A LESSON ON BUYER’S REMORSE: Young Cameroonian Serial Entrepreneur speaks on an ugly truth about other young Cameroonian Entrepreneurs.
Desmond Takwi is one of those we now call ‘Returnees.’ After schooling and working in Hong Kong, he returned to Cameroon to be part of the new wave of Cameroonians who believe they can make it right here on home soil. Desmond has ventured in many industries in the few years since he came back home, spanning from real estate and infrastructural development to tech software development and marketing. In his experience, contrary to popular rhetoric, age in Cameroon is not just a number - it has real implications.
He writes:-
[Age is but a Number]
For a countless number of times, my age has worked against me.
It is generally perceived, especially in Cameroon, that if you are below 30 you can't get anything done.
The elderly apply this because a lot of young people have failed them. Every school I approach with the hopes of selling EDUNA, the same plague is heard when "You young computer people come and install that ya thing and then when they call you for problems you don't show up" I believe we all understand the economic and technical reasons to why we license software. My team and I get rejected many times because the previous provider was YOUNG and couldn't be reached whenever a problem was encountered or for an upgrade on the software.
Douala is relatively a new market for www.eduna.cm business but you'll be surprised how many locally developed solutions are out there. They get such opportunities of doing business with schools but somehow screw it up. Apparently this translates to anyone in the line of business and worst still age group.
We are definitely not backing out or giving up anytime soon. History will serve as inspiration for it took us over 6 months to get the first school after developing EDUNA. Please if you are young and trying to do something for yourself, kindly do it with all your heart and passion. As my brother Yembe Nfor usually says #WeHaveANationToBuild! You are never too young or old to impact change!
Any-Ha!
For many young entrepreneurs, I am sure this is not a surprising experience. We have to fight the hedonistic tendencies and short sightedness which have pushed us into adopting unsustainable business models. We run every single thing around here like a scam -get the customer to pay, then change your phone number. If you know anything about business, you would know a company can make more money from a repeat customer over the lifetime of that customer than from a new customer that is just passing never to return. If you know anything about business, you would also know the cost of acquiring a new customer is higher than the cost of keeping an old customer happy and paying.
We have to stop thinking ‘short-term’ - it is almost like a national disease. The alarming degree of poor customer service we experience in Cameroon is in part due to the same attitude towards business that is described above. Once you have bought something in Cameroon, very few businesses care about what happens after. I cannot count the number of times I have been served with abuses after I have made a purchase and I have some complaints or questions. What happens is what marketers call ‘buyer’s remorse.’ In business it is not only important to be with the customer before the customer makes the purchase. It is also important to stay with the customer after the purchase so you can help avoid things that could lead to buyer’s remorse. I suggest you read a little bit more on buyer’s remorse on your own time. A simple google search will give you a lot of valuable information.
You might think the most important thing is to get your money and leave but if you fail to deliver good customer service, you are setting yourself up for future failure in the long run. I understand for some, this is the whole modus operandi of their business but we all know how those people end up. It is always sweet and fast in the beginning but in the end, they all come crashing.