MEET THE STAFF SERIES

Synergy with Security Guarantees Safety of Materials in Store _Abdullahi Inuwa Baba

CCD: May we meet you please?

AI: My name is Abdullahi Inuwa Baba, I am from Kaduna State. I had my primary, secondary and tertiary education all in Kaduna. I did my compulsory NYSC programme in 2007. I have worked in several Units from I.T to customer care. The customer care unit enable us communicate with customers all the time. We know how to handle all manners of people.  I have gained a lot of experiences from communicating and interacting with the customers. I have been in the service of the Company for over three years now.

CCD: What is your primary responsibility?

AI: My primary responsibilities as a store officer generally is to receive and to issue stocks, but most importantly, we make sure that we document all transaction accordingly, take stock of materials available and advice the Management accordingly. We make sure we fill the important information in our document, but basically, as a team member, my major duties is to receive and issue materials when the appropriate approval is obtained. Then I also handles any other ICT related issues, and we write store received advise, store credit note and sometime whenever they bring any new items or if there is any supply, we make sure that we witness the uploads of those items, make sure they meet the standard and specification in the procurement document and then issuing out the proper documents. Like I said earlier, I started from Rigasa AO, the responsibilities are similar, and there is always mutual understanding and co-operation between the store officers in the Regional offices and the HQ, as well as a lot of communications. Whatever happen there, we sent information weekly to the Head Office, when I was there, we did our job well before I was later transferred to HQ in March 2017.

CCD: How do you ensure that materials are kept safe?

AI: Sometime before the materials come, we would be informed from the truck management that such items are coming; so before then, we will get  space for the items coming and when the consignment arrive, we will  make sure that everything’s goes accordingly. Once we collect the items, we will properly document it and forward to the inspection team, they will do quality check to confirm and make sure that the items are good, if the items are not good, they will forward their report to the Management.

CCD: Do you have any working arrangement with securities to ensure safety of the Materials?

AI: Yes, we have relationship with the security, they are trying their best, our team lead handles most of the security issues, she engage in a lot of communications with the security department and if there is any issue, they give us information where ever our stores are located.

CCD: What are you doing in terms of relationship management with other departments?

AI: Well, there is still a lot of things to work out with the various departments, most especially in writing requisition   to collected materials from stores, we have problems with some departments, if they want to write department/unit, they don’t know where to indicate such and also in the issue column, they write different thing instead of unit number. So we often make corrections, we suggest if we can have an orientation for the various departments on material’s requisition,  because most at times the requisition books are not properly filled so you have issues like that.

CCD: What are your major challenges?

AI: Our major challenge is all most every year during raining season, we usually encounter heavy rain with wind which usually remove the roof of our office and grasses grows under our materials so we have to ask some department assistance to fumigate where these materials are kept.

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

AI: Suggestion I will say the management are trying is just that we never had training in store unit so we are appealing to the company to organize a training for store staff so that we will get more experience.               

MEET THE STAFF SERIES

To Deliver on the Company’s mandate: More Attention Should Be Given To Service Centres_  Atinuke Ogunrinde 

 

CCD: Can you briefly tell us a about yourself?

AO: my name is Atinuke Ogunrinde, I was born and brought up in Kaduna, I did my primary and secondary schools all in Kaduna. I attended Benue State University were I studied Mass Communication. I then worked briefly with a private firm before going for my master at Central University College, Accra- Ghana. I am the Customer Care Representative of Kakuri Service Centre, I joined the service of the Company in September 2015 where I started as a Sales Rep. for few months before joining the Customer Care Unit.

CCD: What are your primary responsibilities?

AO: I attend to all customers complaints, though the complaints varies- some are technical while some are commercial related such as billing and or payment. I make sure every complaint that comes to my desk is attended to by the relevant department  or unit promptly.

CCD:  Do you have any strategy you use in dealing with difficult customer?

AO: Yes, they always come in angry, at times abusive. I try as much I can to give them  listening ears; giving them my full attention helps calm them, I then explain to them if their grievance is due misconception or misunderstanding of the situation. For example, most often, customers come complaining of over-billing, I will explain to them that the billing is based on the  energy that goes into their transformer, I will then recommend if we should do a load assessment. I always encourage them to apply for Meter, because most of the times they complained that they are mostly not at home, they claim they don’t consume that particular energy. But with meter, customers will know how to conserve energy.

CCD: What are your major challenges?

AO: Most times at this Service Center, I spends a lot on getting or sending feedback. I have to call customers on daily basis; if they lay a complaint, I  have to call them and explain the status of the complaint, whether it has been responded to, resolved or it is receiving attention. Some customers can hold your call for up to five minutes, I bear the cost of calls and sending my monthly report. 

CCD: Do you prefer to work individually or as a team?

AO: I strongly believe in team work, because you share ideas, you will be more creative when you work as a team, and most problem will be resolved in time when you work as a team. I take all complaints, I have to assign it to Technical Manager to treat them while some are taken to the Commercial Manager or the billing Rep. Team work in the language in contemporary business environment.

CCD: How do you sensitize your customers?

AO: I enlighten them when they come to the office before reaching out to them. I understand and  listen to them, I always put myself in the customer’s shoes, with that you will know how to respond to the customer.

CCD: What are the major complaints you receive?

AO: Over billing, transformer faults, fuse out and high voltage but the main issue that get customer’s aggrieve is over billing.

CCD: Any appeal or suggestion the to Management?

AO: Yes! Customers that have huge outstanding, the Company should come up with a promo, clear half of your outstanding, the company will waive the rest, let’s say you have 400 Thousand Naira as your outstanding and you are able to pay 200 Thousand Naira, this will really go a long way. Then the issue of the new meters, customers are complaining, the cost is too much for them to buy, but if they can pay half and split the rest for them. Management should please put it into consideration. We the staff need welfare, motivation; we need increment, that will boost our performance; it will make us do better. We have been here for four years, I think we deserve an increment.