“I’ve always believed in myself. If someone else can do it, I believe I can do it too” - BuyPower’s Telesales Team Lead

Ajoke is the brilliant mind leading BuyPower’s Telesales team, their sole responsibility is to reach out to customers by taking a proactive approach to problem resolution.

In this episode of BuyPower’s Staff Spotlight, you’ll join us to understand how Ajoke got to where she currently is and what drives her to do the work that she does.

Can you please introduce yourself?
My name is Ajoke and I was born and brought up in Kaduna, but I'm from Ibadan in Oyo State. My role in BuyPower is leading the Telemarketing team.

How long have you been leading the Telemarketing department?
I've been a team lead for 4 years but this is my second year in this role in BuyPower.

What does your department’s work entail?
What Telesales does in BuyPower is to contact potential and existing customers over the phone to inform them about existing or new offers or products. We also call customers to get feedback on products and services and their general experiences. We ensure customer retention, customer satisfaction, sales and make sure customers keep coming back to use our service. Our goal is to ensure that our customers experience a seamless service. We have different campaigns which target different customer types.

That’s important work. What are the challenges you faced?
The challenges are many 😄
When I started the department, one of the  challenges I faced was that a lot of people didn’t understand what the department was all about, so I had to keep explaining over and over again, and that was kind of a turn off for me. Some don’t even know how we contribute to BuyPower. That was the major challenge when the department started. However, people have come to understand what we do now, and that has enabled better collaboration.

I think that’s quite understandable. How many people work with you in the department?
I currently have 23 agents that I work with. 14 of these  agents work from our office in Ilorin, while the rest nine of them work from the headquarter office in Abuja.

How do you manage them?
I manage them remotely. Sometimes, people don’t understand how busy I am because they don’t see the 23 people that I have to manage. They see less than 10 people and assume that the workload isn’t a lot.

I can imagine how tasking it must be.
What’s one interesting thing about you?
I’d say it’s the fact that I love music. Not just any music, but Fuji music, and when people find out how much I love Fuji music, they want to know why I love Fuji music so much. A lot of conversation comes out from that. It’s interesting to some people.

I think it’s interesting to me too because I can’t relate 😄. Let me guess, were you brought up by your grandparents?
Not really. The thing is that my siblings and I were born in the North but my parents didn’t want us to grow up with people assuming we were northerners. They didn’t want us to forget our origin and wanted us to understand Yoruba, especially my mum. That was how I started listening to Fuji music. I don’t think I can ever outgrow it. It brings back sweet memories.

That sounds wonderful.
How did you get into your current career path?
I started as a call center agent and was recruited as a part-time Hausa agent with Airtel Nigeria. About 1 year and 8 months later, I was promoted to the position of Team Lead after performance reviews. I started managing different teams and I was initially an Inbound Team Lead, Customer Support. Later on, I was moved to another process, the Telemarketing process after my Agency was hired for a contract job with a company. That was how I was really introduced to telemarketing.

So, how did BuyPower come into the picture?
I felt it was time to take up a new challenges and that was how buypower came into the picture through a former colleague  that she should inform me if she becomes aware of any job opportunity elsewhere. One day, she messaged me to tell me that there was an offer. I got to know about BuyPower through Big Brother Naija so I was aware that the company helps people to pay their electricity bills easily online. That’s how I started working at BuyPower.

Have you always lived in Abuja?
No

So accepting the job meant that you had to move?
My family stays in Ibadan but I didn’t have any problem with moving because I was interested in moving out of my comfort zone. I wanted to test my abilities and push myself to see if my knowledge and experience would be useful in a new environment. I’m not scared of changing my environment. I can always move if I think that the opportunity is something that I want to go ahead with. After the interview process, I was made to understand that I’d be starting the department because they previously didn’t have anything like a Telesales department.

I had done this kind of thing in my previous role and it was successful so I thought to myself that I could do this too and see what comes out of it. I wanted to apply myself outside my comfort zone.

Were you scared or nervous about starting a new department?
Not really. The only thing that got me worried was accommodation. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever doubted myself. I believe that if you can do it, then I can do it too. It might not be completely perfect at the beginning but I know that I can deliver. That’s the confidence I have in myself.

When I got to BuyPower, the challenge I had with people that worked with me initially was that they didn’t understand that the department was new and a little sacrifice would be required of them to get things done. At that time, I needed to understand the environment, people, company and the product. The stress was quite a lot. I’ve never doubted myself though. I believe that once I have the necessary resources required to do the job, I can make a difference.

That’s really wonderful to hear.
Can you walk us through what your typical workday looks like?
I have a to-do list where I put down all I need to do for the day. There is always a need to drive sales and ensure conversion from customers in the department so proper monitoring is required to achieve this. Briefings, running daily productivity reporting for the entire team ensuring escalations are closed promptly. Giving periodic feedback and  also Answer questions about products. Just ensuring the company's expectations are met on a daily basis.

What work tools make your work easier?
I mainly use Freshdesk and Slack.
I use Freshdesk for calls and daily reporting while I use Slack for company-wide communication.

You mentioned earlier that you’ve been working at BuyPower for over 2 years. How has the time you’ve spent here made you a better person?
BuyPower has pushed me to do things that I previously didn’t have to. Now, I am in charge of a team and I’m responsible for them which means that there are decisions that I have to take that affect them individually and the department.

In my previous place of work, I had different departments at my disposal to help with one thing or the other. Here, I have to manage the team myself, like training new intakes and managing the team to ensure that they do what is expected of them. So, I am kind of a multipurpose team lead as I do almost every other thing apart from my core duty as a team lead. I am now open to doing different things and I can now do a lot of things by myself. I want to thank BuyPower for the opportunity.

When you were in school, did you think that this would be a career path for you?
I schooled at Federal Poly, Kaura Namoda in Zamfara State and I never envisioned a career in Customer Care for myself, although I like it. It’s something that I like doing. You know how Nigeria is. You may want to do one thing and end up doing something else not because that’s what you want to do but because that’s the opportunity that presented itself.

I’ve always wanted to work in a bank and I tried my best but it didn’t work out. Currently, I am no longer interested in working in a bank.

What did you study in school?
Public Administration. At the time, I was thinking of working at a bank or a radio station. I feel like I can do well with any job that requires me to talk, so when I got the offer for Airtel customer care, I knew that it wouldn’t be a problem for me.

Do you think your career has been fulfilling?
Yes, to God be the glory.

I never imagined being where I am today because I know that it was very hard at some point. I never saw myself doing some of the things that I’m doing today. It’s a privilege, and I thank God every day.

Apart from work and listening to Fuji music, what do you do for fun?
I’m kind of boring 😄😄

However, if I find myself outside Abuja, I tend to party and go out with my friends, meet people and hangout with my former colleagues.

But when I’m in Abuja, I don’t do anything apart from TGIF in the office, maybe it’s because I don’t have a lot of friends in Abuja.

Thank you for meeting with us Ajoke.
You're welcome

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