Humans Of Bujeti: Meet Our CS Queen, Uchechi

When opportunity meets preparation, success happens. For Uchechi, whose dream is to own a chain of businesses, she prepares her path to success by gathering the necessary skills and doing everything right to make that dream come true.

In this story, she tells us about her big dreams, getting into customer success and what working at Bujeti feels like. Read her story here.

Tell me a bit about yourself

My name is Uchechi Ukandu and I studied Mass Communication at Pan Atlantic University. Ever since I graduated, I’ve been trying to get a fit of what I really want to do. And after I got introduced to tech, I’ve been intrigued to understand how it works, mainly because I have things I want to achieve in life. If I can automate some of the processes to the things I want to do, I can achieve them. For example, my dream is to own a chain of businesses. I want to own a restaurant, hotel, boat cruise ship and a logistics business. Let me tell you how I want it to work.

Let’s hear it

So I want when people come into Nigeria for vacation, they’d book my logistics business, either the car or delivery service depending on what they need. My car service would then take them to my hotel room, where they’d lodge while getting prepared for their main vacation, which is like a boat or ship cruise. Of course, if they’re lodged in my hotel, my restaurant will feed them different delicacies. I don’t want to focus on just Nigerian meals; I’m going to have a deep dive into Nigerian meals and intercontinental dishes. But the major thing is the boat cruise. I want to own those big ships like Norwegian Epic. Ever since I stepped into the Norwegian Epic boat cruise ship and spent one week on it, I just wanted to recreate the whole moment that I had there for us Nigerians. I don’t see why we have bodies of water and are not using them. If I do this kind of entertainment which I know that Nigerians will really love, we won’t always have to travel out to have a good time. That’s my goal; that’s where my head is at. That’s why I’m struggling every day to make money to start up the things that I want to do.

This is a brilliant idea. Can you tell me some of the things you’re currently doing to make this dream a reality?

Everything I want to do is tied to hospitality, meaning that I’ll need to get a degree in hospitality. However, to get a master’s degree in that, I need to have some sort of background in customer relations, which is why I’m currently doing customer support. It helps me with learning how to engage with people, understanding all their needs, how to differentiate between different customers, understanding that how I sell to customer A is different from how I sell to customer B and also emotional intelligence. Each part of the business I want to create ties into hospitality, so this is basically my foundation into learning what the people want and how to treat them.

Interesting. So how did you get into customer service from Mass Communication?

At the place where I did my graduate training after school, we were told we’d be rotated into different departments. I realised I enjoyed business development when I got into the department. Talking to our clients came very easy to me. And they would rather talk to me than to others when they have issues. They’d come to me asking, “how do we go about this? “Help me with that.” They were very comfortable with me. Even when they win, they come to tell me about how I told them to try a particular solution and it worked. I realised that this was my thing, so I was retained in that particular department. Sometimes, when clients come in, they just ask for me or come straight to me to ask, “how do I achieve this?” or “how do I do this?” I started focusing on looking for jobs in that area. Then I got into Bento. It was fully a customer support role and it taught me a lot because Bento didn’t just serve the Nigerian market; it had branches in different countries. And at that time, the customer support for the different countries weren’t ready, so we handled that for a while. We did for Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and other locations. That gave me the experience that I needed for customer success.

What was the experience like interacting with customers from other countries?

At first, during the demo, which was one-on-one, there weren’t any supporting team members on the call; just me and whoever the client was. That was a little difficult due to the language barrier. I could say something, and they wouldn’t understand it clearly until I gave an example. So it took me some time to adjust. However, it was an experience I needed at that time because it made Bujeti reach out to poach me. It gave me a very good foundation, not only in talking to international people, but also handling problems independently.

Speaking of Bujeti, tell me how it happened — the journey and how you got here.

I have a friend who knows Achille and is like a mentor to me. We talk once in a while, and have worked together, but not directly. She’s also aware of the things I do and my career experience so far. I guess Achille mentioned to her when he visited Nigeria that he was looking for a marketing person. One day, I was working when I got an email from Achille, saying my mentor recommended me to him, and suggested we meet. He set up a time for the interview, we had it and that was it.

