By Ayomide Otitoju
Business leaders and service-excellence experts have urged Nigerian organisations to improve customer experience by addressing weak processes, poor organisational attitudes and inadequate understanding of customer needs.
They made the call at a conference organised by E-Access Hub (EAH) to mark Customer Service Week, where they stressed the need for businesses to move beyond seasonal customer appreciation campaigns and establish systems and workplace cultures that support consistent service delivery.
Managing Partner of E-Access Hub and conference organiser, Charity Babatunde, attributed poor customer experience in Nigeria partly to what she described as a mindset of “anyhowness”.
She said many individuals and organisations approached service delivery without recognising that excellence required deliberate effort, structured processes and a commitment to doing things properly.
“The truth of the matter is that it is low simply because there is a mindset of anyhowness,” Babatunde said.
She noted that technology could improve customer experience but emphasised that organisations needed to understand their requirements and deploy appropriate solutions effectively.
Babatunde added that growing customer awareness was putting pressure on businesses to improve their service standards.
“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.
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 noted that customers had different expectations and that businesses needed to continually identify ways to meet and exceed them.
“Technology will not deliver excellence. Technology is a means to an end,” Atanda said.
According to him, excellent customer service begins with an organisation’s mindset, while leadership must establish a culture that prioritises customers and service quality.
Atanda also said all customers deserved dignity and quality treatment, including those who did not pay directly for a service. He added that technology could help businesses anticipate problems, respond effectively and recover when service failures occurred.
Founder of CWG Plc, Austin Okere, urged organisations to stop assuming they already understood their customers’ needs.
He said many businesses developed products and services before trying to persuade customers to accept them, rather than identifying customer needs first and using the findings to shape their offerings.
“What does the customer say is important to him? And that should inform the customer promise,” Okere said.
To illustrate his point, he cited an airline that consistently took off and landed on time despite not offering business-class services. He noted that customers could value reliability more than additional features.
Okere said organisations should consistently deliver on their promises and measure customer experience to identify service gaps and opportunities for improvement.
He also linked customer experience to business performance, explaining that satisfied customers could contribute to sales, revenue growth and stronger profit margins.
“When you have sales, you have revenue. When you have revenue, you have margin,” he said.
According to Okere, businesses could reinvest the resulting revenue in strengthening their operations and brands, creating a cycle that supports further sales and growth.
Other speakers at the conference included Ajibola Bamidele, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Certification Edge; Oluwatoyin Bakare, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of SAS Textiles Limited; Laide Gana, Partner at E-Access Hub; and Adetoun Akinsunmi, Chief of Staff at Seamless Technologies.
The conference provided a platform for business leaders and service-excellence experts to examine customer experience challenges in Nigeria and discuss practical ways to improve service delivery.
The event formed part of E-Access Hub’s activities for Customer Service Week, highlighting the importance of making customer experience a sustained business priority rather than a seasonal celebration.
