The Hospitality Queens of Gisenyi

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14095&article=2310&week=49

Monday, 30th November 2009

CUSTOMER CARE: The hospitality Queens of Gisenyi

By Sandra idossou

The above “Hospitality Queens of Gisenyi” have all proven that with their daily effort, determination, hard work, good taste and perseverance, good customer service can be achieved in Rwanda.

With my family members two weeks ago, we decided to try the small hotels on the shores of Lake Kivu in Gisenyi. For this family reunion, Gisenyi was the perfect destination because of its beauty and tranquility.

What an unforgettable experience this stay turned out to be! We experienced exceptional customer service at the Paradis Malahide Hotel. We therefore cancelled the rest of our program in touring that region to prolong our stay in this “paradise”.

The splendid view from this hotel

Such a peaceful place to be!

The african decoration in everything, even in service ustencils

Swimming in the lake is overwhelming!!!

We also discovered two other magnificent hotels located in the same village as Paradis Malahide.

This area of Gisenyi called Rubona is best suited to those who want to get away and enjoy the quiet atmosphere by the lake. Even though it is a bit difficult to get there, it’s worth the journey.

I was extremely happy and proud to hear that these three beautiful hotels were managed by exceptional women struggling each day to maintain quality of their products and services.

As we talk a lot these days about customer service in Rwanda, seeing the level of service in these three resorts far from Kigali was a real motivation for the trainer I am.

These are: Paradis Malahide, La Bella Resort, Yvke-beach-resort, all located in Gisenyi.

The above places have made tremendous progress in delivering quality services in the country.

Customer Service evokes different interpretations and connotations to different people. But as customers, most of us base our first judgment on the attitudes and behaviours of the service people we meet and also on the quality of the product itself.

The above “Hospitality Queens of Gisenyi” have all proven that with their daily effort, determination, hard work, good taste and perseverance good customer service can be achieved in Rwanda.

Decide today to offer good products and inculcate the “right” attitude in your front-line staff for your own benefit and for the good reputation of Rwanda.

The author is a customer service consultant working in Rwanda.

http://www.sheiconsulting.com/

sandra.idosou@sheiconsulting.com

CustomerCare Training for Tigo Call Center Staff

Q-Sourcing Rwanda together with BSC used SHEI & ENZ Consulting in training 35 Tigo Call Center staff.

Trainings were held at the Mille Collines Hotel in Kigali

Bralirwa Trains its Staff

19 staff from Bralirwa went through a two-days-training on Customer Care.

Trainings were held on November 11th and 12th 2009 at the Laico Hotel in Kigali and participants were Bralirwa staff from Gisenyi and Kigali.

Some topics treated during the training sessions were:

Importance of the Customer

Internal & External Customers

What is Custumer Care

Importance of First Contact and Welcoming

Attitudes & Behaviours

Communicating with Customers

Dealing with Difficult customers and Complaints

Word of Mouth Advertising

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14088&article=2287&week=48

Monday, 23rd November 2009

CUSTOMER CARE: Search for a positive word of mouth advertising

By Sandra idossou

I overheard last week two friends discussing about their eagerness to shift from their usual-long-time service provider to this new company that has just arrived on the Rwandan market.
Lucile explained that she had always felt neglected and maltreated with her service provider but had to remain there because she had no other alternative.

Even though she had been their customer for over four years, she thought now was the right time to pay them back for having taken her for granted.

“I’ll convince all my friends and relatives to quit and join me at this new company. I’m sure they will treat us better and satisfy our needs as customers” Lucie kept on rambling.

I sat listening and had a difficult time trying to convince them that “the devil you know is sometimes better than the angel you don’t know” but none of my arguments could convince them.

That is when I remembered this quotation by Sam Walton, owner and founder of the Wall Mart in USA “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”

As a business owner, do you realize that your customers have the ability to sack you from your business by spending their money elsewhere? Do you know that the customer is the most important person in your company?

Do you know that he/she ultimately pays your salary? You can always fool or abuse your customers but one day, they will pay you back.

Statistics show that an unhappy customer informs averagely ten people. Have you ever thought of what your customers were telling their friends and relatives about your services and products?

A customer is the lifeblood of every business and business owners and managers must always strive to be in tune with what their customers think, feel and say about their services.

On average, it costs 5 times more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one. Yet there are so many companies that spend millions on advertising and almost nothing on ways of keeping their customers satisfied.

By focusing on advertisement and sales many companies often neglect customer retention. Just look at the large expensive advertising billboards in town? There are so many at every corner of the city.

