Laziness: The Killer of Success

How many times have you tried to get something done but failed because you procrastinated? Several you will say. I put it to you that the more you put things off for the future, the more they won't get done. Getting to shift today's responsibility to tomorrow is a signal that you are being lazy.

That's why I have always emphasized a style of "Whatever can be done must be done quickly and now". My sisters used to ask me; "but how?". I will never forget that my response to them comes from one of my grandmother's most loved quotes "a stitch in time saves nine".

You can only achieve what you attempted to do and not what you planned to do. Every plan must be turned into a plausible action that culminates in the achievement of something that was started in our minds.

The most successful of men have been seen to be crazy about timing. One author puts it in a way that got me thinking. I will never forget how it said, most people plan using hours and days whereas the most successful ones in the world plan with minutes. To them, every minute is important and should never be wasted.

So lazying around  without attacking an issue of importance may not show its detrimental part at the moment one is being lackadaisical about responsibilities, it however will be obvious when its time to count the achievements and successes.

Opportunity once lost may never be regained as they say. Even in a case when the opportunity represents itself, if it was judiciously capitalized in the first instance, the second show up should have become an added advantage. What my dad would call cake's icing.

In a bid not to be lazy, I wrote this piece from a simple idea that came to me early this morning and I indeed agreed with myself that anything that must be done must be done immediately, promptly and effectively. It's not just a thought but I have been able to turn a piece of idea in the mind into a plausible action.

Why Scammers Attempt Blog

It has become so hot on the web that I am sometimes afraid of what content to read and which one to neglect. Some authors are hell bent on ensuring their scam articles and mails get the best out of the audience. Hmm, they try so hard that they actually fool unsuspecting targets. Imagine me, a typical "Naija" and “Lagos boy”. Growing and schooling among the toughest in the heart of Lagos should have taught me severally never to believe even the mail from the best of men until I am sure.

Moreover, you can never be sure. Many are times, I nearly fell into the waiting hands of men in black, of the underworld champions who are always online. They are good at what they do, proud about it and are ever ready to convert the slightest opportunity to sales. They must not get wind of it that you are an unsuspecting target, else you will get a mail from them.

Going by the number of mails I get from these online ogres, they must have perceived me a potential prey. One day, I got a mail from one seemingly superb company and took my time to fill up all requirements on the forwarded application form. Thank God for a second look at the verge of submission. It was a fake employment offer aimed at getting me on to a palatable bait wired by con men.

I was offended and determined, "from now on, your mails gets to the public glare". I am ready to stick by it until you stop. If you don’t stop, then you risk getting your mails up on the www.scammersattempt.blogspot.com.ng as a deterrent that would warn others who may be unsuspecting like me.

I do hope that I eventually save at least one soul from the cold hands of the chakazullis.

If you did get any help from this blog, kindly drop a comment.

Check it out at scammersattempt.blogspot.com.ng

Thanks.

COMMUTERS DEMAND MORE FROM LAGOS BRT

Satisfying customers on transit is a primary responsibility of governments operating Bus Rapid Systems (BRTs). Bus rapid transit (BRT, BRTS), a bus-based mass transportation system is known to have specialized designs, services and infrastructure to improve system quality and remove the typical causes of delay. In some nations, sometimes described as a "surface subway", it aims to combine the capacity and speed of train or tube with the flexibility, lower cost and simplicity of a bus system. Now operating in Nigeria, BRT has proved to be the fancy of Lagosians with many choosing to ride away from their personal automobiles. The major question from customers is “has this system been potent enough to alleviate the woes of commuters in the metropolitan state of Lagos”?

In the past and at the inception, 2007 exactly, critics argued that the initiation of the BRT system in Lagos was not necessary while others laud the wisdom of the State government in such a swift move to economically empower its residents and salvage workers from perpetual lateness to their workplaces. With Nigeria government dedicating more budgets to transportation, the move to have a standard BRT system cannot be overemphasized.

