MEET THE STAFF SERIES

Personal Marketing Builds Customers’ Confidence In Our Operation_ Safia Abdullahi

CCD: Can we have your brief profile?

SA: I am Safia Abdullahi of the Marketing and Revenue Assurance Department. I had my primary and secondary education at Army Children School and Wilson College respectively. I also attended Kaduna Polytechnic were, I bagged a Higher National Diploma in Accounting. I am passionate about my work, ambitious and result-driven. I am highly organized and always like to lead by example.

CCD: What does your job role entails?

SA: It entails over-seeing the affairs of the Service Center, attending to customers, revenue drive to achieve Company's goal and other related cases

CCD: What can you say are the qualities of a good SR:

SA: A good Sales Rep should be courteous and diplomatic in dealing with customers; he or she should be organized; always prepare his/her work schedule in advance; be firm in defending the interest of the Company; he/she should have zero tolerance to any form of shady deal; they should be focused and make judicious use of their time; they should have good knowledge of  the industry and continuously strive to  learn; a good Sales Rep should be tenacious and persistent, yet respectful. Lastly, he or she should be goal oriented.

CCD: Can you rate your colleagues, SRs, and what can you say are the training or skills gap they have?

SA: Generally, most of the Sales Reps I have worked with are hardworking and always enthusiastic about the job. We are daily striving to meet our targets despite the challenges. For the training or skills gap, in all fairness, the Company has done her best carrying the Sales reps along on new innovations and seminars. However, more is needed in the areas of customers relationship management, technical knowledge on how to detect meter bypass/tampering, load assessment etc. The Sales Reps need to be trained on the basics of these aspects of the business, not necessarily too technical.

CCD: What would you consider as your major achievement since you joined the service of the company?

SA: Attending high IQ trainings, seminars and workshops. We were able to change the collection figures of the service center from 3million to 8million. This was achieved by reaching out to all customers on each DT which includes new captures.

CCD: Do you have any strategy you use in ensuring you reach your monthly target?

 SA: I engaged customers in town hall meetings, educate them on how the company compute energy charge and encourage them to pay part of the outstanding balances, and even let them know it's a postpaid billing system while disconnection was last resort.

CCD: What do you consider as the most challenging part of managing customers?

 SA: Most challenging part is changing their perception of the industry and making them understand that the Company is ready to give 24hrs supply if the customers are willing to pay.

CCD: What is the contribution of personal marketing and customers engagement to the success of marking activities in an electricity industry?

SA: Personal marketing helps in establishing rapport between the Sales Rep and the customers; that personal contact most often serves as reminders for payment to the customers; it also helps SR to know his/her customers, it also helps to detect energy theft among customers, it increases revenue every day, it improve the Company’s image and further build customers’ confidence on our operations; most important of all, it establishes two-way communication.

CCD: Any appeal or suggestion to staff and the Management?

SA: I appeal to the Management to provide an enabling working environment with adequate facilities, tools and equipment to enable the staff discharges their responsibility effectively and greater productivity. I also appeal to the Management to provide effective means by which customer complaint can be resolved promptly most especially metered customers. I appeal to staff to “own up” this business, they must understand the mechanics and relationship between energy (kwh) and it’s corresponding monetary value. An understanding of this quantum will lead to appreciable standards.