How I wish these companies spend at least 10% of their advertising budget on maintaining their customers satisfaction.

I’m not against advertising but my point here is that business owners need to understand that big advertising campaigns do not yield many results as much as improving on service delivery.

Will Rogers says that “If advertisers spent the same amount of money on improving their products as they do on advertising then they wouldn’t have to advertise them.”

A happy customer is your best advertising agent. People will always believe the good testimonials of other customers rather than a well-written over-promising-advert.

The word-of mouth advertising is one of the most credible forms of advertising because a person puts his/her reputation on the line every time he/she makes a recommendation on your behalf.

The word-of-mouth advertising is defined as an unpaid form of promotion in which satisfied customers tell other people how much they like a business, product or service.

You van benefit from a positive word-of-mouth advertising is if only your customers receive more than what they had expected or paid for. Believe me dear reader that if your customers are happy with your services, you need not to be afraid of competition.

A simple example of the importance of a word-of-mouth advertising is with my tomatoes sellers at the Kimironko market.

I talk about her during all my training sessions and all those who go to the Kimironko market always look for her. She has since then increased her number of clients through the good welcoming she offers her customers. No other type of advertising is more powerful than word of mouth.

Of course, advertising alone doesn’t generate long-term sales or business growth. If you advertise, you need to make sure that the promised services and products are equal to your service delivery.

Your team people have an important role after you have advertised. They should be the main resources and pillar upon which you base your advertisement.

According to the London School of Economics and Political, positive word of mouth advertising pays the following dividends:

• 7 percent increase in positive word of mouth unlocks 1 percent additional company growth

• 2 percent reduction in negative word of mouth boosts sales by 1 percent

Companies with the above average positive word of mouth grow four times as fast as those with below-average positive word of mouth.

If you want to benefit from positive free word of mouth advertising, go beyond the average sub standard service delivery. Never lose sight of the fact that word of mouth advertising can also be the worst advertising.

Decide today to invest more time, energy, focus and money on good customer service and you will see the results on the free publicity that your customers will do for you. Your customers will become your ambassadors and you will save on your usual advertising budget.

The author is a customer service expert working in Rwanda.

sandra.idossou@sheiconsulting.com

The Four Service Providers who have lately impressed me

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14081&article=2256&week=47

Monday, 16th November 2009

CUSTOMER CARE: The four service provider who have lately impressed me

By Sandra idossou

After last week article titled “Yes, we can achieve Good Customer Service in Rwanda”, I received quiet a number of comments from readers.

One of the respondents asked me to give concrete examples of service providers who have really changed their customer service attitudes since the whole campaign against poor service began.

I have been living in Rwanda for two and half years and I do have lots of examples of service improvement.

I recognized the fact that lots need to be done again but we can also acknowledge the efforts of those who are moving forward on this issue.

In this article, I’ll not be able to give the names of all the good service providers here but I would like to share with you some of the remarkable changes I have experienced both in the private and public sectors.

The following are 4 service providers that have impressed me very much.
They are organizations who have put efforts in training and instilling a customer service culture in their enterprises.

Skeptical people should go and experience their services to understand that “Yes, Rwanda can achieve good customer service”

1. Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA)

When I registered my company here, I was faced with a tedious monthly exercise of declaring my VAT taxes at the RRA.

Until recently, I was spending two and half hours every time. But today, believe me; I spend only 12 minutes. This month, service was even more exceptional. It took me less than 5 minutes.

With their computerized system, customers can nowadays print their declaration forms and fill them before going there. This is a great achievement and Rwandans can be proud of this service improvement.

Time is money and many customers do appreciate the effort that has been put in listening to our complaints.

2. The Immigration Service

Getting a visa for a foreign country is always a difficult and complicated process for visitors in many countries. In Rwanda, this process has been alleviated and simplified.

Today, one can get the Rwandan Visa just by a click on internet. For people arriving here, they can simply have their visas by filling the forms online.


I have never seen such an easy system in any other African country before. For residents here, the long hours of waiting and visits have tremendously improved.

One can trace online one’s demand. Customer service has also improved very much at the airport as their staff is now very friendly and welcoming.

3. The Shokola Restaurant

I remember, there was a time, I simply decided not to go to restaurants here anymore. Service was simply not present in many of these restaurants. But today, I’m the first person to patronize certain restaurants in town.

And I’m particularly impressed by the service at the shokola restaurant. Believe me service is simply excellent. Customers are really treated like kings and queens.

