Maybe I am being naive!

August 19, 2013 Taura Khuluma Say it!!Branding Zimbabwe, consumer expectations, consumers, customer relationship management, customer service, customers, Great Zimbabwe, Harare, iphone5, marketing, Smart communications, smartphone, Zimbabwe3 Comments

Over the last two weeks I have encountered different types of services, private and public and on all occasions I have been left wondering, “what is the reason behind this never ending relationship between customer service and the ball point pen in Zimbabwe?”. In almost all instances there is always a computer at every service desk! Sometimes both the pen and the computer are used to record the same event, meaning I have to wait twice as long to be served without any real improvement to my experience of that service.

Am I expecting too much, does anyone else not see that, for time and age that we are living in at this very moment, we are not equipped to be effective and efficient? One colleague reminded me that my problem is I have diaspora expectations, I should accept that things are different here but what is the real difficult in producing customer service provisions that exceed current levels? Surely it is not because investing in information technology is expensive, the technology is already there!. Could it be a lack of training or is it management myopia holding back the development of better service provision quality?

Here are two examples of why I am complaining, at my previous hotel, I had some dirty laundry washed, my details and the list of items to be washed where added onto my room information on the hotel’s computer system, later as I came to collect laundry I was asked to pay cash, even though this was midway through my stay, I produced the money to pay. Payment details were added onto my room information and a receipt book with ball point pen attached was produced to duplicate the very same information for which I was given a copy but only after a 20 minute wait. Upon checking out I was given a 4 page folio copy printed by the system detailing every single thing I had done that week including the laundry business! why do I need it again or why did I have to wait for all that 20 minutes in the first instance when I could have just got the information on checking out?!

The same goes to my mobile phone provider who made me wait in three queues to be saved at 3 desks in order to change my micro sim to a nano sim! on all three occasions I was asked to repeat the same information for which three different colour hand written receipts were produced while the information was simultaneously added onto the information technology system! After 45 minutes waiting for this elaborate process to be completed I got to the payment station and I was told the cashier didn’t have change for $20 so now I had to find that in order to pay! Life is way too short for this BS!

But all is not lost, as I discovered at Harare Airport where I arrived to check in for my flight to Bulawayo, my first with the airline for 14 years!, with nothing but an emailed e-ticket on my iphone. You can forgive the nervous ball of anxiety in my stomach as I got to the check-in desk but the helpful gentleman checked me in with a smile and without asking any further question or even an ID!

Isn’t it a scary world when anything related to AirZim is an example of best practise! Ahh, its supplier of handling services at the airport should get the applause instead, well done to the NHS for not using a ball point pen! (No!, it stands for National Handling Services, not that other NHS!). As for AirZim, we left on time, well 20 minutes late is no reason to complain when the national airline is the service provider on any trip!

I am sure some will have a counter point and an explantion or rationale for all my complaints, maybe I am just being naive but, come on!

Branding in a recovering economy

October 16, 2012October 16, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!Branding Zimbabwe, consumer expectations, customer relationship management, customer service, customers, Leadership, logo, marketing, price, product benefits, risk, Strategy, value proposition1 Comment

The issue of branding in all economies always draws interesting opinions especially bacause it costs money to develop and maintain branding in a postion that gives organisations competitiveness in their markets. The challenges in a recovering economy for brands and branding will inevitably emanate from the same issue of resources epscially money. The allocation of capital into developing and maintaining brands pales into the background as organisations struggle to survive within a challenging environment. The inspiration for this article is investigating how organisations accomodate branding as business strategy component during difficult times.

The interesting part of this assessment is how do organisations juggle the allocation of resources in the process of sustaining the organisations so that it contunes to be functional but also maintains a presence on the market through marketing and brand management activites that garner consumer attention but more importantly sales!

