Do you remember a time when you purchased a product or paid for a service a second time; and for some reason, your experience was so much better than the first time?
One of two things happened on your first purchase, it’s either you silently left a cheat trail for the business owners to follow, or you openly extolled or deprecated their products or services. Most often than not, the former is usually the case.
Customer centricity has trailed me since childhood having been raised by a mother who had her hands and feet in the system of entrepreneurship, and a father who spent most of his time conversing with prospective customers. My mum was into kerosine & leather shoe supplies in the 1990s and early 2000s, while my dad was a marketer for a renowned pharmacy during that period as well.
I became a salesperson at a young age, all the way through to my teenage years. Being present when my mother tended to her clients and sometimes letting me do it became my most favourite activity as a child.
I still remember how it felt watching the customers sternly as they made their purchase decisions. Paying attention to their every move, from their direct and indirect remarks to even their non-verbal communications.
Sometimes when I didn’t appreciate or agree with the things some customers had to say about the shoes we sold, I would scoff and smirk, thinking to myself “What do they know?”.
But my mother, No! She was always patient, maybe even too patient for my liking, allowing them to express themselves in whatever way they dimmed fit. I guess all she did was listen and observe, which didn’t exactly make sense to me at the time.
At the end of the day, whether or not we made sales, my mother would always tell me, “Olawunmi, our customers did well today”, and I’d just look at her and think to myself, “what exactly is she talking about? We didn’t sell anything”. But guess what, every day it got better and better, I started to see repeat purchases. Then boom! We had somehow formed an army of loyal customers. What was the secret?
As I grew older, I came to understand that entrepreneurs can make highly informed marketing decisions based on customer behaviour, and ultimately improve return on investment (ROI). It was then I truly understood why my mother was always so attentive and observant, and why our leather shoe customers kept coming back. She surely didn’t want to miss the trail.
I went on to study Psychology at the university, and after obtaining a degree, I knew things were about to get a lot more interesting. I could already envision what professional waters I wanted to dive into.
With my knowledge of Psychology, it felt like I had gotten a blueprint to finally crack the code and get into a customer’s head in order to decipher what they really want, how and why they want it that way just by doing the three(3) simple things my mother taught me – Listen, Observe and, follow the Trail.
I applied this knowledge in a culinary business I started in my final year as an undergraduate, and it saw a blossoming success, as I recorded approximately 40,000 repeat sales in less than a year.
7 months ago, I got an opportunity to work at Gradely, the number one personalised online learning platform in Nigeria, and what a wholesome and insightful experience it has been, allowing me to develop, grow, and think on my feet as we adapt to customers changing wants and a challenging business environment in Nigeria.
I came into Gradely bearing two things in mind, the first was the LOT rule (Listen, Observe and Trail), and the second was one of my favourite business quotes, “when your customers succeed, your business succeeds”. With these, I haven’t been more motivated to work.
Albeit, sometimes the challenges of my role at Gradely could be a bit overwhelming, such as the responsibility of having to keep all customers happy and satisfied, putting into perspective the unpredictability of all human emotions and desires, but the “Thank-yous” and “loyalty” makes it all worth it in the end.
Get to Know a Little More About Olawunmi – Q & A
Q: What are you likely to be caught doing in your spare time?
A: I find Twitter really hilarious, and so I could spend my idle time laughing to jokes on Twitter.
Q: If you could meet one person in history, who would it be and why?
A: Micheal Jackson! That man was excellent and way beyond his time! The Abrahams too (i.e. Abraham Lincoln and Father Abraham).
Q: What’s that one thing most people don’t know about you?
A: A lot of people don’t know how much I enjoy and love to give massages and cook for my friends.
INTERESTED IN MEETING THE REST OF THE TEAM? KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR OUR NEXT SPOTLIGHT, HERE ON OUR BLOG!
Check out our other employee spotlight stories:
Emediong Akpan, Content Writer
Sami Ullah Shah, Backend Developer
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Amazing stuff 👏
Thank you Ify. I’m glad you enjoyed the story.