If we can have such exceptional service experiences in this restaurant, I would like to invite many other restaurants owners to follow this good example.

4. The Banana Guest House

This is another great place to be in town. The hotel rooms are very clean and comfortable. The decoration is African and beautiful, service staff seems to be happy to serve you and above all, food is delicious.

Even when the owner is not present, the staff still remembers to be professional.
The four examples above and the so many I have witnessed have made me to realize that good customer service is achievable in Rwanda.

And I’m so proud of this because the managers of all these four service providers are Rwandans. So it is not a matter of expatriates. We can all achieve good customer care practices if we decide to and change our ways of dealing daily with customers’ demands.

As a business owner, you need to indoctrinate every new hire on good customer care culture. And you need to do this right when they are recruited.

If you wait for a long time, they will adopt habits that will be difficult to change.
Investing in your all your staff through frequent and professional trainings will boost their productivity and undeniably your bottom line.

Achieving good customer service is never a miracle. You as a business owner or manager have an important role in instilling a customer service culture.

First you yourself need to understand what this entails; then live and communicate continuously to your team members the good practices.

The author is a customer service consultant working in Rwanda

http://www.sheiconsulting.com/

Yes, Good Customer Service is Possible in Rwanda

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14074&article=2229&week=46

Monday, 9th November 2009

CUSTOMER CARE: Yes, good customer service is possible in Rwanda

By Sandra idossou

Recently, I was in a brainstorming meeting on customer service with branch managers of one of the insurance companies in the country and an interesting question came up.

This question is actually a frequent one that I’m often asked during training sessions or through daily discussions on Customer Care.

“Can Rwanda really achieve good customer service looking at the culture heritage?”

We keep on hearing about Rwandan culture throughout all conversations and in all levels of society. Many people think that it is simply utopist to think of achieving good customer service here.

I have often met people who are pessimist or simply defaitist about this issue. But please tell me; is the “Rwandan Culture” really contrary to good customer service practices?

Before answering this question, I would like to invite us to analyze some of the meanings of Culture.

Culture is defined as a “shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences perception and behavior”

It is also described as “a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization, group or even a population”

Looking through these definitions, we can understand that Culture is highly dependant on Values and Attitudes. And the good news here is that we often chose these Values and Attitudes.

They are most at times our personal decisions. Thank God, there is nothing like “born attitudes”. We just adopt or chose through our daily behaviors, values, beliefs etc.

Though sometimes culture is passed on to us by tradition; we also tend out to live with these traditions and even pass them to future generations.

The way we actually deal with people or customers today have definitely an impact on how future generations will also treat their customers.

If for instance, we keep quiet today and accept poor service as something incurable, we will arguably pass it on to the next generations; our daily individual and collective habits will then become our “Culture”.

In Rwanda today, we are suffering from poor customer service because of so many reasons.

Among them, there is probably the fact that a certain time, people did not pay any more attention to good customer service practices. Because of lack of competition, business owners and service people thought they were more important than their customers.

Customers on the other hand had no choice and for that matter decided not accept sub standard service.

But hey people of Rwanda, we are today in the 21rst century. We are part of the globalization. We are no more alone on our mountains. So many interesting things are happening behind our mountains.

With technology and the diversity of means of communication, we are part of a dynamic economic world. For those who still do not know, we are even part of the East African Community.

We just can’t sit and comfort ourselves in the idea that a cultural change is not possible. We all need to change or rather improve our ways of doing business. And I know we are capable of that. Miracles will not happen like that if we do not change our state of mind.

This is the right time to adopt today new behaviors for our own benefit first and for the benefit of our country.

This is the time to refuse mediocrity. This is the time to fight vehemently poor customer care practices not only in the private and public sectors but also in big organizations and small retail shops.

Herm Albright says that “A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort”.

Let’s come together and annoy the poor service providers by denouncing them. It is today our right and OBLIGATION to complain. Let’s not be complaisant. Let’s be ready to be described as the “ever complainer”.

If we want to change the service culture here, we need to be responsible first as customers but also as service providers. This implies that individually and collectively, we take corrective measures today because if we do not, nothing will change tomorrow.

I love this quotation by Dennis and Wendy Mannering that says that “Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching?”

What are your attitudes today? Do you respect your promise? Do you keep time? Are you courteous to people surrounding you? Do you respect your lunch break time?

