My Excellent Customer Service Experience in Ruhengeri/ Rwanda

CUSTOMER CARE: My customer service experience in Ruhengeri

BY SANDRA IDOSSOU

Last week end, I was at the Kwita Izina ceremony at Kinigi and on our way back, we decided to have lunch in Ruhengeri.

Because of the poor services one usually receives in many restaurants in Kigali, I was initially apprehensive about this idea. But believe me, I was blown away by the quality of the service at Muhabura Restautant.

Many people start their restaurant ventures without putting too much emphasis on excellent customer service. This actually holds the key to success as it forms the essence and lifeblood of any business irrespective of the industry.

All business owners need to ensure that their businesses stay profitable by striving for repeat customers. They need to make first time customers happy so they will come back and also tell others.

In my case with the Muhabura Restaurant in Ruhengeri, I know for sure that I’ll talk about this positive experience to many people starting by you dear reader (and I know you will also talk about this restaurant to your friends).

Though I don’t know the owner, I’m sure my comments and those of other customers are the best and free publicity this restaurant could get.

So here below are the things that made me have such a wonderful and memorable customer service.

The general environment

This started with the cleanliness and general lay out of the restaurant; the music, the décor and the fresh flowers. If you have a restaurant, you need to make sure that the decoration is appealing and attracting.
Watch out for the dust of those artificial plants you have (though I really can’t understand why some use them in a country with so many fresh and beautiful flowers).

The washrooms

This is a very crucial element in creating a first good impression. Many customers first go to the washrooms before ordering their food.
What they see in those washrooms make them imagine how hygienic your kitchen is. I have always wondered why the washrooms in this big hotel in Kigali are never clean. They are always leaking, with basically no tissue or dryer for hands.
What struck me at the Muhabura Restaurant was the fact that there were permanently staffs walking around the washrooms to make sure they remain clean and spotless.

The professionalism of the staff

This implies the personal hygiene of the staffs. As customers, we don’t want to be approached by waiters who smell bad. If you are a restaurant owner, make sure that after the setup and mise en place, your staffs take either a shower or freshen up before service starts.
Deodorants are a must because the restaurant job is a physical job that makes your staff sweat.

The reception In any good customer service, SMILE is the most important element. The essential attributes of cordiality, warmth, friendliness and affability are all enshrined in the radiance of a ‘SMILE’.

At Muhabura Restaurant, the two waitresses we met were always smiling. They just seemed happy to be there or at least happy to serve us.
We were also impressed by the ability of the staff in speaking basic English and French.

The buffet

What I appreciated on the buffet at the Muhabura Restaurant was the variety of the dishes. There were fish, chicken, beef and pork.
I have often disliked some buffets in Kigali where you have many sorts of vegetables with only one animal protein….in most cases, it is only beef and when you don’t eat beef, you have no other alternative.

There is also no need having a kilometric menu if you cannot provide them. Limit your menu to items you can provide. Just make sure that what is written is available.

Departure
This is the last impression that completely blew me up at the Muhabura restaurant. The staff saw us off and opened the car gate for us by wishing us a safe journey and inviting us to come back again.

Wow, we unanimously exclaimed.

Exceptional customer service keeps people coming back and is the most important aspect of your restaurant business, perhaps even more important than any other thing.

Train your staff and motivate them by offering them a positive and conducive working environment. They will then be able to offer memorable moments such as this to your customers.

By following these basic rules you will gain a reputation that will help your business grow and prosper.

sandra.idosou@sheiconsulting.com
The author is a customer service consultant currently working in Rwanda

http://newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13941&article=1746&week=27

THE POWER OF EMPATHY

http://newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13934&article=1729&week=26

CUSTOMER CARE: The Power of Empathy

BY SANDRA IDOSSOU

Lately, one of my mystery shoppers was given a complicated form to fill at one of the big service providing companies in town. This document was so difficult to comprehend even for a university professor and he almost gave up when suddenly; the service person came to his rescue.

She asked with a big smile and helpful voice if she could help him out. She then took her time and explained each session of the document. After that, he was able to fill easily this document.
How he wished this was a true story but unfortunately, this just happened in his dream…the fact is that the lady at that counter was chatting with someone on the phone and discussing her personal matters with no focus on him as a customer.

When he tried to interrupt her, the look she gave him just sent him cold. After finishing her long conversation, she simply told him that the questionnaire was in English and French and that he should try harder to understand it by himself, or take it home and look for help.

Have you ever had such an experience when you think the service person doesn’t care about how you feel?

Or even as a service provider, you have probably shown a lack of empathy to some of your customers? When we talk about putting ourselves in the shoes of our customers, do we really understand what this entails?

