. It is pervasive that I look for it everywhere, every day. In the supermarket. In the open market. At the cinema. At the viewing centre. In the banking and telecoms service arena. If the service is not rude, you are rushed. If the service is not polite, you are not satisfied. If the service is unacceptable, a refund is not guaranteed. You are stuck. The customer service capital of the world is not Nigeria. It is the Philippines. I wish it were Nigeria.
On The One Hand
The type of service you receive in one location of the same company differs from another location. For instance, on the Lagos Mainland, the banks and telcos serve customers differently compared to those on Lagos Island. The service is not superb. It is bland. It is not the best. It is vanilla. The gatekeepers treat you with courtesy, not because you are Mr President. It is for a pecuniary reason. You are expected to pay for the greeting, “Happy weekend, sir.”
On The Other Hand
If you cannot speak English, you are like Alice in Wanderland. You would wander from one desk to another. There is no in-language customer service. I am not sure the service providers understand that in-language customer service equals high customer satisfaction. Someday, you queued at the office of one of the telcos. Your back ached because you had sat for a long time. Then you left. Frustrated. Soon, you bought an IT gadget. The carton was large. The salesperson would not pack it. “There is no bag,’’ she told you without a care. When you insisted, a small paper bag appeared. It could not contain your purchase.
In The Long Term
TheW service on Lagos Island was different. The best. Friendly. Timely. My SIM was locked. Several calls to the telco had failed to ameliorate the situation. In this office, the atmosphere was serene. Picture an ocean breeze. The Personal Unlocking Key code request did not take 60 minutes. It took three minutes. Write your number and name. Blink. “Here is your PUK, sir.’’ Look at that! Then I observed the Average Handle Time – AHT. The customer service personnel wanted to please the customers. No matter how long it takes.
In my case, it took three minutes. This was because the office had ten service points. Ten servers. Twelve comfortable plastic chairs for customers. One concierge who doubled as a server. The concierge accosted you. If your case was mild, like a code request, you get instant attention. Blink, your request was delivered. Winifred, the roaming concierge, was efficient. The visit was a pleasure. There were no regrets. I wish other service centres in Lagos mainland and on the outskirts were the same.
In The Short Term
By the way, Winifred is a man. A highly skilled Nigerian.
