“If you fail in customer service, overcompensate to make sure you sell that customer. You have to sell that customer on your service. Nothing will sell your customer better than that customer selling your product for you.”
-TMS Ruge, Founder of Raintree Farms, Co-founder of Remit.ug, and Hive Colab
One of the most consistent stories we’ve heard from African entrepreneurs has been the importance of starting with excellent (not just good) customer service. Overcoming skepticism and building a trusting customer base through this kind of service has propelled founders like TMS Ruge, Brian Bett, and the co-founders of Chura to tremendous Success.
“Take care of the customer and they’ll take care of you.”
-TMS Ruge, Founder of Raintree Farms, Co-founder of Remit.ug, and Hive Colab
##Being Visible
“This is an issue with African businesses, you already have several marks against you, no matter how good your products are. They will think you’re untrustworthy, they will think you’re unresponsive. Be visible about your successes, be willing to have customers vouch for you.”
-TMS Ruge, Founder of Raintree Farms, Co-founder of Remit.ug, and Hive Colab
Treating your customers well is fairly self explanatory. Ruge points out that you have to always go out of your way to make sure they’re happy. But another important element for him is being visible about it. Find ways to show how you’re treating your customers. Brian Bett has found that the best place to do this is on social media.
“Being a startup, your margin of error is minimal. Get a bad post on Facebook that your GH collapsed and you’re dead. So you need a team with a high skill level. Then build your response time, the shorter the better, respond to Facebook, tweets, and calls immediately. They should carry their phone home, answer emails, do follow up, and be happy with it.”
-Brian Bett, Co-founder of Illuminum Greenhouses
Bett puts himself in his customer’s shoes, thinks about what he would do if he were skeptical about a new company. The answer is to look for information on social media. By maintaining a strong presence there, posting often, and immediately answering any questions or problems which appear, anyone who looks for information on his business there can immediately see that his company treats its customers well.
The co-founders of Chura have found the same thing. By providing excellent customer service through social media, they build trusting customers who are willing to vouch for their product. That makes it easy to grow organically from word of mouth.
“Another key indicator for trust is social media targets. If people aren’t sure if you’re trustworthy, they check you out on twitter to see if you’re trustworhty, also on facebook. So we update our social media channels often.”
-Samuel Njuguna, Co-founder of Chura
What all of this comes down to for all of these founders is that you have to maintain a focus on excellent customer service from day 1. Not doing so can mean a fast and devastating loss of faith in your company.