Business @ the speed of credibility
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- Category: SME toolkit
- Written by Bridget Olotu
- Hits: 786
Some businesses are suffering today not because there is a witch crying against their success, but because their owners/operators lack credibility. Their personal lives don’t have any kind of trustworthiness. Trusting them is similar to placing your weight on a sharp, dangerous object. They cause their customers pain, tears and sleepless nights. They can never be trusted. Trust, credibility and integrity are lacking in their personal and business lives. No business that lacks credibility, trust and integrity has a future.
There is this young plumber working in a town close to Lagos. He knows the plumbing job inside-out. His dexterity, creativity and track record didn’t go unnoticed or unrewarded for too long as he got contracts to do plumbing work for houses. Because he was very good, there was this young family that always gave him their plumbing jobs to do for them. But one problem he had was credibility problem. This family called him up one day and asked him to fix their broken pipe, wash two water tanks for them and fix some bad faucets within three flats. He came with his apprentice, collected some money to go and hire a ladder to do the job, and that was the last time they saw him. For a measly amount, he put his business on the line. He never came back until after 4 months even after several calls had been put through to him. Another plumber who was well trusted by one business woman ran away with N55,000. The strange twist to his own story was that he ran away from his wife and children to stay with a mistress in another part of the town to squander his “booty.”
This article is not against plumbers or against the plumbing profession. My husband and I have been blessed with a hardworking, very creative and smart plumber who does all our plumbing jobs. In fact, in addition to having a good knowledge of his trade, our plumber also has financial intelligence and vision. He is about completing his house as a young man. However, this piece is a call to all businesses, especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Home-Office Based Organisations (HOBO), to adopt the value system of credibility/integrity in their business operations if they are to increase their competitive advantages, business success and longevity.
I have always wanted to write on the nature of poor service in the country. But another challenge we also have as a business community is the issue of lack of credibility. Customers find it difficult to believe their service providers because the latter have over time showed they lacked credibility and could not be trusted. But businesses that are run based on integrity have overtime secured the credibility of their customers. Such businesses mean what they say and say what they mean.
Credibility is very important in and to a business. It is the quality that a business and its owner have to be believed for what they say they’d do or not do. When customers no longer believe the promises and claims a business makes, the offers it gives and the quality of its services, then, there is credibility question/gap in place. And such a business is in a dead-end. Businesses fail and will continue to fail when the owners and operators lack credibility. This is one reason some business owners are in a shock because of the lack of patronage affecting their businesses. To salvage your business, if it is already suffering from credibility problems or if you want to build a successful business, you have to mind the following.
1. Don’t ever promise what you cannot do.
One of the problems of the first plumber in my introductory story is the problem of being quick to promise and then fail woefully to back it up with action. Don’t promise to do what you can’t do, won’t do or are not willing to do. Don’t promise to finish a job in a particular time/period when you know it is practically impossible for you or that you lack the resources to do so. And when you are so sure you can finish a job at a particular time/period but now experience challenges that could hamper you from meeting your deadline, call the customer and reschedule or share your challenges or frustrations with them. Chances are good they’ll accept the new date. Even while rescheduling, apologise heavily to the customer for not meeting their expectations. You and your business will be better for it.
2. Don’t be known for shoddy work.
If you are, your business has no future. You can survive for a while, but certainly when a better competitor arrives on the scene, your business goes to the cleaners. People do shoddy work for three reasons. (1) They do not know their job well enough (2) They know their job but believe in half measures (3) They know their job but are out to cheat and defraud the customer. To the first two, the solution is a commitment to excellence, hard work and more training. To the third, there is no hope for them but business failure in the long run.
3. Don’t be caught cheating your customers
Service businesses are difficult to price. So when you charge, let your charges be commensurate with your service delivery. When you cheat your customer, you’re cheating yourself. One unsatisfied, disgruntled and especially cheated customer can spread the news of your cheating service and shrink your customer base. Beware!
4. Lack of commitment to excellence.
You see, don’t say you are in business, in whatever size, when you’re not committed to excellence. Go and get a job and work for others. If you are in business, either as self-employed or a business owner, there is no other way to go but the way of excellence. Any business that lacks excellence is playing with its existence.
To always secure your customer’s credibility, you need to make your word your bond; you need to offer good and excellent service; you need to avoid making cheating your customer a way of doing of business and you need to go for excellence all the way. Business @ the speed of credibility is business that is destined for longevity, creativity, increased productivity and profitability in the marketplace for a very long time to come.
