By Ayomide Otitoju
Businesses may create their names, logos, campaigns and brand promises, but customers ultimately determine whether those efforts translate into a trusted brand, John Kokome has said.
Kokome said companies could invest heavily in visibility, technology and marketing, but their success depended largely on whether customers believed in their promises and found value in their products and services.
He made the remarks while highlighting the evolution of Nigerian fintech platform FlashChange, which he described as an example of how businesses can build sustainable brands by staying close to customer needs.
“No customers, no brand,” Kokome said, stressing that customer experience remains central to the development and sustainability of any business.
FlashChange was established around the need to make it easier for users to convert digital assets, including gift cards and cryptocurrencies, into usable value. The platform has since expanded its services to include cryptocurrency and gift-card trading, bill payments and cross-border payments.
According to Kokome, the company’s growth demonstrates the importance of developing products around the problems customers are trying to solve.
He cited the gift-card market, where many Nigerian users face challenges converting foreign gift cards into usable funds.
He noted that customers are primarily concerned with how quickly and easily their digital assets can be converted, whether rates are transparent and whether the transaction process can be trusted.
FlashChange allows users to submit gift cards for validation and receive the value through their FlashChange wallets, with withdrawals available to bank accounts.
Kokome said customer surveys indicate that most gift cards are redeemed in less than five minutes, although processing times may vary depending on the type of card.
He said speed, simplicity and trust therefore form an important part of the customer experience, particularly in financial technology, where every transaction tests a company’s promises.
According to him, customers experience a brand through practical interactions rather than corporate presentations or advertising campaigns.
“They ask whether a transaction will go through, whether the rate is clear, how long they have to wait, whether they can track the transaction and how quickly their complaints are resolved,” he said.
Kokome said FlashChange’s stated values of customer focus, integrity, urgency and innovation should therefore be reflected in its day-to-day customer interactions.
He also stressed that customer needs evolve, noting that a user who initially approaches a fintech company to sell a gift card could later require cryptocurrency trading, bill payments or cross-border transfer services.
He said businesses should therefore move beyond asking how to sell more of a particular product and instead consider what other problems their customers need them to solve.
According to him, that shift from product-focused to customer-focused thinking can help businesses build stronger brands and achieve long-term growth.
However, he cautioned that expanding a company’s range of services also increases the risks to its reputation, as every customer interaction presents an opportunity to either strengthen or weaken trust.
A delayed payment, unclear exchange rate or poorly handled complaint, he said, could damage years of brand-building efforts, while a quick and effective resolution could turn a dissatisfied customer into a brand advocate.
Kokome said customer service should therefore not be viewed merely as a department that handles complaints after marketing has attracted customers.
“Customer service is where the brand is tested,” he said, noting that it is the point at which marketing promises meet real customers and their expectations.
He added that customers do not experience marketing, operations and customer service as separate functions but as a single brand.
He said businesses should therefore measure brand strength not only through awareness, downloads or sales, but also through customer retention, referrals, complaint resolution and the willingness of customers to return.
Kokome said customer feedback should be treated as valuable business intelligence rather than noise, urging companies to listen to their customers and adapt their products and services accordingly.
He said the FlashChange experience demonstrated the importance of identifying genuine customer problems, solving them effectively, responding to feedback, expanding services around evolving needs and making trust an integral part of the product.
“Businesses may create logos, campaigns and products, but customers decide whether any of them become a brand,” he said.
