Want to lose customers? Take them round in circles

Learn to listen to your customers. Photo/FILE 

By Scott Bellows

In Summary

• Solve efficiency crises and do not put in place unnecessary hoops for staff to jump through to accomplish goals.

Ever walked into a company’s office to get information about their product or service? Do you enjoy spending time in queues when going to question your electricity bill or debate your phone bill? Clearly, customers throughout Kenya desire quick solutions to corporate-consumer issues.

One of the most infamous examples of corporate-consumer tussles involve Kenyans’ relationships with financial service providers. This author recently sought a small loan to assist with a side business.

The responses yielded a wide gamut of results ranging from incredible customer service all the way to wretched turnaround.

My first instincts were to approach my current bank. But, I still investigated other options. During my exploration, some banks stated that a decision would have to go all the way to corporate headquarters. Others had very nice staff that seemed so busy that I occasionally fell through the cracks of their correspondence.

Two of the banks I approached apparently only provide unsecured loans to employees of companies that have corporate agreements with the banks themselves, thus leaving out millions of employed Kenyans from eligibility.

My current bank, on the other hand, appeared to hold a friendly policy towards unsecured loans. As a customer who has paid his original loan on time every since inception, the first loan officer assured me of an easy process and a decision would come in two days. Days turned into weeks that turned into nearly a month.

No decision ever came. My application was lost. I applied again. Various managers and loan officers constantly apologised and promised follow-up, but follow-up never happened.

 

In shock, I walked over to the Standard Chartered branch and met a friendly loan officer, Sylvia Korir, who stated that I could receive the small loan in three days or less. Amused at such a promise, I agreed to open an account and apply for a loan.

The loan officer kept in touch with me multiple times per day updating me on the approval process and, to my surprise, I had the loan money within 48 hours even without any history with Standard Chartered.

The frustrating banking experience that finally yielded a positive banking experience made me remember my time as an NGO director. Keep in mind, each one of the banks stood to earn decent revenue from me as a client. Now, imagine you either work in an NGO or you live as a recipient of NGO services

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Banks lose revenue by taking clients around in circles and causing them to switch banks. However, when an NGO does not follow through with a promise, what results? What incentive does the NGO have to service beneficiaries efficiently? Could NGO beneficiaries switch NGOs the way I switched banks?

You see, NGOs exist in a unique realm whereby the entity paying for services is not the person receiving the services. In all of our lives, we experience a few such instances.

Parents pay school fees so that their children may learn. If the children paid the school fees themselves, then arguably every school in Kenya would have Sony Play Stations and serve better food.

So since NGOs do not serve the same people paying them, we often witness a large mismatch between what societies need and what non-profit entities provide. For example, many Kenyans remember the earthquakes that rattled East Africa in 2006.

One of the quakes hit Rwanda. Some communities lost some traditional mud homes. NGOs jumped in, sounded the alarm about the need in Rwanda, and raised millions of US Dollars for relief efforts. When the funds came in, many NGOs immediately bought blankets for the affected Rwandese.