Customer service in financial, communications and business service companies in Nigeria: Impressions of Lagos industry executives

Nigeria, notorious for its overdependence on oil, is the eighth largest oil producer in the world, and thelargestinAfrica.Yet,insteadoftransformingthecountryintooneofthemostprosperousinthecontinent,Nigeria'sabundantnaturalresourceshaveenrichedasmallminoritywhilethevastmajorityremainsimpoverished(Manby,1999).However,Increasedprivatization,foreigninvestment,globalizationandcompetitionhaveservedtostimulategrowthandcompetitionintheservicesectorandtheeconomyasawhole(Oshikoya,2008).ThisstudyexploredtheroleanddefinitionofcustomerserviceinservicecompanieslocatedinLagos,thefinancial,economicandbusinesscapitalofNigeria,andhowcustomerservicepracticesareevolvinginresponsetochangesintheeconomy.Interviewswithupperlevelmanagersintargetedareaswereanalyzedthroughthematicanalysis(Boyatzis,1998)todrawinsightsintotheemergentcustomerservicecultureinLagos.Fivethemesandmultiplesub-­‐themesemergedinanalysis.Themesincluded:conceptualizationofqualitycustomerservice,importanceofqualitycustomerservice,facilitationofcustomerservicegoals,currentNigeriancustomerserviceandbarrierstodevelopmentofqualitycustomerservice.Themesandsub-­‐themesreflectedparticipants‘viewsoftheimportanceofqualitycustomerservicetotheirorganizations,theservicesectorandtheeconomy,and their optimism about the growth of customer service within Nigerian organization