Are you the first to greet people who come to your office or shop? Do you aim at good products and services? Do you take the customer for granted? Do you drag on your personal telephone conversation while the customer is waiting for you?

So people of Rwanda, my answer to the question above is a big “YES”; Rwanda can achieve good customer care practices.

If China was able to sensitize its population on the need of smile and hospitality towards visitors during the Beijing Olympic Games; we can surely also achieve good customer care in Rwanda.

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” Winston Churchill says. Watch the little things you do daily and always remember that “Cultural Change” in Rwanda depends on your daily actions.

The Author is a customer service expert working in Rwanda.

http://www.sheiconsulting.com/

sandra.idossou@sheiconsulting.com

Back to Our Values

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14067&article=2208&week=45

Monday, 2nd November 2009

CUSTOMER CARE: Back to our good values and traditions

By Sandra idossou

“Three days ago, together with colleagues from Holland, we were in a village called Nkungu near Cyangugu. We got hungry at a certain time but there was no restaurant around the village so I decided to enter this small village shop to get some biscuits.

When I entered this little shop, I met an old woman of probably more than 60 years chatting with a friend.

She instantly stopped her conversation, offered me such a friendly and warm smile that made me forgot about my hunger. Although we were faced with the language barrier, this woman tried her best to assist me.

She was available and suggested two different types of biscuits. I was so much overwhelmed with her customer care attitudes that I decided to buy all her stock of biscuit.

Why can’t we get this type of service in Kigali and other big cities? I have been in several shops in Kigali and in other cities in Rwanda but had never experienced such warmth through the sales person ;

Most at times, when I enter a shop, I have the impression that I’m disturbing the sales person.
How I wish my banker, my insurance company, my telecom provider, my restaurant, the cashier at my grocery shop and the so many service providers I deal with could learn good customer care attitudes from this village old woman”.

When I received this mail from a reader, my first question was: Is Customer Care in villages better than in big cities? Are people in villages better equipped with good manners than those in town?

Are we so much “civilized” or “westernized” in cities that we have forgotten the good manners we were thought in our traditions?

As Africans, we have many values that go hand in hand with good customer care practices. We are thought right from our childhood to be nice to visitors, to show appreciation to people, to greet or thank people, to honor our promises, to be diligent with our work, to be courteous and many other values…

Just look at our African traditions and cultures. We are known to be generally warm, friendly and very welcoming. Look at how we receive people at our homes!!! We do everything to make our visitors feel good in our presence in order to create positive bonding with them.

I remember the first time I saw Rwandans greeting each other with the big hugs and warmth. I found this so beautiful that I could not understand why people in offices and businesses were so cold.




Why can’t we see the same warmth in our offices? Why have we left our good traditions and culture at home? Why are we completely different when we are working?

Why do our smiling faces disappear just when we enter our shops?

From the story above, we can all understand that the good customer care attitudes portrayed by this old woman were natural to her.

I’m sure she has never gone through any formal training on customer care; neither does she read any of the customer care articles in The Newtimes.


But deep inside her, she knows exactly what it takes to touch customers’ emotions. She just understand that being available and nice to customers is a requisite for everyone sustainable business.



Customer service is the set of behaviors undertaken by any person in business during an interaction with customers.

It is simply being able to provide assistance, care, respect, attention to customers. Customer care has always been a competitive advantage even in our traditions as it entails all the little things we do to build excellent rapport with each and every customer.

The word tradition comes from the Latin word traditio which means “to hand down” or “to hand over.” It is a custom that is memorized and passed down from generation to generation.


As Africans, we can be proud of our rich traditions and values on hospitality, caring, loyalty, responsibility, selflessness, solidarity, perseverance, sociability, honesty, courtesy, respect and even on dress code and so many other more.




A Culture defines our behaviors as a person but also as a nation. And these behaviors of today have a lot of impact on our future destiny as a nation.

I once read somewhere that “A people without culture are not a people at all”. Let’s then reinforce our traditional values for our own future and destiny as these cultural
values and attitudes will shape our economic success.



“Watch your thoughts, for they become words, Choose your words, for they become actions. Understand your actions, for they become habits. Study your habits, for they will become your character. Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny” Oliver Wendell Holmes


So no matter the type of business you are into, behave in a manner that your customers become loyal to you. Your own destiny is in your hands and in your words. Let’s decide to go back today to our values and traditions and we will be able to create better emotional relationship with people we deal with.

sandra.idossou@sheiconsulting.com

The author is a customer service consultant working in Rwanda


http://www.sheiconsulting.com/