Current state of customer service

http://newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14550&article=6127&week=09



By Sandra idossou

During the national retreat in Gisenyi two years ago government decided to seriously tackle the matter of poor service delivery in Rwanda. During that retreat, it was revealed that if service delivery was to improve in Rwanda, it could boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by as much as $40 million per annum by 2012.

President Kagame said that “Customer service remains highly problematic in private, public and civil society domains, something that is most certainly going to preoccupy us in the coming days, months and years.”

Two years down the road, after the various initiatives, can we boldly say that customer service has improved? Can we confirm that service providers treat customers better today? Can we say, for sure, that trainings offered have really impacted on the way people work and treat customers?

Obviously we cannot respond in the affirmative to all the above questions but we can all acknowledge the fact that there is, at least, a great sensitization campaign going on. The questions we rather have to ask ourselves are: Are we doing enough? Have all public and private institutions really embarked on this journey of world class service standards? Below is my personal analysis of the situation.

Importance of the media

Poor level of customer care in Rwanda is attributed to the lack of awareness by most of us. That is why the media has a paramount role in sensitizing the population. Our The New Times, Flash FM, Contact FM, Radio10 and many others need to be applauded for their commitment throughout these last two years.

The New Times, in particular, has dedicated a special column for customer care where different articles ranging from customer service management, human resources, sales and marketing, personal development to motivation are published every Monday.

But really as we want the entire service delivery population to understand the importance of such articles, then of course, more needs to be done. Adding to the articles, there should also be more radio and television shows, reports, sketches, dramas, videos on this topic on all news media in the country.

The role of other organizations

Two years ago, the government nominated a ten-member national steering committee mandated at rolling out a nationwide customer care campaign in both the public and private sectors. Government allocated about Rwf283 million ($500,000) for this two-year national campaign.

It is true that there have been interesting initiatives such as “Gira Ubupfura” campaign, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) Awards, trainings for the hospitality and tourism industry, to the police, the immigration, among others but unfortunately this is not sufficient.

It is for this reason that all private and public organizations should support other initiatives such as the waiter’s race, vocational training centers, The ServiceMag, Radio talk shows, consumers associations, etc that aim at educating and empowering the Rwandan workforce.

Another good initiative that got a lot of positive feedback was The ‘Customer Care Handbook’ that was published eighteen months ago by the Private Sector Federation (PSF). Though this was an excellent educational tool in a simple English and Kinyarwanda version, this project couldn’t unfortunately continue as the author of these handbooks is yet to be paid.

Importance of mindset and positive attitudes

Attitudes and mindset still remain a big challenge for both the private and public sectors. Efforts still need to be done in making the population understand the benefits of treating customers well. Charles Swindoll, a great American preacher said: “We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent of how I react to it.” We are in charge of our Attitudes

Managers have to be exemplary

Rwanda is privileged to have its president at the forefront of the campaign against poor customer service. It is rather unfortunate that some of the top managers, those who are supposed to inspire and motivate their teams, often, do nothing of what they preach. Improving customer service is not only asking employees to smile.

It needs international standards and mechanism, policies, practices and procedures that are service oriented. Top Managers need to be the change they want to see in their subordinates.

It’s everyone’s responsibility

As the cause of poor customer care is basically rooted down to negative attitude towards work and mindset, every single person needs to embark on this campaign. From the family, cell and sector levels, we all need to adopt better behaviors towards one another.

Customer care is an issue that concerns us all; it’s not only a government priority. We should all adopt every day positive attitudes. That is the only way we can improve. Let’s all remember that our attitude as a nation largely depends on our daily individual attitudes.

In conclusion, good service delivery is essential in all economies but, most especially, in Rwanda, that aims at becoming a service-based economy. With the country’s vision 2020, excellent service delivery is a must today; not an option anymore.

The author is a Customer Service Consultant

Contact: sidossou@theservicemag.com

http://newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14543&article=6066&week=08

Monday, February 21, 2011

WEEKLY » Business Times » Change begins with education

Change begins with education

By Sandra idossou

The Akilah Institute of Women at Kibagabaga invited me on Friday to do a presentation to their students who are undertaking their hospitality course.

I was supposed to share my personal experiences as well as insights that could inspire and motivate the seventy young women. But I ended up being myself so much inspired and motivated by their optimism and their quest for knowledge.

During our two-hour discussions, we shared a lot on the importance of passion and the need to go beyond one’s limits and sometimes life circumstances. Here below is a summary of the great inspirations I got from these young women.

Education is paramount for any development

I recently read that “Education serves as the means to bring about the desired change in society, to develop a generation of virtuous individuals and thus contribute to the development of good human beings. The fundamental purpose of education is to gain knowledge, inculcate the forms of proper conduct and acquire technical competency”.

