When Slot Missed the Slot

ELEVATING TO THE NEXT LEVEL

I used to think that Slot was the only place to buy phones or repair phones in Nigeria but I got a rude shock over the weekend. They did a good job of disabusing me of this impression. My daughter had battery issues with her phone and changed the phone’s battery in their service center on Tuesday last week. She insisted on going to Slot because she wanted the assurance that the battery would be original in view of the fake batteries we get in Nigeria. She needed to ensure that the battery was as good as the one that came with her phone.

But, this assurance was not achieved. Immediately the battery was fixed and she left their workroom the battery started running down fast – this was supposed to be a new and original battery. So, we went back there on Saturday to change the battery since they had given a warranty. We gave them the phone and were told to wait. They kept us waiting for over 30 minutes. As you all know, changing a phone battery takes less than two minutes.

We then went to find out what was causing the delay. We saw the phone had been dismantled and on further enquiry, they said they did not have the right battery and we needed to come back on Monday to get another battery, because what they had in stock was not charged. Since my daughter could not stay without her phone for 48 hours because there was also no guarantee that they would have the battery, we requested for a refund, to enable her buy the battery elsewhere.

This was when the wahala started. They refused to answer us. First, they started with the story that they did not have any money but we had seen money being paid to them by other customers who had come to be serviced. We then got tired of asking for our money and then said, okay, give us back our phone. We no longer want the money but our phone. That became another issue.

We were finally able to leave with our phone, without a working battery or our money. Although they said they would transfer the money to us next week. As far as I was concerned, they had lost a customer for life. By the time we left their service centre, the brand had lost its value and reputation in our view.

Organisations need to be very careful about their reputation and brand, it’s so easy to lose your appeal and customers have no patience with companies that are not willing to work with them to achieve their objectives. Slot lost a lot more than the cost of a battery on Saturday. They lost future patronage, word of mouth referral and lose of value in the eyes of their customers. This is a huge loss for any business.

Christian Sanders, in her article “What will a bad reputation cost your brand?” said, “The term “brand” encompasses a wide range of ideas — from a company and its product, to the company culture, to the experience customers expect to have with that brand. A lot of hard work goes into building a brand. A brand becomes part of an owner’s identity, means of livelihood, and the means of livelihood for employees.”

She went on to say, “having a solid brand reputation is essential for a business’s growth and longevity. Here’s a look at some of the costs of a poor brand reputation”.

Lost investment
Most brands don’t start out with a bad reputation. In fact, a lot of investment goes into building and shaping a brand. When a brand’s reputation goes south, not only does the owner stand to lose that initial time and financial investment, but the entire story surrounding the brand can be rewritten to the point that the original brand image is lost. The owner of the brand might be forced to reinvent or revamp the whole brand entirely to repair the bad reputation. A brand with a bad reputation is like a terrible tooth ache that will not go away on its own, except something tangible is done about it.

Financial implications
Having a brand with a tarnished reputation will significantly reduce sales and patronage. It will damage the financial status of the business and limit the growth of the business, hinder the growth of the workers and everything else associated with the brand. It will hinder opportunities for expansion or for diversification. It will stall everything that had initially been good about the brand. In addition, the business will likely have to make a significant investment to clean up its reputation.

People impact
Businesses with a poor brand reputation must put in additional time and money to acquire new talent and will likely lose out on hiring the most qualified prospects who would rather work for a more reputable business. A study by the Harvard Business School, found that a company with 10,000 employees would have to offer a 10 percent pay increase to convince a prospect to work at a company with a bad reputation; although this may not exactly be the case for Nigeria.

Opportunity cost
On top of sinking sales, there is a real opportunity cost from not having satisfied customers. Satisfied customers are more likely to refer a brand to someone they know and become repeat customers. The business will also lose out on potential customers or clients due solely to its poor brand image.

Reputational debt
Even once a company has put in the effort to clean up the problem that led to a reputation crisis, the taint associated with that problem will continue to haunt that brand for years to come. Depending on the nature of the issue, a business may even lose out on its key positioning in the market or lose credibility in its core value proposition.

A brand’s bad reputation could develop without warning because sometimes it only takes that one bad word of mouth, comment or review to catch on and do extreme damage. As my company says, part of the risks of showing up online is that someone else might end up telling your story. Protect your brand by protecting your online reputation.