Empathy is the ability of being in the customers shoes so as to understand them better. Whether for selling, for the retention of our customers, for handling complaints or even diffusing conflict, empathy helps and is needed in all service interactions.

Customer Empathy is the art of seeing transactions through the customer’s eyes. It’s being able to think ahead about the customer’s fears, anxiety, and trying to understand them.

This means that as service providers, we need to sense our customers’ feelings and perspective that will enable us to take an active interest in their concerns.

My friend Bea works in one of the banks in town and when she has customers whose salaries or transfers have not been positioned on their accounts, they will keep on calling her.

She feels bad for them and imagines how she herself would feel if she had to wait for a transfer. Though she is not the person directly in charge of transfers, she will be behind her colleagues until she finds a solution for her customers.

That’s empathy because Bea makes interactions with her customers emotional.
As good customer service is all about dealing with customer’s’ hearts, empathy enables the service provider to connect and establish rapport and creating a sense of bonding between him and the customer.

What prevents many people from being empathetic is their inability to come out from their “boxes”, their “rules and regulations”. The truth is that in most customer service cases, we are able to find alternatives for our customers’ demands.

Empathizing with your customers can be seen verbally with sentences such as:

• “Yes, I can imagine this is not easy, please let me help you.”

• “I’m sure I will be upset too, if that happened to me.”

• “That is really frustrating. I can understand how you feel.”

• “ I know or recognize how it feels to wait for that long”

• “I understand your concern”

• “ I see why you feel that way”

• “I’ve been there so I know how you feel”

As service people, we have a privilege of creating long term relationships with all the people we interact with. So, listen carefully.

Look inside your customer’s hearts before you respond. Then, respond with kindness, thoughtfulness, and understanding. You’ll be rewarded with trust, friendship, and loyalty.

Remember this quote by Bonnie Jean Wasmund” People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”

The author is a Customer Service consultant currently working in Rwanda. She can be reached at sandra.idossou@sheiconsulting.com.

The importance of non-verbal communication

http://newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13928&article=1713&week=25

CUSTOMER CARE: BY SANDRA IDOSSOU

Good communication skills can help in both our personal and professional lives. Even though verbal and written communication skills are very important in our businesses, experts say that a great amount of our daily communication is based on our non verbal communication.

Most of us know that non verbal communication is usually the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages.

It is important because it is seen through our gestures, our body language, our personal space, our hairstyles, our position vis-à-vis others, our postures and even in our facial expressions or our eye Contact.

Sometime back, I walked into a cosmetic shop around the Union Trade Center in town and the way the service lady looked at me clearly sent out the message that I had come to disturb her and her colleagues.

She took more than 5 minutes to walk towards me by dragging her feet. The way she talked to me and even the manner in which she handled my order made me feel that I should have chosen another shop instead of hers.

There is this story about the presidential debate of Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy in 1960 where people listening via radio awarded the victory to Nixon while those watching the debate on television awarded the victory to Kennedy.

This was explained by the fact that though President Nixon had very persuasive words during the debate, he was more tensed, was sweating and was quite uncomfortable.

On the other hand, President Kennedy was looking very athletic and charming and was able to convey a positive and convincing body language during that debate.
Since that incident, researchers have demonstrated that a message is perceived in 3 different ways:
55 percent visually by body language

There are very little details about our body language that have an impact on how other people relate to us. Our body language communication is also seen in the way we shake hands with people down to the intonation of our voice.

Have you already seen yourself walking? How do you carry yourself? Do you walk as if going for a catwalk or as if forced to be in that office or shop?

Eye contact is an important part in non verbal communication. It is often said that you have to listen also with your eyes. It means looking at people in the eye when talking to them.
When you fail to do that, it can seem as if you are evading or trying to hide something. This, of course doesn’t mean that you should stare at people.

38 percent by the voice

Your tone of voice can convey a wealth of information, ranging from enthusiasm to disinterest to anger. Studies done show us that the percentage of understanding that is gained from the spoken word is considerably lesser than the meaning that people gain from listening to a person’s tone of voice.

Your voice becomes then an essential element in communication that should be bold, firm and enthusiastic. On the telephone, the voice should even be clearer.

7 percent by the Words

We need to note that the same words will be interpreted differently by each different person. This implies that no two people will attribute the exact same meaning to the same words. Let’s then be concise and clear with simple words when speaking to customers.

Service people should remember that their body language sends lots of message about themselves. Note that everyone speaks at least two languages….your Body and your Verbal language.

Your dynamism is seen in the way you walk; talk, smile and move. Please try to always send a positive image on yourself through your non verbal communication.