Marketing as a practise is often percieved as a investment heavy function that suffers first during spending cuts and downsizing but it is my opinion that reduction of spending in revenue generation activities is perhaps the wring strategic move to make. Alternatively I would suggest that business leaders consider re-orientating their business models into demand driven business that invest in lead generation and higher conversion of enquiries into sales. This strategy can only be driven by strong market presence and brand recognition in target markets. The marketing mix is this case becomes the driver of lead generation and enquiry conversion through configuring all elements so that they give marketers the best opportunity to present the product to the market.

Overall I feel there is too much unneccessary caution in strategic planning when it comes to responding to external pressures on sales and operations of businesses which compounds the pressure as business activity shrinks from cuts in production, workforce, marketing and innovation for brand development. There needs to be greater bullishness in finding alternatives in a process that is led by creative and innovative approaches to strengthening brands espeically long established brands that have emotional real estate in the market.

Branding represents much more that the logo of an organisations it communicates the value an organisation brings to its customers, its ethos on customer service, the quality of its products and the company’s position in the minds of its customers all encapsulated in a logo, font and colour. So look around and look at the brands you use and ask yourself if you see all those qualities in their logos, font and colour?

Defining customers service in Africa; route towards improvement in customer service

October 7, 2012November 17, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!advertising, africa, Branding Zimbabwe, consumer expectations, consumers, customer relationship management, customer service, customers, Leadership, marketable, marketing, potential, private sector, public sector, Strategy, trainingLeave a comment

Being a regular visitor to Africa in the last 11 months I have experienced varying degrees of customer service quality and concluded that getting “good” quality customer service is still a far fetched dream in almost all service encounters.

A few other travelling colleagues have been discussing how we could drive Africa towards universal good customers service as some research has identified Africa as a future destination for western companies looking to outsource customer service functions to African countries. There are several implications to finding a solution to customer service delivery in Africa, first of which is creating better experiences for customers and improving customer retention. Secondly if Africa is to realise the potential expressed in the above research referred then we need to have a marketable product by ensuring that every customer encounter with service delivery is positive, because you never know who your next customer might be.

It is my opinion that the process of improving African customer service provision must start with developing a clear understanding of how customer service is perceived in the Africa context. The lack of resources, imbalance between demand and supplier in many service encounters means that the supplier usually has an upper hand in most encounters thus removing the obligation on their part to be good to the customer who is dependent on them. This is in total contrast to environments where supply outstrips demand and so companies’ service provision is obliged to treat the customer as “king” in order to retain their custom. This reality of the service encounter in Africa reduces the customers’ bargaining power and potential to switch to an alternative source for either product or service. In the end the African customer feels obliged to accept sub standard customer service as a means to an end.

African private enterprise has substantially better service delivery than public service especially government services like passport offices, registration of births and deaths, medical service and any other essential services that a customer might expect from the government. Perhaps customer service personnel in public service offices do not even regard the people they serve as customers, which then removes the need for “good” customer service. Private enterprise on the other hand recognises the relationship it has with the people they service but greater demand than supplier reduces the impetus to provide “good” customer service.

My conclusion is that there is need for cultural re-orientation to get the customer to demand “good” customer service and service providers from both public and private sectors to view customers as opportunities to create relationships that will continue positively beyond each service encounter. This change will require leadership in both private and public sectors, training and adoption of clearly defined performance parameters supported by systematic evaluation. But the starting point must be a review and analysis of prevailing perceptions of “good” customer service to the provider and customer in Africa.

What should companies use Facebook for?

June 22, 2012June 22, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!advertising, advertising on Facebook, capital, consumers, customers, Facebook, marketers, marketing, sales, selling, socialLeave a comment

Much of the hype behind the actual value of Facebook was to an extent based on the business potential of the site in terms of it being used as a market platform for companies. But, a big but, the transformation of facebook from being a free service for individual user to a site that companies use to target the free service users has many obstacles to over come, firstly how will customers react to deliberate commercialisation of their social capital? there are lessons to learn from the experiences at myspace and capitalisation of social interaction, it didn’t work too well. The next question is how can companies guarantee that their investment will receive coverage that justifies the expanditure on advertising on facebook? There are already several conspiracy theories regarding coverage, exposure and publicity limitations being imposed, randomly or otherwise, by facebook. So, investment on advertising might only produce a fraction of expected market outcomes afterall.