Lately and on daily basis, passengers of BRT in Lagos continued to decry the peculiarity of its operations. The whole system meant for rapid transportation is turning out to be slower than the conventional buses that were in existent before them. Unanimously on several occasions, the passengers take turn to advise the BRT drivers on what route to ply because BRT routes are no longer predictable. The management of these busses must be taught that customer satisfaction feedback requirements are not limited corporate places or business offices alone. The service delivery of any space that earns from the presence and assemblage of people who pay for rendered services must not be left unmonitored.

As the patronage count increases, more of the profit should be invested in improvement of the BRT as a business to guarantee a total alignment with global best practices especially the requirements to guarantee more word of mouth marketing from commuters. Beyond treating the Bus Rapid Transit system as an option that customers cannot avoid because of perpetual traffic grid locks that characterize our environment, Lagos state should resolve the following to show that it is listening to the voice of its customers.

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD DO TO SALVAGE THE COMMUTERS’ PREDICAMENT IN LAGOS

1.   NON AVAILABILITY OF BRT / IRREGULAR DISTRIBUTION OF BUSSES TO ROTES

·        Rather than advise the government to reduce BRT fares. It is more economy friendly to increase the number of busses plying the state. On many occasions, people have to wait unimaginably long hours for busses to come to the extent that when they eventually comes, commuters will be begging even to stand like in the Molue days just to get to their offices. This does not align with what the objective of BRT should be. BRTs in other nations are to alleviate commuter problems and not to add to them. Lagos State should not only concern itself with maximum revenue drive at the expense of convenience for the masses.

Make more busses available and have a more effective maintenance team on ground. It is high time Lagos State and the Federal government unite on satisfying the Lagos commuters who are residents and citizens from all over the country. There is no need for government clashes and antagonistic interferences based on policies that would benefit the public. Instead, reaching a consensus to manage differences and interests of both levels of government is a better approach.

2.   RECKLESS DRIVERS

·        More than ever before and on an incremental degree, the deterioration of driving skills observed amongst the BRT drivers should not be condoned. Regular training events should expose the man directing the wheels to global skills and internationally accepted attitude required of drivers. This is seriously lacking and the knowledge gap must be addressed.

  

3.   UNPROFESSIONAL ATTITUDE OF BRT EMPLOYEES

·        Working for the state government has turned some staff of the BRT system into thin gods. Imagine several of them now refuse to do their jobs but cause quarrels, fight and abuse commuters. They lack anything one can describe as customer service skills and how to work in a business environment. These staff members are misrepresenting the good initiative of Lagos state and must be cautioned. There is need to employ mystery shoppers who can appropriately and covertly report vices and unwanted attitude displayed by any staff of BRT. Penalizing one or two of them over negative attitudes towards customers and the job would make them sit straight. More than necessary is the need to continuously train staff members as they represent the government in their deeds daily.

4.   MASS UNSAFE STANDING ON TRANSIT

·        Why should customers stand unsafely in the BRT busses? If Molue was eradicated because Lagos must be safe and better, then BRT must control how commuters are allowed to stand on transit. Eradicate the perception of Molue that commuters are beginning to have about the state this government initiative in BRT. If there must be standing, then it must be controlled to the barest minimum to avoid health issues and accidents that can result. We should not wait until people begin to faint in BRTs before seeing the need to control how many people should stand in a bus. On several occasions BRT busses have being observed to carry over 45 standing passengers. This is more than the sitting population in the vehicle and an indication that there is need for more busses.

5.   GOOD MAINTENANCE & PROMPT RESOLUTION OF MECHANICAL FAULTS

·        The need for good management, maintenance and prompt resolution of these busses cannot be taken for granted. The fact said that Lagos state is happy to be revenue driven is not enough for the short and long term. Strategic positioning of policies, pricing and maintenance of BRT by any incumbent government is a pointer to how the citizenry will benefit from the state.

