It’s so interesting how little things have the capacity to distinguish a company. I have been around a bit, in and out of Nigeria, and I think I have sufficient experience to say that customer service is an improvement area world over, but particularly for us in this country.

In many companies, we merely pay lip service to the mantra “Customer is Boss”, if indeed the customer was boss, some of us would have been fired way back! Our customers do not have options, we are big, we are it, alternatives are the same, and day in day out, we rub this realities in their faces.

Long haul buses, fast food restaurants, mega banks, airlines, hospitality, e.t.c, we have the industries where this skill is a necessary asset, so what do we lack? Most of these companies lack standards – and before you wonder what that means, let me quickly explain it. Standards are a set of ideals you have chosen as a company to be measured by. You have communicated them in your corporate induction, communicated it in a special customer service training to all your customer facing employees, it’s clearly engraved in the hearts and minds of all your staff. What isn’t measured isn’t done!

I know I’m certainly not alone in recounting experiences with different establishments where I have been treated as if I was being done a favour, despite that I had paid in full for the service. These Long haul buses are typical examples of the worst in customer service, I was once told by a friend that you are not even treated with the courtesy a bag of rice demands, you are treated like a log of wood- Pick, stack and drop! How appalling!

We certainly can all identify with these anomalies, but before you start pointing fingers, take a close look at what they other fingers are doing…they are pointing at you, asking you if you, or your company has measurable customer service standards. Don’t answer, ponder.

Is change possible? Is it possible to drive it for your organization and beyond? My answer is YES, and I’m willing to support that crusade! A dear friend just put this up, and is soliciting for comments, please visit this site and lets start a campaign that will start measuring and rewarding customer service events in some of our big companies. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT UBA Feel absolutely free to suggest others as well, and don’t forget to spread the word. Together we can change things!!!