The author is a customer service expert currently working in Rwanda. She can be reached at sandra.idossou@sheiconsulting.com

Customer Training for The Rwanda National Police

On Thursday June 11th 2009, the Rwanda Development Board organized a workshop on Customer Care for Rwanda National Police.

Training that attracted more than 80 officials of the RNP was facilitated by Sandra IDOSSOU.

The workshop started with a presentation on The Impact of Poor Customer Service on the Economy of Rwanda by Gloria Lwakabamba of the Institute Political Analysis and Reserach ( IPAR). This presentation showed cleary that Customer Service can have a positive on the GPD of this country if people in all sectors of service improve their customer service attitudes.

After Gloria's presentation, Amin Gafaranga in Charge of Customer Service at the RDB also made an introduction on our Survey he carried out on the perception of the Police by citizens here in Rwanda. His presentation showed that there is a gap between the perception of the Police by citizens and what the Image the Police wants to send out to Citizens.

After these 2 presentations, I carried out the training session on how best the police could offer better customer service.

Some of the topics we talked about where:

1. What is Customer Service at the Police

2. What are Citizens expecting from the Police

3. The Role of the Police

4. Importance of Welcoming and First Contact with Citizens

5. Attitudes and Professionalism

6. The 9 Ingredients for a Good Customer Service by the Police.

I was very much impressed by the presence and contributions of the Commissionner General of the Rwanda National Police Madam Mary Gahonzire and by the Deputy CEO of the RDB, Ms Clare Akamanzi who participated very much in this session. Both stayed till the end of the workshop. This clearly shows how important Customer Service is to both organizations as well as to the Country in whole.

At the end of this session, the RNP officials appreciated the workshop and invited that more of such be organized for other government and public institutions.

Can good customer service be achieved by public servants?

http://newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13920&article=1694&week=24

BY SANDRA IDOSSOU

Some weeks ago, the Ministry of Local Government organised training for local authorities about good governance. I was asked by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) team to make a presentation on Customer Service.

There was an interesting question on how best government and district authorities could do customer service, which made me realise that many people still think that customer service is solely destined for businesses in the private sector.

Maybe as a civil servant, you are also thinking that you don’t have “customers” in your line of work. Think again about this. Everyone has someone who needs their help at some time; whether in a post office, at the tribunal, at the hospital, at the district sector.

According to the TenSteps definition, customers are defined as “The person or group that is the direct beneficiary of a project or service. The people for whom the project is being undertaken (indirect beneficiaries are probably stakeholders)”.
In this case, it is not necessarily a buying person who is a customer and customer service is a requisite even in government institutions and in the public sector.

There are people who probably do not deal directly with outside customers. If you serve people, they are your customers. If you have to take care of people’s land issues, they are your customers.

Even though these customers might not be paying you directly, you are there for them. As a public servant, your salary comes from the tax payers (the local people you serve).

We can recognise the efforts that are being made today in many companies to improve on customer service in Rwanda. Almost everyone is aware of the need to change our mindset and attitude.

But much as the private sector is trying to raise the bar for customer service, citizens and people coming to Rwanda are expecting the same level of service from government institutions. We all want to be able to navigate through the complex bureaucratic maze to obtain services without too much hassle.

In most public institutions, customers today are often treated like a nuisance. Most of us have come to believe that outstanding customer service is just a dream impossible to realize especially in the public sector. It is high time this changes.

Some tips that should help civil servants offer a better service include treating the citizen “customer” with respect because they pay your salary, respect the opening hours of the administration.

If you have to go out for an outside assignment, let your people know the time you will be back. You should also take time to understand the citizen’s issue and offer suggestions for resolving issues, be patient and compassionate while remembering you are there to serve.

“Never stop serving your customers. They’ll love you for it.” Be empathetic and try to come out from your “boxes” so that you can understand the need of your customers. Sometimes, you are just too stiff with rules and this may prevent you from helping a customer.

Also with today’s electronic capabilities and widespread internet facility, government institutions can have many more opportunities than ever to provide good customer service. They can provide useful websites with downloadable forms for instance.

A good example of this is the internet system at the Immigration service that allows customers to track their visa applications directly on internet. With just a click, you can follow up your visa application.

This prevents one to have to spent money, time and energy to go to the immigration to check. Achieving customer satisfaction is a key priority for any good service provider and Rwanda’s civil service should be no different.

Customer service has the objective of ensuring that all clients – the public – receive the best customer service possible. And remember customer service is not just destined to foreigners or the “Bazungu” visiting Rwanda. It is a sign of care to all your fellow Rwandans and in that matter to all your customers whether black, white, small or tall.

The author is a Customer Service expert currently working in Rwanda.

sandra.idossou@sheiconsulting.com