When it comes to managing a nightclub, Shina Peller has earned the bragging right to call himself an expert. Within three years, he has made a success of Quilox Nightclub, which is situated in Vitoria Island, Lagos.
Peller, however, believes that satisfying customers could be very difficult and in fact remained the predominant reason nightclubs’ owners run into trouble in Nigeria.
While speaking with our correspondent, he stated that he does not understand why a customer would come to a club and want to dictate to the management how it should be run. To him, every club has its modus operandi, which must be abided by.
He explained, “To get into our VIP section, you must possess certain criteria because it can only contain limited people. This is in addition to considering safety of customers. But people do not care; everyone wants to be there without looking at the criteria. It is just like wanting to buy a Rolls Royce at the price of a Toyota.
“Also, I expect customers to be financially prepared whenever they need to have fun. When a customer tells us that he would send someone the next day to pay for drinks, it is unacceptable. Most people who do this believe it is their rights since they are known in the society. But it is not right because it kills business.”
Another bad habit of customers, according to him, is inappropriate dressing. He lamented that there was no nightclub in a developed society that allowed customers to wear slippers to the club.
He added, “But, in Nigeria, people like to do things in their own way.
When we insist on some things, people should not blame us because we have invested so much in this business and we do not want to take chances. And to achieve this, we have to do things right. We have standards and we always want our customers to adhere strictly to them.
“Once a brand is not well managed, there will be problems. Things do not have to get ruined before you react. In every business, there should be maintenance plans. But a lot of people who are into the nightclub business do not understand this and get carried away.”