Business @ the speed of credibility
Category: SME toolkit Written by Bridget Olotu Hits: 786
Some businesses are suffering today not because there is a witch crying against their success, but because their owners/operators lack credibility. Their personal lives don’t have any kind of trustworthiness. Trusting them is similar to placing your weight on a sharp, dangerous object. They cause their customers pain, tears and sleepless nights. They can never be trusted. Trust, credibility and integrity are lacking in their personal and business lives. No business that lacks credibility, trust and integrity has a future.
There is this young plumber working in a town close to Lagos. He knows the plumbing job inside-out. His dexterity, creativity and track record didn’t go unnoticed or unrewarded for too long as he got contracts to do plumbing work for houses. Because he was very good, there was this young family that always gave him their plumbing jobs to do for them. But one problem he had was credibility problem. This family called him up one day and asked him to fix their broken pipe, wash two water tanks for them and fix some bad faucets within three flats. He came with his apprentice, collected some money to go and hire a ladder to do the job, and that was the last time they saw him. For a measly amount, he put his business on the line. He never came back until after 4 months even after several calls had been put through to him. Another plumber who was well trusted by one business woman ran away with N55,000. The strange twist to his own story was that he ran away from his wife and children to stay with a mistress in another part of the town to squander his “booty.”
This article is not against plumbers or against the plumbing profession. My husband and I have been blessed with a hardworking, very creative and smart plumber who does all our plumbing jobs. In fact, in addition to having a good knowledge of his trade, our plumber also has financial intelligence and vision. He is about completing his house as a young man. However, this piece is a call to all businesses, especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Home-Office Based Organisations (HOBO), to adopt the value system of credibility/integrity in their business operations if they are to increase their competitive advantages, business success and longevity.
I have always wanted to write on the nature of poor service in the country. But another challenge we also have as a business community is the issue of lack of credibility. Customers find it difficult to believe their service providers because the latter have over time showed they lacked credibility and could not be trusted. But businesses that are run based on integrity have overtime secured the credibility of their customers. Such businesses mean what they say and say what they mean.
Credibility is very important in and to a business. It is the quality that a business and its owner have to be believed for what they say they’d do or not do. When customers no longer believe the promises and claims a business makes, the offers it gives and the quality of its services, then, there is credibility question/gap in place. And such a business is in a dead-end. Businesses fail and will continue to fail when the owners and operators lack credibility. This is one reason some business owners are in a shock because of the lack of patronage affecting their businesses. To salvage your business, if it is already suffering from credibility problems or if you want to build a successful business, you have to mind the following.
1. Don’t ever promise what you cannot do.
One of the problems of the first plumber in my introductory story is the problem of being quick to promise and then fail woefully to back it up with action. Don’t promise to do what you can’t do, won’t do or are not willing to do. Don’t promise to finish a job in a particular time/period when you know it is practically impossible for you or that you lack the resources to do so. And when you are so sure you can finish a job at a particular time/period but now experience challenges that could hamper you from meeting your deadline, call the customer and reschedule or share your challenges or frustrations with them. Chances are good they’ll accept the new date. Even while rescheduling, apologise heavily to the customer for not meeting their expectations. You and your business will be better for it.
2. Don’t be known for shoddy work.
If you are, your business has no future. You can survive for a while, but certainly when a better competitor arrives on the scene, your business goes to the cleaners. People do shoddy work for three reasons. (1) They do not know their job well enough (2) They know their job but believe in half measures (3) They know their job but are out to cheat and defraud the customer. To the first two, the solution is a commitment to excellence, hard work and more training. To the third, there is no hope for them but business failure in the long run.
3. Don’t be caught cheating your customers
Service businesses are difficult to price. So when you charge, let your charges be commensurate with your service delivery. When you cheat your customer, you’re cheating yourself. One unsatisfied, disgruntled and especially cheated customer can spread the news of your cheating service and shrink your customer base. Beware!
4. Lack of commitment to excellence.
You see, don’t say you are in business, in whatever size, when you’re not committed to excellence. Go and get a job and work for others. If you are in business, either as self-employed or a business owner, there is no other way to go but the way of excellence. Any business that lacks excellence is playing with its existence.
To always secure your customer’s credibility, you need to make your word your bond; you need to offer good and excellent service; you need to avoid making cheating your customer a way of doing of business and you need to go for excellence all the way. Business @ the speed of credibility is business that is destined for longevity, creativity, increased productivity and profitability in the marketplace for a very long time to come.