There is no way we can free the management of BRT from employing simple principles that have been tested and are trusted in marketing. In July 2013, the American Marketing Association defined Marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. The definition had been approved and applauded to be true by international institutions and governments for the creation of value. Thus, in order for Lagos state to create a strategic profitability of the BRT system instead of a short term focus, there must be significant conscious improvements to better the system now adopted by majority of its residents.

THE JOY OF BEING A CUSTOMER

I had worked severally and in various capacities as a customer advocate and consistently observed that little things are germane to determine which customers buy from whom. It is not a secret that an underlying factor is responsible for tilting the preference and choice of customers’ patronage. Come to think of it, every seller in a market may have the same offering but eventually realize that a set of customers patronize them more. These set of customers would always come back for most times and for undisclosed reasons that are not easily clear to market stakeholders.

Trust me; something differentiates the sellers and products in every market. It does not matter whether one supplier is responsible for the availability of the offerings in the business environs or not. Observant sales people with keen eyes and senses for deciphering market information would easily note that customers go to sellers that have peculiar attractants. Soccer loving customers would prefer to patronize a customer with vast potential of football passion because they can also benefit from an inherent value in the salesman as they are also engrossed in business. So also, a religious client tends to patronize another market participant for their coincidence of belief, while an online enthusiast might go to either Kaymu or Jumia depending on how they are perceived.

There is always an underlying factor that differentiates seller A from B and the rest of the market.  It is good to mention that comparing all that draws a customer to any shop, the most potent attractant for patronage and improved market share is helping the client realize the joy of being a customer. The moment a customer realizes that he smiles from within in a particular shop, he would not cease to patronize the merchant. In this case, he becomes more trusting when he is with you or in your environment, and will be ready to come back more often.

Businesses that allow their customers ample opportunity to refresh their minds by talking, smiling, laughing, and sharing some of their burdens in soliloquy is ready to make more profits because they have allowed them to realise the joy of being a customer.

Related Posts from Author:

1. Employee Loyalty Dilemma

2. Defining Customer Service

3. VOC at ATM Locations

4. Customer Spoke

5. Service Soliloquy

6. Customers Voice Decries GSM

7. The CAREFUL concept

8. My Service Story

9. Developing an Edge in the Banking Industry 

10. Value Versus Service

11. Differentiating Service from a Product

12. What would you do?

13. Customers are Wiser
14. Custodians of Market Information 
15. Customers Need the Romance
11. Price Versus Quality Bout

Price versus Quality bout

In quality circles, it is not unexpected to find professionals advise organizations to focus more on developing a product or service that is characterized with high standards. Of course, no advice can be better than that. Customers can totally abandon a company’s product if they found that its products are substandard or of low quality. These customers need the romance. However, in a recent research conducted in Africa’s most populous nation, it was discovered that customers are wiser and now care more about pricing than quality.

A recent customer satisfaction survey observed that Nigerian textile customers buy more when prices are reviewed downward. Formerly in the textiles industry, sales volume increases as manufacturers are able to improve customers’ perception about the quality of their offering or brand. This has changed tremendously. The proliferation of stakeholders via new entrants in the business of fabrics and related categories helped in changing how customers perceive quality.

Textile companies now slug it out through consistent price wars just to enlarge their market share. Respondents to the questionnaire confirmed that they patronize and would continue to buy from companies making substandard fabrics because the price helps them to make more margin. Their resoluteness to trade quality for cheaper price is unrelated to the continued reduction in economic power of the low end customers who form the majority of users of such products made in Nigeria.

This same consumer philosophy explains why many local manufacturers prefer to import inferior mass produced materials just to be competitive and command a better chunk of the market. Similarly in other sectors of the Nigerian economy, more consumers who ordinarily would not do so in the past now opt for cheaper products from origins where manufacturers maximize the ability to produce with a lean system.