Education no matter the form it takes serves as the means to develop oneself physically, mentally, economically and socially. It is only through education that we can prepare the youth to compete successfully in the knowledge-based economy we are in now.

In other words, if service delivery in Rwanda should improve, it depends, to a large extent, on the effort that is done is offering qualified educational systems to the young generations.

The youth can make the difference

Youth is that phase of life where dreams are built, hope is kindled and a bright future is foreseen. It is at the stage that we discover our potentials and decide to grab the opportunities offered to us in order to pursue success. Youths look up most at times for role models in the society.

Much as it is true that the youth’s value systems are impacted by their interactions with adults, they are also responsible of their personal decision to contribute positively in the society. Young people therefore need to understand that each and every one can make the difference.

Investing in the education of the youth should be considered vital by all.

One of the other interesting moments shared with the students was the interest they had in The ServiceMag. I was simply impressed and motivated by the fact that they knew the content of every single page of the magazine (was later on told that they use the magazine as a teaching material).

The aim of all training is to make people grow. Building capacity in all sectors of our economy is key to the country’s development.

Improving on the Rwanda service culture is an individual responsibility

Another interesting issue we discussed was on the culture. Many people here blame poor service on “culture”. But when I asked one of the students to define culture, she rightly said that is a set of shared attitudes, values, beliefs, goals, and practices that characterizes a group of people or a society.

Based on this definition, we all agreed that because culture was based on habits and practices, it is simply a matter of adopting the right attitudes today. If we all foster new principles and value systems that can help us to begin an “all-new journey” on the path of the “right”’, then we could improve on this “culture”.

It is said that things that are repeatedly done become habits. If we all adopt today and everyday daily positive attitudes, this will have a great impact on our society. Promoting these good values and habits once again requires education and sensitization.

Before we concluded, the students unanimously took the decision to be catalysts of positive social transformation in Rwanda. The hope of the future lies in the Youth. The youth of Rwanda are the trustees of posterity. The future can really be bright if we all dedicate somehow, somewhere, a bit of energy, time, effort, money and resource in supporting all educational programs for the Rwandan youth.

The author is a Customer Service Consultant

Contact: sidossou@theservicemag.com

Our CEO's and Top Managers, too, need good customer service skills

http://newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14536&article=6004&week=07

Monday, February 14, 2011

WEEKLY » Business Times » Top managers, too, need good customer service skills

Top managers, too, need good customer service skills

By Sandra idossou

An unfortunate and rather discouraging negative service experience with one of the big institutions in Rwanda, last week, led us into an online discussion on The ServiceMag forum. It was titled “What should be done when one of the big and most respected institutions has extremely poor customer service?

The number of answers we received was unimaginably thought provoking. One of such answers read “Write to them about the poor service and if nothing is done then expose this in the media.” Then another person wrote: “Do not put this in the media please. It will bring you more problems than you can even imagine.

I will suggest that you use sketch/videos or organize a workshop on that”
The debate is still going on and it is interesting to see how customer service can still generate so much passion from all of us. Vincent’s comment drew my attention as it highlighted a serious concern. He said: “Even those bosses, MD’s and CEO’s have to be trained on customer service.

Who says customer service trainings and sensitisation concern only people at front office: receptionists, waiters, tellers, and the like? This campaign has to go beyond that. Key staffs, especially management has to play their role to make it happen.”

This is a great point. In most parts of the world, Rwanda in particular, many people think that customer service is only about smiling or greeting.

According to Wikipedia, “Customer relationship management (CRM) is a widely-implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organise, automate, and synchronise business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support.”

This definition clearly shows that customer service management goes beyond the interface department. It concerns, to a great extent, procedures, strategies, policies, technology, the translation of the company’s vision and mission into daily actions and attitudes etc.

This, therefore, requires the implication of top managers who also have to be service oriented. Customer service is not destined for certain categories of people or institutions; neither is it targeted only at the retail outlets or the private companies. It concerns every organisation starting from the top management.

Improving service delivery in Rwanda is not just about sending employees to trainings when the top managers themselves do none of the things their employees are thought to do. It is simply not sufficient to tell employees what they should do when the manager does the opposite of what he preaches.

As a top manager or CEO, if you put in place policies, then you need to be the best example of what you want to see from your team members. You should be a model of your expectation.

It is said that good leadership is more than simply getting people to follow you; it’s getting people to follow you doing the right things. And that is why you need to be exemplary. Be punctual, honour your commitments, respond to mails and other correspondences, respect people you deal with, be professional always and all these will escalade down to how your employees treat customers. This might be a heavy responsibility but this is the only way you can drive others forward. Mahatma Gandhi says that “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.

If service delivery should improve in Rwanda, it should start from the top.

The author is a customer service consultant and the Publisher of The ServiceMag.

Contact: sidossou@theservicemag.com