Valentine’s Day lie: You don’t actually care about your customers

Every February, Kenyan brands post heart emojis and 'we love our customers' graphics while their customer service lines go unanswered, their M-Pesa confirmations take 3 days, and their Instagram DMs sit on 'seen' for a week. Let’s stop lying. You don’t love your customers. You love their money. And they know it.

Unsettling Facts We Ignore

1. The After-Hours Abandonment: Your customer gets paid on the 28th. They want to buy on the 28th at 8 pm. Your business closed at 5 pm. Safaricom, KCB, Jumia, etc are open 24/7. You’re not. Guess who gets the sale? The reality is that weekend customer support has become increasingly critical, as delayed responses on Saturdays and Sundays are a direct driver of customer churn. Furthermore, 81% of shoppers will abandon their cart immediately if their preferred delivery or service options aren't available the moment they want to buy.

2. The Handoff Gap Horror: Marketing generates the lead with "we care" messaging, but Sales takes 48 hours to respond. You spent Sh50,000 driving traffic, but your team only responded to 30% of inquiries. You just burned Sh35,000 because nobody cared enough to call back. Even in large organizations, complaint responsiveness is a persistent challenge, with actual response rates often hovering around 47% despite having a target of 90%. This disconnect between the "promise" and the "delivery" is what costs you the sale.

3. The Feedback Black Hole: Most businesses misread their customers entirely. For example, 64% of online shoppers have returned a purchase, but there is a massive gap between why businesses think customers leave and the cold reality. When you misread these reasons, you risk investing in the wrong solutions and addressing perceived problems while ignoring the real issues that destroy customer trust.

The "Customer Love" Reality Check

• Response Time Reality Check: When does your last inquiry of the day get answered? If it's after 5 pm, you've already lost them. 46% of internet users say the primary reason a positive experience stands out is that their request was dealt with quickly.

• Weekend Availability Test: Can someone buy from you on Saturday night? If not, they are ghosting you for a competitor who is open.

• Complaint Resolution Tracking: What % of customer complaints get resolved in 24 hours? Organizations that fail to track this generally see response times stagnate, failing to meet the speed that 2025 shoppers expect.

• The Handoff Success Rate: Of all marketing leads, what % get contacted within 2 hours? If you aren't moving fast, you are subsidizing your competitors. Operational complexity often cripples an employee's ability to respond with the precision customers value.

• Repeat Purchase Reality: What % of customers buy again within 90 days? If this is low, they don't love you. Subscriptions are now a go-to strategy for driving repeat revenue, with 34% of global shoppers already using them to maintain brand loyalty.

The Solution: Three Operational Fixes That Actually Show Love

Fix #1: AI-Powered After-Hours Coverage Stop losing customers to the clock. 53% of global e-commerce businesses now use AI across their platforms to ensure they never miss a beat. Using AI-driven phone bots or chatbots can handle routine inquiries and reduce call volume by 30% during high-demand periods.

• Cost/Benefit: A chatbot qualifies leads at 11 pm while you sleep. Businesses using these tools have reported a 30% reduction in customer wait times and a significant boost in satisfaction scores.

Fix #2: The 2-Hour Response Protocol Marketing generates the lead, Sales gets pinged, and a response is sent within 2 hours—no exceptions. Your competitor isn’t better than you; they are just faster. Speed is the new differentiation. In the modern market, logistics and response speed are the "hidden heroes" of the checkout process.

Fix #3: Public Accountability System If a customer complains publicly, acknowledge it within one hour and track the resolution transparently. Kenyans respect brands that own mistakes.

Strong security and transparent handling of issues build the confidence customers need to buy from you again. Moving toward a "learning from excellence" culture allows you to extract trends from feedback to drive actual operational improvement rather than just posting graphics.

Valentine's shouldn't be performative.

Or keep posting heart emojis while your customers ghost you. Your choice.