This article first appeared in Biashara Leo Magazine July 2016
Anyango sells fish at Kenyatta
Market. Her fish stall is as ordinary as they get. Just a basic metallic-wooden
structure with polythene padded roofing and a table with a metal sheeting to
display her fish. It looks just the same as all the other fish stalls in the
area. There are six of them around the same spot. What differentiates Anyango’s
from the rest, is the number of customers that congregate. This is a permanent feature
at her stall from 11am when she opens to fry her fish, until about 9:30pm when
she closes. There are always people buying fish from Anyango – that’s just how
it is. And no, it is not the same for the five fish vendors. This situation is
unique to Anyango.
So – the next question would be,
why is Anyango’s fish stall so attractive and what makes customers by pass all
the others and come to hers?
I am Anyango’s customer. I have
been buying fish from her for the past eight years after a recommendation from
a friend who has now been her customer for ten years and still going strong. I
have never looked back. I live about eleven kilometers away from Anyango’s fish
stall, so it is not convenience that has me or many of her other customers
stick with her. I have studied her model over time and learnt three critical
lessons that apply to every business, whether start up or conglomerate:-
Every customer is unique. We are all customers and we are all
buying fish at the same price. You would imagine that as customers we are all
the same. Not to Anyango. For as long as I have been her customer, she has
greeted me by name and enquired after my health and my family. You see, as you
buy fish from her, she makes a point of knowing who is going eat the fish you
are buying, and from then on, she never forgets to send greetings to her actual
customers back at home, who are the end recipients of the fish. Anyango does
this for all her customers. It takes work and effort and a fantastic memory to
pull this off, but I’ve figured that she has figured out, that it is important
and she therefore makes it happen. And this is what all customers crave –
personalized attention. To know that the vendor doesn’t regard them as some
statistic, but actually appreciates them for who they are, and makes a point to
provide personalized service as best possible. People like one on one contact
with the ‘owners’ of a business and not just the ‘workers’. This gives them a
sense of belonging and of directly contributing where it matters. In the
corporate or business environment, this would be the manager or supervisor of
the firm. In a restaurant it would be the maître d' or restaurant manager.
Whatever your business, have an important person come out and interact with
customers. This interaction need not be anything complicated or fancy. Just to
greet them, find out how they are doing, get feedback on products and services
and engage with customers. This is not restricted to a physical activity and may
be done on phone and online as well. Reaching out to customers by paying them a
courtesy call or extending a warm greeting to them on email or text, to follow
up on how they are doing, elicits pleasant feels from them. Nothing beats
personalized service in the race for customer loyalty and customer
retention.
Ensure Simplicity. Simple is the name of the game. Always has been
and always will be. I have been a happy recipient of Anyango’s ‘car’ service
and seen many a happy customer utilize it as well. She extends her service
beyond selling directly from the stall and delivers fish to customers’ cars.
All one needs to do is place their order with her or one of her assistants, and
she will have it wrapped and brought straight to the car. This level of
convenience is preferred because the customer does not need to leave the
comfort of their car, and still get what they came for – fresh fish. So much
has she perfected the art that there are quite a number of customers for whom
the transaction is made much shorter and much easier, just by arrival and eye
contact. She already knows the particulars of customers who have regular
orders. In my case, all I have to do is park across the road, nod and make eye
contact with Anyango, who then has her assistant bring over the three medium
size fish I usually buy. I then drive off as I send her the money for my
purchase through mobile money transfer. This transaction takes all of four
minutes as I sit in my car and one more minute as I make the payment from my
phone. Talk about customer comfort? Talk about super-efficient service? It
doesn’t get better than this. Knowing and understanding customer preferences
and keeping it all nice and simple.
That’s
what matters. Customers abhor complication. They just want their interactions
to be simple and straight to the point. Anyango the fish seller has mastered
this art. This world as we know it has way too much going on at any one time in
the lives of every customer as they journey through life. The simpler and more
efficient you keep your operations, the more likely you are to really keep your
customers.
Integrity reigns integral.
On two occasions in my ongoing stint as Anyango’s customer, she has come
personally to the car to let me know that the size of fish she has that day is
smaller than the usual size I buy, and then proceeded to provide me options -
to either take four pieces at a slightly higher price instead of the usual
three, or to buy the smaller ones at a lower price. I have each time gone with
the option to take more fish. I have at these points note very loud lessons
there on providing customer education and proposing solutions. Two profound
things that endear suppliers to customers without fail. Three times as well at different points in
the eight year period, she has come personally to the car to let me know, that
although the fish is ok and has nothing wrong with it, it is the previous day’s
fish carried over, but still fresh. You see, Anyango does not really have to
come and disclose this, given that the fish is fresh and isn’t likely to cause
any harm. And I would be none the wiser should she just have packed and sold it
to me as usual. But given the unspoken agreements with her customers that she
sells fresh fish done up the very same day, she is inspired to make the
disclosure when this agreement needs to be broken. That level of personal
commitment and integrity with customers keeps them coming back all the time. I
have on each of the three occasions bought the very same fish and taken it home
for consumption without any adverse outcomes. Customer loyalty and customer
retention ride very high on the trust factor. When customers trust your
business, they feel safe and they feel inclined to recommend you to others.
They are assured that when things go wrong, they will be informed, or if things
are not conforming to the usual standards that they will get duly advised.
Loyalty
like Rome was not built in a day; it is built in small doses, by reassuring
customers at each visit that your business cares for them and wants to do what
is right by them. What has customers emotionally attached to brands is not how
well they perform when things are going right but how they bounce back from
service failure. As Jeffery Gitomer the bestselling author and sales expert
says – “Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They DO expect you to fix
things when they go wrong.”
Anyango is the proud owner of a high rise building on Mombasa Road, built and completed from her
fish stall business that runs purely on the goodwill of customers. Customers
who have felt confident enough to keep coming back, and who keep telling others
to come too. I have lost track of the number of people I have enthusiastically
referred to Anyango for good fish. The daily steady flow of business to her
fish stall is not by chance. It is as a result of dedicated focus on ensuring
customers are happy at each visit, and resolving any matters arising with
genuine concern. It also stems from knowing and understanding customer needs
and not only fulfilling these needs, but doing so in a way that ensures
pleasant interactions.
Focusing on customers and not on the competition is a
sure strategy to keep them close and to generate a sustainable flow of income from
the business. Lessons on customer service are everywhere we look. One need not necessarily go to big international
business schools to learn what it takes to deliver service excellence. Just
look around and identify businesses that elicit customer loyalty no matter the
size, industry or geographical location, and right there in the middle of their
operations, will undoubtedly be a complete focus on the customer. There’s
really no magic to it. Put customers first for “It’s easier to love a brand
when the brand loves you back.”–Seth Godin
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