Zain, British Council Hold Management Forum on Customer Retention

In a bid to stimulate and entrench a culture of first-rate customer care service in the country, Zain and the British Council recently took managers of many businesses through a customer relationship management course.
The course which was offered in several Nigerian cities under the Zain/British Council Management Skills Development programme – Management Express, focused on helping businesses, particularly, young managers and entrepreneurs identify and acquire strategies for retaining customers and growing their organization efficiently.
The theme of the lecture series was “Strategies for Customer Retention and Innovative Public Relation: Capturing the Consumer’s Attention.” Dr. Ruth Herman, internationally acclaimed Public Relations specialist and principal lecturer at the prestigious University of Hertfordshire in the UK, was given the task of steering the managers in the path of customer care service delivery.
Outlining the importance of Customer Relationship Management in modern economy, Herman said managers should pay special attention to customer retention management, as an important aspect of Customer Relationship Management because it is far cheaper to retain a customer than to acquire a new one.
According to her, it is six times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an old one, and enjoined the participants to adopt strategies including the introduction or implementation of a loyalty programme, insightful market research, adherence to international standards in the design and delivery of their products and services, and to segment their markets effectively.
She urged the participants to continually update products and services to keep up with current trends in the marketplace, adding that this should be complemented with building of customers’ communities or social networking among customers, as well as the hiring and retention of well trained sales hands.
She said business managers should invest in market research which will help them obtain information about customers’ preferences, habits, lifestyle, expectations, and changing needs and requirements.
The Zain Nigeria-sponsored series of lectures, which took place in Lagos, Abuja, and Kano; are designed to sharpen the business skills of professionals, especially young managers and youthful business owners, ultimately leading to the creation of a large pool of highly competent individuals who are capable of using their skills to manage the Nigerian economy, into a period of growth and widespread prosperity.
Speaking about the initiative, Norman Moyo, chief marketing officer, Zain Nigeria, said the mobile company has decided to join hands with the British Council to contribute to the development of Nigeria by empowering young professionals to play a leading role in growing and developing the economy.
He said the current edition of the Zain/British Council Management Express has provided the much needed excellent learning experiences for young Nigerians who are eager to fast track their career and enrich their knowledge of customers relationship management,  public relations and marketing.
The participants at the training programme commended Zain Nigeria and the British Council for providing such a platform to horn their management skills. Some of the young managers said many more organizations must borrow a leaf from Zain if the country is to climb to the elite clubs of the top 20 economies of the world by 2020 as envisaged by policy makers.