By John Kariuki
According to Murphy's Law, if anything can go wrong, it will. When applied to business systems, this law lays bare the fact that if there is a possibility that several things will go wrong, often the one that will cause the most damage will often be the first to go wrong. And this may bring with it loss of revenue and integrity.
Infact, there are numerous examples of firms who have been forced to recall products after things go wrong.
Aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing routinely recall aeroplanes to fix defective parts whenever the flaw is noticed. Carmakers Ford and Toyota recently recalled thousands of units to rectify faulty parts. Pharmaceuticals giants have also been known to withdraw contentious medicines off chemists’ shelves once they notice a defect. And locally, petroleum dealers often recall products that get accidently adulterated, and replace them with the right fuels.
But while multinational and supranational businesses might recall faulty products and apologise for the inconvenience, it is a different matter with some small enterprises. Some business owners invoke the ‘goods once sold cannot be returned’ rule at the slightest suggestion that a product is defective.
For example, scores of shopkeepers have a ready answer whenever they are presented with queries of moldy bread.
"I don’t bake bread but only sell it," they will say, even though they are well aware the sell by date has passed when they sell it to you.
no liability
Other traders hit the roof if clients returning flawed mobile phones, cameras, DVD players and so on, and declare that they are not ready to suffer the loss because they too received the products, and had no prior test of them.
"Why did you leave this shop without testing the product?" they ask, glowing in their apparent genius.
At this time, the traders will adopt a tough, non-friendly stance and will distance themselves from their businesses. They try to separate their corporate from individual selves when things go bad, committing the ultimate business sacrilege. And they will adopt this hard stance even when they can return the defective products to their suppliers for onward transmission to the manufactures.
But what these businesspeople forget is that in the modern business world, great tact is useful when dealing with product defects. This is especially so for products that could harm one’s customers.
And analysts say business owners should prepare themselves to apologise and recall any good or service that fail the quality test. This therefore means that the ‘goods once sold’ rule is no longer cast in stone as it was in the last century.
According to Francis Mwema, a manager with a local supermarket chain, the success of any business or service depends on effective customer care. Therefore, prompt and effective handling of customer complaints shows the efficiency of the company and its personnel.
"Customers are the backbone of any business, and if they are not satisfied the company is doomed to fail. Any delay or mishandling of complaints may drive the customers to other business entities," he says.
Mwema reveals that many local businesses don’t give customer complaints about defective products top priority, instead choosing to hide such issues under stiffing bureaucracy.
"Suddenly nobody knows what to do and matters are referred to the branch manager who in turn promises to contact headquarters, and so on," says Mwema.
no authority
Mwema has worked in a business where nobody had autonomy to decide anything, even when customers spotted defective products and returned them on the spot.
"For example, one day a customer spotted faulty bolts and nuts on a bicycle he had just bought and wished to have it exchanged with a another one," says Mwema.
The cashiers would immediately invoke the ‘goods once sold’ rule since they could not reverse the entries in the cash tills without express authorisation of the retail manager. And of course this manager will be conveniently away at such times, says Mwema.
The complainant would then be told to come at the close of business when his issue would be addressed. And when he turned up, the bureaucratic blame game began, says Mwema.
"Addressing product complaints at the end of the day when it was your priority to take customers’ money in the first place is utterly unacceptable, and will actually drive a business to the ground," says Mwema. Instead, Mwema says such matters should be done immediately.
At his present job, Mwema routinely drafts apology letters and personally calls complaining customers and replaces all defective products within 24 hours.
"We handle such issues on a priority basis," he says. "Our promptness signifies efficiency in our business, and helps us to maintain a cordial relationship with our customers," he says.
"Whatever explanations a firm will give over a defective product or service, they key thing is to replace or repair the complaint product," says Mwema.
Pascal Wandati, an hotelier in Eldoret, says that apologising and replacing faulty products can be a touchy issue, especially in his line of business.
"It’s true that things often go wrong, but diplomacy should be exercised when apologising lest it creates a scare and produces the undesired effects," he says.
quick amends
Wandati says that if a customer raises a complaint about food, his headwaiter will listen to their grievances and makes quick amends.
"In some cases, the head waiter may summon the chef, whoc will have to explain his recipes to complaining clients, and matters often ease quickly when he invites the customers to suggest how their meals should be made," says Wandati.
This receptiveness to customers’ needs has enabled him to clinch a deal with some Ugandan businessmen who often make a stopover at his eatery on their way to and from Mombasa.
Once they complained over some Matoke (banana dish) and I called the chef to take expert advice from them," says Wandati. "They now call me a day ahead to prepare their specialty, and it has been a boon every time they visit."
Over the years, Wandati has even made a pact with a beer distributor to be replacing any "flat beer" that is occasionally opened in his premise.
"My waiters promptly replace such beers for the customers and we sort out later with the distributor," says Wandati.
This hotelier has learnt to spot the ‘complaining type’ of visitors for whom nothing ever works out right.
"For such customers, we bend backwards making their visits comfortable even if it means running around town to satisfy their peculiar demands," says Wandati. He knows that when one client picks a quarrel with him or his staffers, other customers are silently watching, and waiting to see how it will be resolved.
Bernard Omuya, a CDs and DVDs retailer in Nyahururu, routinely replaces faulty disc after customers return them.
"In this trade, trust is everything, and I take it on a customer’s word that the disc has a scratch or is defective and promptly replace it," days Omuya. He will then return all faulty disks back to his suppliers, who also replace them, he adds.
ruined their looks
And apologising is not only confined to concrete merchandise but services as well. Ms Stella Njambi, a hair stylist in Naivasha, has had her bad days with complaining customers.
"Some of them go home, compare what we have done on them with other women and decide that we have shortchanged them and come for a fight," she says. Sometimes, adds Njambi, all it takes is a snide comment from a boyfriend or husband for a woman to decide that her hair stylist has ruined her looks.
So, Njambi has instructed her staff never to dispute such claims of shoddy work but to apologise and redo the complainants in new styles and at no cost.
"Everything is on me, including the hair pieces if required, and lotions and shampoos," she says. This way, Njambi has distinguished herself as caring and sincere.
"If I and my older stylists are at hand, we conveniently blame the newer apprentices for all the perceived mistakes of such customers as we do the corrections," she says.
And having a "fall guy" to blame when things turn out badly is a clever business ploy. Sebastian Kirimi, a medical clerk in one private hospital, has seen it all.
"Occasionally, we misdiagnose some ailments and the doctor in charge may order new tests and a change of drugs when a patient does not improve as expected," says Kirimi.
"And the doctor’s stock phrase as he apologises is that the medical schools are now training a strange breed of laboratory technicians who miss the small diseases in the hope of catching the rare ones," says Kirimi. "Actually he humours everybody and we don’t charge extra fees for the new tests or the new drugs," he adds.
But nowhere is the "fall guy" principle used more spectacular than the transport industry. When buses and matatus stall by the roadsides, the crews come out cursing some ‘bloody’ manager, mechanic, pump attendants — and everybody else they can think of.
These bogeys are blamed for not checking the tyre pressure, filling the vehicles with water and fuel and so on. Instead of the harassed passengers arguing with them, they in fact sympathise with such hapless crews. And when offered the choice of getting a refund or being booked into other passing matatus, many actually opt to keep vigil with the distressed crews until the vehicles are fixed.
All this means that apologising for a defective product or service is an art in spinning facts, innuendos, and delivering drama with a small measure of panache.
