CHAPTER ONE 

1.0 INTRODUCTION

A man that starts a business with a well-furnished office and competent staff is incomplete without customers to secure the flow of cash into his business which is a signature to profitability, success, growth and survival.

Customers are needed in any business ventures whether privately or publicly owned establishment for profit purposes and sustainability of such a venture. However, the modern marketing trend, which seeks to satisfy the customer’s wants and needs has changed the face of businesses in Nigeria and the world in general.

There is no doubt that technological advancement has improved economic activities in recent times which has invariably increased the competitive nature of businesses but technological excellence is not enough as superb technology alone does not guarantee success, there is need for modern marketing experts to know that businesses these days have to be obsessed with understanding their customers-what and why they want it.

Presently, the competitive marketing environment in Nigeria has necessitated customer care in both product and service oriented business organizations.

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The aluminum industry in Nigeria has been characterized by continuous and perpetual complaints by customers from the various segments of the market. In the past, the major players were the companies owned by foreigners whose skin colour alone convince the ordinary Nigerian that the use of aluminum in the building connotes the upper class in the society. The respect for white skin colour also made the various customers at that time believe that they are getting the best in terms of services.

There has been an increased patronage by both the upper and middle class of the society, and with the growing awareness, consumerism sets in and enlightened consumers started demanding for the best of services. The services rendered by virtually all the aluminum companies have been characterized with complaints ranging from delays to lack of response to customer complaints. The requests of a prospective building owner normally reach its height when a building has reached the roof level and the prospective owner wants to see how the building will look like. The anxiousness of these prospective building owners also gets heightened when they want to have a roof over their heads. Thus the first complaint is delay in delivery of materials to site. Most prospective building owners having been used to roofing of houses with zinc bundles already fabricated, expect the building to be covered in a matter of days.

The lack of adequate attention to customers complaints has been on the increase as most aluminum companies handle many sites above what they expected by their size and resource to manage. Most of the big names in the industry have dwindled into oblivion due to huge debts owed them by customers with some probably resulting from lack of effective customer services. Existing ones therefore are forced to introduce systems and controls to counter this effect of unmanaged receivable. These various systems have added to customer’s dissatisfaction and continuous compliant galore. It could be generally summed up that dissatisfied customers are a norm in the aluminum industry.

Some few individuals who breakaway from the major ones have taken advantages of these customers dissatisfaction and complaints to setup the resellers business and some “onman” companies and create a niche for themselves with few customers who can assure them of steady jobs. These people have closer relationship with their clients.

Bell (1996:4) states two examples of excellent customer services as treating the customers as partner and client; plus treating the customers should as king and consumer. Building a lasting relationship with the customer should be watchword.

Kotler (2001:33) states that it is no longer enough to satisfy customers. You must delight them. This is probably not in the aluminum industry for now.

Carrying out a critical analysis of the industry value chain. This is finally passed on to the dissatisfied customers.

Hence, it is the objective of this study to critically analyze the adoption of and practice of an effectiveness of customers service as a marketing tool in the industry that will ensure