Though many top members of renowned companies in Nigeria cry foul over the nation’s lack of effective regulations to minimize external competition from countries having advantage to supply cheaper products via any or combination of: employment of cheap labour, reduction of product quality, questionable or unethical production practice, conducive production environment etc; it is high time that new methods of reducing product prices is adopted in the country. For the past few years, the voice of customers (VOC) continued to indicate year in and out that pricing has become a major limiting factor for assured patronage. This strongly emphasizes that something must be done to strategically position industry participants positively. Else, attrition rates would continue to soar in companies that refuse to change while the macro economy will extensively suffer profit flight to countries with better economic clout. 

Related Posts:

1. Continuous Improvement is a Must

2. Differentiating Service from Product 

3. Value versus Service

CUSTOMERS NEED THE ROMANCE.

I was in one of the many branches of First Bank Nigeria situated Lagos today. I needed to make some deposits but had a swell time as the employees of the bank reminded me of my first love in customer service. I saw that all hope is not lost about improving the attitude of Nigeria’s banking community to service. In the recent past, customers suffered to make deposits and withdrawals but today only a few customers were spotted in the well arranged branch. One would have thought that the introduction of automated teller machines is the perfect solution to crowded banking halls. Rather, more problems emerged with the adoption of this cutting edge technology. Nigeria was recently very high amongst countries with the largest number of ATM transactions. This however did not reduce how bank customers stay in unending queues at ATM locations just to transact..

As I tried to enter the branch, the first security man at the gate saluted “good morning sir, welcome to First bank”. I managed to respond to him muttering to myself “I have no shishi to spare today”. The greeting was unusual. I had patronized the same branch severally with this same gate man not uttering a word to me. At some other occasions he even exchanged abusive words with customers. As if that was not enough, as I stepped into the banking hall, a neat well dressed security man shouted me “good morning sir, welcome to First Bank”. I was flabbergasted and taken aback. This is now getting more serious. Could it mean that the branch recently had a knowledge sharing session (KSS) that changed many things?

I had to believe the latter, that something good was going on. The banking hall was not crowded as usual, everywhere was well lit and with a good scent stimulating my olfactory perception. The whole setting was just appropriate. I could have given the FBN branch a 100% rating today assuming I was there on a mystery shopping visit but for one thing. The gate-man that saluted as I entered the branch did it with a good attitude but lacked the right skills. Instead of quickly correcting him as he tried to welcome the customers in a commanding tone, the other bank employees were busy gossiping about his loud unpalatable way of dishing out the greetings in instruction form to the customer. I don’t blame him. I will rather have him better trained because he is willing. 

Contrary to my thoughts that I may be over exaggerating my passion for customer service, the love for excellent service delivery soared instantly from within. I quickly cautioned the staff that was jesting about this without thinking. I advised him and others on the need to correct the security man so that he can be better at what he is doing. He already started something good and should get the right motivation to do more. I suggested to them to tell him to greet the customer as if he was wooing a new love. Everybody that heard that laughed but then, that was the right thing to do. 

Customers would appreciate your customer service intentions only if you make them attractive and romantic. No wonder one of my mentors used to say “romance your customers”. I recorded today as a positive one for me. Smiles came without the any SMS alert of unprecedented cash deposit into my account. The experience of what I had always preached but never seeing in our banks made me elated. Luckily for me too, I was able to touch the life of several bankers with my experience as a customer service professional. Nothing more made me happier today. Congratulations to the First Bank branch for winning my A rating in service excellence today, the 10^th of June, 2014.

CUSTODIANS OF MARKET INFORMATION

Market views yesterday scintillated my knowledge about the customers. Maybe I had known key facts about customers earlier on. Wait a minute! It was so glaring that I could not miss it. The best place to gather intelligence about a company’s products is the market where it’s being sold. Ok, I read your thoughts. It went through your mind that a new product may not be existent in the market and thus manufacturers of such products should wait to get their products to the market. ABSOLUTE NO! Every organization must first sit down to calculate, something also known as plan for a new product. This can only be achieved by first visiting a prospective market where the product is expected to be required.

