Dr. Eric Yeboah Dako
Executive Director of Toyota Ghana Limited, Dr. Eric Yeboah Dako, has urged companies operating in the country to rethink their approach to winning customers by focusing on meeting customers’ expectations rather than offering them plenty of goodies.
Dr. Yeboah Dako made the call during a presentation at an evening lecture organized by the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) on Wednesday in Accra.
Speaking under the theme: ‘A Step Beyond Customer Delight: The Automobile Market Experience,’ Dr. Dako encouraged businesses to pay more attention to meeting the core expectations of customers rather than constantly doling out freebies, which make no “real impact” in the lives of their customers.
Rather than the freebies which usually come in the form of pens, diaries, t-shirts, among others, companies must focus on providing fast, efficient, accurate, quality and effortless services to their customers, he stated.
“Customers expectations are changing faster than ever before which means we need to really be close to the customers and understand their real needs,” he said.
Satisfying customers is not just a matter of adding freebies, he stressed.
He wondered why a lot of companies in Ghana today were doling out freebies to customers when indeed they had failed to efficiently and expeditiously provide the core services they were established to provide.
“If you are not able to meet the basic needs of customers, then don’t even waste time on delighting them with extras,” he charged.
According to him, “Delighting customers is not necessarily bad but it must not be the major point of focus.”
National President of CIMG, Kojo Mattah, in a remark, also urged businesses to concentrate on offering what he termed impressive services to their customers.
By Melvin Tarlue