The increase of entrepreneurial awareness in Nigeria has given birth to a large number of startups. Majority of these startups are internet based, thus are faced with the difficulty of acquiring customers.
Few of these startup which manages to gain certain customers at some point, even find it harder to keep them.
Majority of the working class citizens in Nigeria are baby boomers who sees internet as a medium that fraudsters uses to carry out fraudulent activities, this alone makes it very hard to make reasonable amount of sales using an online platform(e-commerce site to be specific).
While the likes of Jumia have actually broken the cycles, many other internet startups are yet to even make a leap. In order to be able to break this cycle, the startup in question has to go the extra mile in order to acquire and keep a customer.
In this post, I will be showing you how you can leverage on the power of customer care in order to make a successful customer acquisition and of course keep them asking for.
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE YOU START OFF.
THE NIGERIAN MINDSET:
A typical Nigerian will prefer to go to the market or a nearby mall in order to purchase his or her goods. The Baby boomers who are among the highest earners in the country are yet to believe in the internet as a medium of exchange. Few in the corporate world seem to be in the category of those who believe in the usage of internet. Others, who engage in the trading and other works that are not corporate related, rarely use the internet.
POOR LOGISTIC NETWORK:
The Poor road networks and Transport system in different part of Nigeria have made it hard to make 24 hours delivery or even instant delivery.
If you are into e-commerce startup or you are looking forward to go into e-commerce, this is one area that is likely going to hinder you. I believe that the e-commerce startup that will effectively solve this problem will have an edge over others.
NIGERIANS HAVE LOW TRUST RATE ON THE INTERNET:
Even though we like to read the news, especially the entertaining ones, it worthy to note that when it comes to making payment using our credit cards, we really think twice about it. In fact, we even prefer not to put in our payment details online.
LEVERAGING ON CUSTOMER CARE TO MAKE PROPER ACQUISITION
Customer service is the act of taking care of the customer’s needs by providing and delivering professional, helpful, high quality service and assistance before, during, and after the customer’s requirements are met. (Study.com)
The customer care service of the 21st is no longer limited to having a classy dressed lady at the entrance of your office, attending to customers instantly with a smile. The duty of a customer care representative is no longer limited to just a personnel, it has become a duty of everyone.
“Customer service shouldn’t be a department; it should be the entire company.”
–Tony Hsieh
While, Advertising helps you acquire customers, customer care service enables you to keep these customers, thus increasing their ‘come back’ rate. The following listed steps will enable you leverage on your customer care.
BUILD TRUST: We will be using an E-commerce Startup as a study. Let’s say you are trying to launch an e-commerce site in Nigeria, you need to convince your customers that your site is genuine. So your first customer care representative as of the moment is the “website”. If your website can’t convince people that you are genuine, you might be losing your first customer. You can use the following methods to build trust.
- About Us: Shun the conventional mere display of the ‘about us’ page that is been used by everybody. Create a genuine ‘about us page’ coupled with emotions. As a matter of fact, include a video showing you and your team talking about your site, product. Prove to them that you are genuine.
- Ask for their number: The conventional method involves dropping your contact information for the customers to call you. In this case, request for your customer’s number in order to contact them. This way you can be able to follow up and clear their doubt.
- Security: Don’t just secure your site; let them be aware of it. It increases their level of trust in your platform.
CREATE A CUSTOMER CARE FORCE:
Since part of building trust involves you going to your customers, by contacting them to help clear their doubt. One person isn’t going to do the job effectively. The sole purpose of the customer care force is not just to guide the customer but also to clear every form of doubt they have. The ability to send the same message to a customer through different personnel increases your chances of gaining and keeping more customers.
TRAIN YOUR CUSTOMER CARE FORCE PERIODICALLY:
One thing that is prominent among different Nigeria Companies is the laxity in the area of customer care service. They only seem to train their higher managers, living out the customer care personnel. Your customer care unit is as important as your sales force, don’t lose it. Sustain it, by subjecting them to periodic training. This will make them create good image of the company through their actions.
USE AFFORDABLE PRICES TO ATTRACT CUSTOMERS:
This is the monstrous method that Amazon uses to keep customers. They go as far as providing you the cheapest possible price. Who wouldn’t want to get something of great quality for a cheaper price? Follow through with customer care in order to keep them
DO THE UNTHINKABLE:
Learn to send coupon cards to your customers. This alone can increase customer return rate. Call the customers few weeks after the purchase of your products and check up on how they are enjoying the product. Be ready to eliminate any problem they might have. Don’t just deliver a service, create a moment.
CREATE A COMMUNITY OF BUYERS:
Have you ever wondered why big names in the Mobile Phone industries have community apps installed in their phone? Infinix phones have its community which is the ‘infinix xclub’, the Samsung brand also has its own community known as the ‘Galaxy club. If your startup is offline based, you can create an online fan club that meets periodically. E-commerce site can actually add a forum in the site as part of building a community.
DELIVER MORE THAN YOU PROMISED:
Create positive surprises that will create an impact in the mind your customers. Lets say a customer ordered for sneakers, you can decide to add a pair of socks as a bonus to compliment your service or you can choose to add any gift item that will make them feel special.
THE SHOCKER:
“THE CUSTOMER IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT”
I am sure you must be expecting me to say that the ‘customer is always’; Majority of them are always right, meanwhile learn to sieve out those customers that creates problem. Their bad attitudes can destroy your brand names if care is not taken. Use Peaceful and Calm ways to dissociate yourself from such customers.
CONCLUSION:
While there are a whole lot of steps that are involved in creating a good customer care service, following the suggestion stated above can bring you to the expected end in no distant time.
Do you have additional ways through which companies can leverage on their customer care to acquire more customers? Share them with using the comment sections. We do like to hear your opinions.
Thank you for reading.