There is no need for organizations to produce new items for the market that will not be accepted. This would mean a total waste of resources and management’s time. The traders in the market may not be able to coherently put down what they have seen. It is the job of the qualified professional to harness their experiences and make them more vivid for the use of management. This functionality and significance of Nigerian markets has however not been fully maximised. Professionals spend more time in the office analysing their own information acquired by sophisticated technological innovation without considering the qualitative thoughts and real life behaviour of market participants.

There is no gainsaying that current software monitoring customer requirements are good investments. They however do not justify the total neglect of the market intelligence gotten directly from the people that face real issues. In the market, the behaviours of both the sellers and buyers can elucidate salient key points to move the profits upward.

Thus my advice today for Customer Service Professionals, Marketing Professionals and everyone that participates in the recording of customer requirements to significantly consider the grassroots markets where iterative activities becomes a compendium of marketing information for organizational excellence.

CUSTOMERS ARE WISER

The months rolled by this year but not without teaching me a very significant lesson about customers. Several organizations think they know what their customers want, but the truth of the matter is that only the customers can specify their most invaluable choices. When a company that has a functionality to manufacture a seemingly high level product in the proficiency of their machines and just decides to produce for the market without considering market acceptability, the management had just chose to risk shareholders fund. There is no doubt that customers can decide to buy from the competitor because they know exactly what they want to buy. And this reason may be based on several sentiments from price, quality, to any other thing that the organization might have overlooked.

Recently, the global market continued to witness some customer restraints in the volume of purchases from retail outlets. This means a reflective reduction to the bulk sales. This recent reduction in consumers willing ability to spend money means that more customers will not buy on impulse. Customers buy based on sentimental attraction, though an average customer may deny the fact. This sentiment must be sustained for any wise organization to continue to increase profits. A product that is fascinating enough to make the buyer part with his money is the trick. However, we can only know this product by first knowing the customer. I know of a company that wants to decide for the customer, but have continued to experience massive drop in sales. Apparently too stubborn to yield to the realities of the voice of customer (VOC), but willing to sustain more profit flight.

This economic era of careful spending stipulates that serious management teams should take focussed and drastic to invest more on decoding the customers' dynamic needs through more research and analysis. In a situation where a company is stuck and does not know where to start, rendering excellent service is the first step to getting into each customer's mind. It allows for a business romance that encourages the customer to exude his innate requirements. Only after this revelation and discovery of such hidden necessity can a product manager boast of successfully meeting a need. Getting to the fantabulous discovery does not mean resting or staying longer than necessary in the euphoria of such achievement. It calls for continued review and improvement by following up the more with the customer to harvest more of similar requirements.

The Role Of Intermediaries In B2b in E-Marketplaces

INTRODUCTION
Transactions between two companies or businesses conducted over the internet, extranet, intranet or other networks are referred to as B2B. Efraim Turban (2008:219). This type of transactions takes place in e-marketplaces which can be private, public or consortia. They allow for a situation where one or many businesses are able to supply or purchase goods and services from another set of one or many businesses. In the case of an organization that does not previously have an e-marketplace, auctions can take place through the use of intermediaries whose job it is to attract many potential buyers to the auction site in the case of a sell side or many potential sellers to the auction site in case of a buy-side.

