Power of Social Media

So we approaching the last weeks in July 2015, am setting up and trying to know what it feels like working from my new office space within the GRA ( government reserved area) of the city of Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria.

A key question for me is, how will I sort out my lunch daily? because it seems like getting lunch is going to be a challenge. As far as I know there are no eateries offering food delivery service in GRA Port Harcourt, unlike in Lagos my office is located in the hub of business Victoria island where its common place to find a range of eateries, pizza joint etc, all offering delivery services. Thank God for google I decided to do quick search online and voilà,! I found Chicken Republic in Port Harcourt. They now offer delivery to some locations in the city and they cover the GRA where my office in Port Harcourt is located.

I placed a call to what seems like a central line for all Chicken Republic orders, the customer service center staffs was nice and well spoken. He took my details to register them on his system , asked for my order – I requested for spicy fried chicken, chips and a coca cola. He told me what my bill will be and said my order should be delivered in 30mins.

Imagine how excited I was, wow!, food sorted with such ease–so I really don’t have to go through too much stress doing lunch in this new office location , nice!

About 10 mins later, I got a call and the voice on the other end asked is this Mr (X), I responded in the affirmative, and he said "I am calling from Chicken Republic Trans amadi ,Port harcourt please sir we are sorry, you placed an order for delivery in GRA and we currently don’t deliver to GRA." In my mind I was like you must be kidding me right, but as am a proper gentleman, if i say so myself -I said "well no problem, your website said you deliver in old and new GRA," he then went on about how they will soon start delivering from the Chicken Republic on Abacha Road in GRA yada, yada, yada, but I was not really interested anymore, I simply told him cancel the order since you don’t deliver in this vicinity, end of story.

Usually I don't do this, but for some reason I felt like, how do I reach out to this establishment and possibly get them to correct this wrong type of marketing, if they dont deliver in this location then theres no need having it on their website. I decided to try and use social media? although I know when it comes to social media presence other then the big telecommunication companies in Nigeria and a few other organisation, most service providers locally either stay off social media or have an account just for the fun of it.

Not withstanding I checked for Chicken Republic twitter account and also the account for the delivery company listed on their website I found their twitter handle and sent them both this tweet.

Your website say you deliver to customer in new GRA port harcourt. Placed an order &; your PH office,don't deliver to GRA yet?

Like a flash , in a few minutes I got a call back from the same voice who told me they don’t deliver in GRA yet, again he says “ Sorry Sir, please we can deliver your order to GRA now” unfortunately I have already made other arrangements so, I told him, don't worry am good. He pleaded but I said sorry, I cant take the order now, maybe tomorrow or sometime within the week I will call again to place another order, since they can now deliver to my location.

He said "ok, that’s fine – thank you sir” end of call.

Image Credit (chicken-republic.com)

I knew something was up, that tweet must have done some kind of magic, I checked my timeline on twitter and a response from the delivery company reads,

We definitely deliver to GRA PH! So sorry for that miscommunication, but we've acted immediately to straighten it out. #ACEDelivers

Knowing the level of poor quality customer service obtainable locally, I was impressed a simple tweet can get the delivery company to respond so fast, so I did a bit of checking up on there website http://www.ace.ng/about-us wait for it – it’s a new company, a recent venture from two enterprising young men, with a history in Jumia (Nigeria's own Amazon.com) 

I couldn't help but respond in a tweet,

@ACE_Africa Thanks for the fantastic response from you guys, never knew such great customer service exist locally,thumbs up,brilliant work!

As a logistic professional by training now into marketing and promotion, I know that having the right balance of , the right goods, at right time,at right place,at the right cost with optimal service levels, is the mix that makes up a good logistics service provider. 

From African Courier Express ACE response to my tweet and what I see on their website maybe someday they give UPS,Fedex,DHL and all the big names operating and holding a chunk of the courier service market locally in Nigeria, a run for their money I would say keep an eye on ACE , they just might end up as good competition.