Literature

My book will revolutionise customer service in Nigeria

Ilias Aliu is an experienced management consultant specialised in customer service management. Trained by the Customer Service Training Institute, USA, he is a member of the Institute of Customer Relationship Management and other professional management institutes. He speaks to SUMAILA UMAISHA about his recent book on customer service management.

Your book, Customer Service Management, has just been published. Give us an insight into its contents.

The objective of the book is to revolutionise customer service management in Nigeria and Africa. The book is to fill the gap created by lack of book for customer service personnel and to also enhance productivity in business. The book has 13 chapters among which are: What is Customer Service; Goal of customer service; Important of Internal and External Customer Service, etc.

You could have written on other subjects, why did you choose this particular subject?

Customer service management remains the most common office in every organisation both in private or public organisation, more so every person in an organisation from the manager to the janitor must understand and practise good customer service to remain in business. Most businesses were unable to remain in business because they lack basic customer service management skills. The quest to improve and practise good customer service is the motive behind the book,

How do you compare customer service here in Nigeria and other places like America?

Customer service in Nigeria is poor both in private and public sectors. We have ill-trained customer service managers, receptionists, front-desk officers, among others. A receptionist in Nigeria is more interested in their physical outlook, they pay more attention to social irrelevance at the expense of the cooperate objective of the organisations. It is in Nigeria that a company will promise to provide you a service within one hour and it could probably take them a week or even a month. But in America they understand all that the customer needs is to know when service or product will be available and the service usually arrives earlier to give the customer a pleasant surprise.

Between private and public organisations, which would you say is more customer service conscious?

Private are more conscious, because no customer no business, though public agencies are coming under increased pressure to not only reduce budgetary expenditure but to also improve the service offered to the citizens. Excellence is now a watchword in the public sector, public (SERVICOM) agencies should rise up to the occasion, because the citizens are the government?s customers.

What category of workers would you recommend for training in customer service?

All categories of workers need customer service training, from the manager to the front desk office. We all need it, in as much as we interact with customer or colleague in the office. We have internal customer and external customer service. Internal customer service is the relationship between the staff member and external is the relation between the staff and the customer or consumer. Good external customer service is the function of good internal customer service.

How do you link the deficiency in customer service training to the leadership problem in Nigeria?

You cannot give what you do not have, most people are not trained or prepared to lead, they just found themselves there and don't care about developing themselves. People should learn more about leadership, whether you are the managing director or shift leader, the way you lead is the single biggest success factor for every one you work with, leaders change the organisation.

What is your advice to customer service managers?

The most integral role of a customer service manager is to create a customer service policies and procedures that will suit the organisation and also create an environment of continuous training and improvement. Customer service training is an investment, if it is well done. The manager should therefore get proper training and train his staff continuously.

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