How was the interview? What was the process like?

It was smooth. It was me, Achille and Samy on the call, so they asked me many questions. I also asked them a bunch of questions. I knew it was a startup, and I didn’t want to go somewhere I could wake up and find out that I didn’t have my job anymore. So I asked about their runway, their processes and their expectations of me. Then they came to Nigeria and called for a meeting. I hadn’t even joined the team yet but went for it with the engineers. That was also the first time I met Achille, Samy and many of the engineers as well.

What has the experience been like since you joined Bujeti?

When I first joined Bujeti, I joined as a marketing person, which was a bit stressful for me because I had to write. Writing isn’t my forte but speaking. It’s not like I could not do the writing, but I was a bit stressed because I was doing sales, trying to get leads, doing marketing which involved content writing, pushing out content and trying to handle social media to get traction. I was basically doing a lot of things at once. I also started handling clients too. But Samy realized that I was pretty stretched and putting bits of myself in different things, not my 100. We had a conversation and concluded that we needed to get a content person who was going to handle all the content while I focused on handling our clients, and my then colleague would focus on the sales efforts. We also brought in someone else to help with that.

Interesting. How has it been since you transitioned into attending to clients, which is basically customer service?

So far, it’s been good. I’m on top of my game because I get feedback from my clients, Achille and Samy, who constantly tell me how I’m doing. Again, I’m learning a lot because this is different, and this is me being involved in building up a company. It was a different experience from what I got from Bento, as Bento was already built before I joined; all I had to do was come and support the clients. But in this case, I’m helping with the foundation and process, so it feels good to experience something new.

What has been your proudest Bujeti moment so far?

Achille had this interview with our customer Reliance on finding out how support was going, and he came back to tell me the thing she said about me. According to her, I’m always just one minute away. I was there every time she needed me, so she’d give me 100% on customer support. It was a proud moment for me because if your customer can testify that you’re always there for them, you’re definitely doing something right.

Well done, Uchechi. So what makes up a typical working day for you?

These days, I wake up and join a call instantly because if my customer needs me, I have to get on a call with them. But it’s easier for me to interpret what they’re saying when I see it than when they’re just telling me. You know how tech can be; the customer might say the problem started from A; meanwhile, you, knowing your platform, can see where the problem started, which could probably be the B location. So I always want to see it so I can interpret it to the engineers who will fix it. If I don’t tell them where the problem started, then they could make the wrong fix, and we’d have to go back and forth. Hence, it’s easier when I see and interpret what I’ve seen to the team.

How has working at Bujeti made you a better customer support person and a better person overall?

I’ve learnt proper leadership skills since I’m in charge of my department. It allowed me to make certain decisions. For example, if a fix has to be delayed for some reason, and Achille has to be the one to push it, they seek my opinion. They ask if the customer will be okay if we delay the fix for a bit while we wait for Achille or if we should pressure Achille to push the fix first then get on with his other tasks. So my opinion is always needed, which has made me understand and sit up in terms of leadership, becoming assertive to know what card to play next and how to speak to a certain customer. Also, retention is very important, so my pride as customer support is that I’ve kept more than 90% of our registered customers on the platform. It’s a good thing my efforts are diverted into that area so that as I’m there for them, I’m also making sure that if anything happens, it won’t be because when they wanted something, the company wasn’t there for them.

That’s a good one. Let’s talk about pastimes; what do you do for fun?

I eat for fun. Yes. I like restaurants, and I’ve been to a lot of them. My favourite restaurant is Churrasco. It’s at Lagoon restaurant in VI. It’s a Brazillian restaurant, so many of their foods come with meat, depending on what you’re getting. They have a green card open when you come in, which is like a buffet. But you don’t go to serve yourself; they bring it to your table. Food is really my fun thing. I like to explore different restaurants.

What advice do you have for people who want to follow your career path or get into tech?

I’d say it is important to be patient. Very, very important. Your customers are always different, so don’t use the same approach for customer A on customer B. You must understand and listen. Listening is key in customer support because if you pay attention to the details, you can solve the problem your customer has brought to you.