ROLE OF INTERMEDIARIES IN B2B
Intermediaries in B2B refers to electronic middlemen as mentioned by Kourgiantakis and Petrakis (2007), they are necessary to facilitate online trades between buyers and sellers who are businesses. Nilsson and Lundqvist (2006:7) reported that according to Murtaza, Gupta and Carrol (2004), B2B transactions are projected to exceed $16 trillion in the US alone. They also claimed that Lu and Anthony (2003) estimated that there are 4000 e-marketplaces worldwide. The e-marketplaces can be described as an online market where buyers and sellers exchange goods and services. Though this type of market is different from an offline arrangement as seen in auctions or our traditional "brick and mortar stores" it makes use of intermediaries just like in the traditional markets. The intermediaries stand in between the two parties involved in the transaction ensuring that a double coincidence of want occurs. Such coincidence of wants can either be "many-to-one" or "one-to- many" i.e the buyer side and the seller side respectively. The significance of using intermediaries in B2B transactions cannot be overemphasized; they assist in the following areas

·         Businesses are able to concentrate their resources on their core activities instead of uncoordinated and multiple searches for other businesses to transact with

·         The supply chain is shortened, reducing the number of weeks and months involved to conclude a transaction; businesses are able to do more in a short period.

·         Huge reduction in cost in procurement and sales

·         The use intermediaries improves the online of experience of all the parties to a transaction through regularly updated means of collaboration

·         Use of intermediaries help in organizing suppliers and purchasers for easy and timely occurrence of transactions

BUY-SIDE AND SELL-SIDE INREMEDIARIES

The two types of intermediaries are used in private e-marketplaces, in the case of the buy-side; one buyer who buys from many sellers hires the intermediary and may maintain control of who is invited to participate in the auction. A similar situation is noticed in the case of a sell-side where one seller who sells to many buyers hires the intermediary and as such maintains the control of the whole event by deciding which buyer participates or not.

The difference between the two intermediaries lies in the activities carried out by the two. While the buy-side intermediary is responsible for inviting many sellers who will sell to the single buyer, the sell-side intermediary is responsible for inviting many buyers who will be buying from the single seller. Any scenario different from "one to many" and "many to one" is referring to another type of B2B transaction that can either be:-

1.       Exchanges

2.       Supply chain improvements and collaborative commerce

Businesses always have buying and selling needs, its either the company wants to dispose of old assets or wants to buy raw materials for its business activities. Materials purchased in a B2B transaction can be described as direct (when it is useful in only one industry or production of one product) or indirect (when it is used to support production in general and not one particular product).

CONCLUSION
Intermediaries have great roles to play in transactions that occur between businesses, especially when the hiring business does not have its own e-marketplace, this makes it important for the sell-side to be able to identify an effective intermediary laden with the duty of inviting many buyers while the buy side identifies an effective intermediary as well to invite many sellers for the purpose of shortening the length of the supply chain. This arrangement has been found to reduce the cost of business procurements and asset disposals in many organizations. Turban et al (2008:222)

Cited References:

Daniel Nilsson and Krister Lundqvist (2006), "Understanding B2B e-hubs and the value they provide" Department of Business Administration, Lulea University of Technology.

Markos Kourgiantakis and Emmanuel Petrakis (2007), "Modelling B2B E-Marketplaces: The role of intermediaries" Department of Economics, University of Crete.

Efraim Turban, David King, Judy McKay, Peter Marshall, Jae Lee, Dennis Viehland, (2008) "Electronic Commerc - A Managerial Perspecive" ISBN 9780135135440 Int'l Ed. Pearson Education Ltd. london

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

I traded Fx consistently in the past and hope to still do it better in future. I am still a fan of the business of trading and investing in currencies but would in no wise rush into it without first internalising how best to get profitability. Profiting is the reason any man will want to venture into any form of trade. One good thing about the hobby is the required patience and persistence needed to excel. This is not an easy feat. My mentor Peter Bain advised severally that making the money in trickles is better than having a huge chunk of profit that would be lost in another risky move. How many of us believed that then. Oh yea, follow the masters or be ready to create your own path. So many traders had to learn in the school of hard knocks where taking some huge losses taught them how not to trade currencies. Really, it’s not bad to dare to be different but is it really worth it when you can follow the leading of others and then add something new you discovered while towing the existing golden lines of giants.

