Enterprise Issues
With Siaka Momoh
I remember quite well during my few years’ stint with MFP, a satellite TV Receiving Systems production and Marketing Company in Lagos, as a senior manager in the company’s sales department, my marketing director, Mike Adinlewa, told me ‘The customer is king. Relate well with him. Make the customer buy your product by all means – even if you get slapped selling; all that is important is ensuring the customer in question’s money is in your pocket.’
An incident concerning a rental company and a customer made me recall Mike Adinlewa’s tutoring. Mike Adinlewa is U.S-trained marketing expert who was one of the few who pioneered the introduction of Satellite TV System in Nigeria. The rental company’s ‘manager’ – an untutored supervisor, talked down on a customer who could put in place for the rental company, an endless chain of business opportunities. Too bad. And I had to step in to advise his boss to tame him or change him.
Business etiquette
wecomply.com gives an excellent tutorial on business etiquette:
Every word spoken on the phone, every e-mail sent and every meeting attended reflects on you and your company. When the employees involved in these interactions lack business-etiquette skills, they may result in lost leads and cold deals. While often overlooked, proper business etiquette is vital to the success of your company.
In today’s marketplace, where business is conducted through e-mail, social media, phone calls and in-person meetings, business etiquette training is a way to ensure your company and reputation remain intact.
In a recent article appearing on CBS Moneywatch, Steve Strauss highlighted six business etiquette blunders as the most offensive including email etiquette flubs, tardiness and dress code bloopers.
“If it is true that business etiquette is simply the use of commonly accepted social norms, then by not using them you are sending a signal that casualness is a main priority in your business, and that is probably not the message you want to be sending, especially in this economic environment,” Strauss said.
While poor business etiquette may not lead to expensive litigation or federal law violation, it can lead to lost revenue and dwindling business connections. By providing business-etiquette training on common topics, you establish consistency within the workplace, which reflects in your dealings with business contacts and ultimately on you.
Okada
Bad business etiquette is all over the place these days. You board a motor-bike (okada). The bike man takes off on speed, overtakes fuel-laden trucks carelessly – filtering through a chain of these death-on the-road vehicles. You warn him to take it easy, he ignores your warnings and tells you rudely to stop disturbing him. What will you call this? Many lives are lost on our roads daily stemming from such attitude.
Fruits/soup ingredients seller
The good fruits and ingredients are neatly place on top of the pack whilst rotten ones make up the foundation. When you make a purchase, the seller craftily pours the content from its container into a nylon bag. You do not get to know you have been short-changed until you get home.
Other sellers
Other sellers do same to you. The rice seller. The beans seller. Sellers of grains of all kinds cheat you. And even the ‘aboki’ who sells water to you, if you live in areas where you do not have access to pipe-borne water, cheats you too. A motley assembly of cheats. How do they do it? By using sham measurement tools – containers that have been tampered with.
Fuel stations
These are the worst offenders. The price on the pumps is a mere label that do not truly represent the volume of fuel dispensed. 25 litres paid for may be 22 or 23 litres. For every litre of fuel you buy you are short-changed!
Fuel trucks and fuel rats
Roads leading to fuel depots are hot markets for fuel rats and their patrons. It is done openly. Go to Old Ojo Road which leads to Satellite-Ijegun Jetty for instance, you will witness the thriving business being done with impunity! Owners of the cargo is short-changed. No one confronts them; no challenge from anyone. You begin to wonder how they pass the delivery test at the fuel stations where there are metering checks.
There are more and more. It is an unending story. Where do we go from here?
