MEET THE STAFF SERIES

Interaction with customers is gradually moving to Social Media Platforms

CCD: Nasiru Isah, as a staff of the Customer Care Unit, how would you describe your functions?

NI: Our major objective is to create value for the company by practicing our marketing philosophy of being customer-centric. The idea behind this philosophy is putting the customer first. 

Also, because the customer is the reason why we are in business, we have to treat him as king. 

Customer complaints are handled by providing appropriate and professional solutions. To achieve our set objective, we bring our experience, knowledge and expertise in resolving complaints. These we combine with the recent improvement in processes and technology as introduced by the company. Our major objective is to ensure that the customer is happy and satisfied with our services.

CCD: Obviously, complaint resolution is a major part of what you do. What would you say is the most frequent complaints you get from your area?

NI: Basically, there are three kinds of complaints we receive at the Kaduna Road Service Centre. We have complaints on prepaid meters (PPM), complaints on billing and complaints that are technical in nature.

But the most frequent complaints are those on prepaid meter, maybe because the Service Center has the highest number of PPM customers compared to other service centers.

CCD: What is the difficult part of being a customer care representative?

NI: Undoubtedly, it is handling of a dissatisfied customer whose complaint has remained unresolved for a long period of time.

Such a customer is likely to become abusive thus, difficult to handle. 

For me, the way out is to remain calm, focused and professional in handling such a customer.

CCD: Teamwork is one of the company's core values; do you consider yourself a team player?

NI:  Yes, I do. When you see teams that succeed, it is because when members have a commitment to common objective, within defined roles and responsibilities a lot can be achieved.                                                                                           

I believe I am a team player because I have the ability to work in a team and influence a positive result. An area office may perform better than another just because team members have agreed to work together.

CCD: Do you have any suggestion on how we can improve relationship with our customers?

NI: More of today's marketing is moving from the market place into cyberspace. I will suggest that we implement the strategy for managing all the company's relationship and interaction by optimizing our social media accounts. This strategy offers opportunity to interact with customers 24/7. Multinationals, such as Tata Power and General Electric are using it to add value to their services.

CCD: What Advice would like to give to management?

NI: My advice to management is to implement total quality excellence in all aspect of our operations, especially technical and human resources. We need to invest more in people and processes; we need personnel that have the required skills, a workforce that has zeal to work.

The mentality of the workforce has to be such that they understand the company's   values of Teamwork, Integrity, Excellence and Sustainability.