 

Similar situations exist now in the economy, every business seems to be complaining. From Financial to Manufacturing, customers are now more knowledgeable and would readily go to alternative sources. It used to be quality alone in the past; when well meaning individuals gun for supposedly superior goods but now things are more complicated with so many factors controlling the choice of buyers. Organizations now have more to think about than just creating the best product for their customers. Yes, the product must be good, but note that only quality will not deliver the big sales that will improve your company’s bottom line. I have seen that management are always in a hurry to sell or win customers. This should not be something that is done spontaneously without a prior strategic alignment to the driving policies and culture of such institutions. Total Quality management may be a better viewing of what is required. The components of TQM bring to mind the following essentialities:

·         Put customers first

·         Make Continuous Improvement

·         Aim for zero defects

·         Training and development

This ideology is also supported by the Kotler and Keller, 2008, they professed the four dimensions of “holistic marketing” to be:

·         Internal Marketing

o   Every member of the organisation must be involved

·         Integrated Marketing

o   Multiple means of creating, delivering and communicating value must be utilised

·         Relationship Marketing

o   Having multi-faceted relationship with customers, channel members and other marketing partners is important.

·         Performance Marketing

o   Understanding how the returns from marketing and other organizational activities contributes to business success

Achieving the holistic view of your business is not child’s play. The management team must drive this but not so much in a hurry. Otherwise, intermittent policy changes will be the end result. Rather than thinking in the short term, business decisions should be made with the strategic approach and in a way to carry every stakeholder along.

In the economy that we are seeing now, business owners need to study and follow the trend slowly but steadily to continue to stay in the business. Making rash decisions based on previous experiences alone without knowing the new developments that are now dictating the pace is a step at hurriedly winding up business activities.

Aderogba Adewusi (ASQ CMQ/OE)

 

What would you do?

You opened an account with a bank after a rigorous marketing by one of the bank's officers. At first you were not sure that you should do that because many banks had messed you up in the past. You were aware that, despite the problems with all these banks, they seem more like a necessary evil because there is no way an international business man can excel without interacting with existent Financial Institutions.

 

Your several thoughts and reasoning about the issue made you to change your mind about your decision, which was never to open an account with any bank. Reluctantly, you decided to give it a trial because this new marketing officer from renown bank in your country looks impeccable and with the peculiarity of not being able to renege on his words. The account was opened and everything seemed to be going smoothly.

 

Anytime to got to the branch, you usually get a good response from the staff and thought that was the norm. Even at some point, you noticed that the customers are seemingly happy with the service they get from the bank because; no one seemed ever to complain. At least, all the time you have been to any branch of the bank in your country; you always leave with reasons to applaud the ingenuity and customer centric innovations that are available.

 

Some weeks before your predicament, you received a text from the bank that your cheque book is ready and that you should get to the branch where you opened your account to collect it. This made you happier because your account was opened just a few days ago and here you are already getting the signal that your chequebook is ready. This is something that had always been a problem for other banks you had approached in the past.

 

The shock came suddenly when you visited the branch to collect your cheque for the umpteenth time and you kept hearing "Sir, you may have to check back; the cheque book is not here yet". It sounded like an unfathomable language. How could this bank be ridiculously insincere? They did not need to send me a text to come for my cheque when it's not ready, you thought to yourself. What even upset you the most is the fact that you had received that same text thrice. This really got on your nerves and you felt betrayed by a bank that you are beginning to trust and appreciate. You now started discovering that other customers had the same issue but you never noticed before now.

 

You now have to decide whether to continue with the word of mouth marketing that you promised to do for them because you already started with your boss and he promised to open an account with a huge sum of money next week. You asked yourself, "My boss would be much devastated if this same thing happens after he opens his account." This is a serious dilemma because it could affect your relationship with your boss after taking time to convince him.

 

What would you do to help yourself and resolve this predicament?

 

 

For a chance to get published in our quarterly column, kindly send your responses to:

 

Aderogba Adewusi

SUCCESSDRIVE INV. LIMITED

successdriveltd@yahoo.com