My reservations against the investment in advertsing on Facebook, as shared by www.larrykwirirai.com, are based on two observations, one of which is that marketers are being opportunistic in trying to convert social interaction into commercial capital. And, the other is that, without complete control if this process, since Facebook will manage all the analytics, there are serious strategic gaps that bring up red flags to observers.

I personally think any company looking to use Facebook as an out and out marketing platform to sell products need to fire their marketing team. Selling and overtly capitalist conduct goes against the whole ethos of social media!. Facebook should be a relationship building platform used to develop brand affinity and general communications while giving customers access into the organisation. It’s all about interaction and whether or not this leads to increased sales is dependent on the use of the data gathered via these interactions with customers and strategic capability of the marketing department to convert brand awareness into brand loyalty.

Just because Facebook has hundreds of millions of people to sell things to doesn’t mean marketers should be lazy, there is still the need to be creative be proactive in responding to customers needs if marketers are to successfuly sell their products while using Facebook as part of an effective marketing strategy!

Commercializing your talents

June 8, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!Artist, Bands, commercialisation, consumership, customers, Hip-hop, market research, marketing, music, music labels, producers, record sales, strategic planning, ZimbabweLeave a comment

Looking through Twitter this week I got caught up in a discussion about how Zimbabwean hip hop artist and producers are failing to grow consumership in the Zimbawean market or any other market for that matter. The discussion brought foward several issues that observers felt contributed to the lack of the development in the genre’s quest for recognition and market share. The aim for any artist is to be recognised for their craft and for the craft to be taken seriously but it seems achieving this or knowing how to achieve it is beyond the grasp of the players in the music industry. This is an which goes beyond just the artist because there are record labels investing in studio time and production of music which does not bring in much revenue.

The question amongst many participants in the Twitter discussion was what can be done to change the market position of hip hop music in the Zimbabwean market and then also package the music so that it can be sold to an international audiance? I think the starting point for everyone concerned with this product is to put themselves in the position of a customers and ask the following questions;

What value do I get from the product?

Why should I choose this product instead of the alternatives that are in the market?

It is also good practice at this point to do some market research with whoever the industry considers to be their target market. It is my opinion that most of the products that fail to gain any foot hold in their target market would have failed to answer these two questions. But these are very important questions for any customers and require an answer. That answer will be the reason customers buy the product.

Once those questions are answered all players should then look at their product in terms of attractiveness of the markets and this could be done by asking the following questions;

How much of the market is a potential market for our product?

Who are we competing with?

Who is the market leader and what are their core competencies and USPs?

How can we nullify their competitive advantage and convert their advantage into our own?

What resources to we need to achieve this?

It is my belief that in answering these questions honestly the musicians will come up with a product that is acceptible to the market, competitive against its rivals but more importantly the artists will be more aware of the value they give to their customers.

But some people will say good music or art does not need commercialisation or strategic planning, it sells itself….

Accessibility and options for businesses and customers

September 26, 2011September 29, 2011 Taura Khuluma Say it!!customer service, customers, marketing, mutli channel organisations, Smart communications, smart mediaLeave a comment

Improvements in communications technology has seen the expansion of means by which organisations can give their customers accessibility to their services. For many organisations the strategic choice to be accessible on multiple channels is probably an internally driven strategy but for an increasing number of orgainisations the drivers come from external pressure in the competitive environment. But, what are the benefits and disadvantages of operating a multiple access channel strategy for organisations? Are the cost implications justifed by performance in terms of revenue and is there still a place for 1 access chanel businesses in the “smart communications” world?

Taf Masiye

It's just my imagination!!!

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