Simple ways to maintain customer loyalty

It is not just for corporates. Using their inherent advantages, small businesses can differentiate themselves from the competition and build a loyal customer base. Being agile and flexible, they can provide personalised service.

My wife’s efforts during Covid -19 aside, I have had the same barber for the last 28 years. He doesn’t give customer loyalty points, but I don’t move.

When I worked from South Africa, the haircut was always on my schedule during work missions to Nairobi. We met on Kimathi Street. His receptionist had a book, where she wrote your name and number. After four weeks, she would call in the reminder. You are due for a haircut!

Last weekend, I went to renew my reading glasses at a busy optician’s. The particular outlet opens at 10 am on Saturdays. Who does that? During my visit the staff were sulky, as though they did not want to be at work.

What is your phone number, the attendant asked me, typing into a tablet. You are not in the system, she informed me, as though it were my responsibility to be. I showed her the old glasses and case, bearing the optician’s logo. It has been eight years, I tried.

No matter, she said. You are not in the system, so you need to register. How will you be paying, she asked? M-Pesa, I replied.

Registration Sh100, she pressed. Fine, I replied. Just add it on to the bill for the new glasses. No, you have to register first, before the optician can examine you. Abandoning the old set at her desk, I walked out.

Read:  Leadership, public mood and problem solving

Staff at the second optician were friendly. How may I serve you sir, she said with a smile. It is my second attempt to get reading glasses this morning, I said. Sorry about that sir, she said, although it was not her fault.

Please write your name and phone number on this registration card, and tell me about your sight, she said smoothly. Are you straining, she enquired after my explanations. It sounds like near sight, so let’s examine.

The tests, including the right reading distance, use of phone and computer were professional. Choose a frame, she offered, explaining the various kinds of lenses, and asked whether the glare of oncoming traffic bothers me at night.

Since you don’t read while walking, it was not necessary for the lens to be photochromic, she offered. You can pay half now, and the rest on Monday when you pick the glasses. I will pay everything now, I said, a happy customer.

The dentist had referred me to an imaging facility on Ngong road, halfway towards city centre. I did not go right away, because it is a bit far from the Kajiado boundary where I live and work. On the third day, I called the cell provided. The phone rang busy, then went off.

I searched for a centre closer to me. Yes, you can walk in for an orthopantomogram (OPG), the pleasant voice on the other end of the phone said. Being Saturday, we shall close at 2pm, but usually we open till five, she said.

OPG is a dental X-ray that provides a single panoramic image of the entire mouth. It was done within six minutes of my arrival; cost Sh2000 and the image was delivered via email.

What can we learn about customer service?

The barber has created loyalty by demonstrating the same - a consistent regular phone call. In time, he has to add more services – a manicure and a pedicure.

The first optician forgot a basic principle. The system is to serve customers, not the other way around. By demanding Sh100 upfront, the attendant communicated distrust and disregard.

If she cannot trust me with Sh100, how can I trust her with my sight and pay Sh10,000?

The referring dentist may easily lose my custom to the imaging dentist. Why send me 10 kilometers away? The imaging dentist, with super-efficient and friendly staff, and the barber who prompts, win hands down in customer service.

Ndiritu Muriithi is an economist and partner at Ecocapp Capital.  He is also the chairman of KRA and former governor of Laikipia County. Email: [email protected]