By RARZACK OLAEGBE
The gatekeepers treat you courteously, not because you are Mr President.
If I had to choose, I would choose Nigeria. There are many variables. One is the level of service inequality. You cannot beat it. It is pervasive that I look for it everywhere, every day. At the supermarket. The open market. At the cinema. The viewing centre. The banking hall. The telecoms service arena. If the service is not rude, you are rushed. If the service is impolite, you are dissatisfied. If the service is unacceptable, a refund is unavailable. You are stuck. The customer service capital of the world is not Nigeria. It is the Philippines. I wish it were my Nigeria.
On the one hand
The type of service you receive in one location of one company differs from location to location. For instance, on the Lagos Mainland, the banks and telcos serve customers differently. The service is not superb. It is bland. It is not the best. It is vanilla. The gatekeepers treat you with courtesy, not because you are Mr President. It is for a pecuniary reason. You are expected to pay for the greeting, ‘’Happy weekend, sir.’’
On the other hand
If you cannot speak English and you cannot break it down like my mother, you are an Alice in Wonderland. You would wander from one desk to another. There are no in-language customer service personnel. I am not sure the service providers understand that in-language customer service equals high customer satisfaction. Someday, you queued at one of the telcos’ offices. You bought a telecom device. The device was large. The salesperson would not pack it. ‘’There is no bag.’’ She told you without a care. When you insisted, a small paper bag appeared. It could not contain your purchase.
In the long term
However, the service station on Lagos Island was different. Friendly. Timely. My SIM was locked. Many calls to the telco had failed to ameliorate the situation. At this service station, the atmosphere was serene. Picture an ocean breeze. The Personal Unlocking Key code request did not take 60 minutes. It took three minutes. Write your number and name. Blink. ‘’Here is your PUK, sir.’’ Impressive. Then I observed the Average Handle Time [AHT]. The customer service personnel wanted to please the customers. No matter how long it took.
In my case, it took three minutes. Because the station had 10 servers. 12 plastic chairs. One concierge doubled as a server. The concierge accosted you. If your case was mild, like a code request, you got instant attention. Blink. Your request was granted. Winifred, the roaming concierge, was efficient. The visit was a pleasure. Like going to a cinema. No regrets. No fuss. I wished other service stations in Lagos mainland and on the outskirts were the same.
In the short term
By the way, Winifred is a man.
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