MAJOR CUSTOMER CARE CAMPAIGN IN PIPELINE

http://newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14024&article=4924

Sunday, 20th September 2009

Major customer care campaign in pipeline

RDB Deputy CEO, Clare Akamanzi

BY TONY BARIGYE

The much anticipated national customer care campaign strategy though delayed is still in the pipeline.

This was revealed by Clare Akamanzi, the deputy CEO of Rwanda Development Board [RDB] service and operations.

“The pre-customer care campaign was supposed to run from April to September but we are extending it until we get a firm to carry out the campaign,” she said.

She disclosed that previously, Rwanda Public Procurement Authority [RPPA] responsible for finding a suitable firm failed to find one in the first attempt and had to re-advertise.“We didn’t get qualified personnel and we are repeating the process,” she said.

She said that the pre- customer care campaign would continue until a qualified company to implement the major customer care strategy was identified.

Amin Gafaranga , the coordinator of the customer care campaign in RDB said that the pre-customer care campaign is ongoing.

“We have finished part one. The most recent activities were done during the 2009 Expo where 200 exhibitors were trained on customer care.

The first customer care handbook was launched in Kinyarwanda and English. There has also been a sensitizing campaign and a road show,” he said.

Akamanzi said the pre-campaign has so far been carried out in various parts of the country.

“We have reached the police, southern and Northern provinces but we are yet to reach the East and West. We also hope to do a campaign in universities across the nation.”

At the start of this year, a 9-member steering committee was unveiled with the six months pre-campaign followed by a two-year major customer care campaign.

The latter, was immediately followed by an On The Frontier survey that disclosed that the state of customer care in Rwanda was the poorest among all East African states.

Akamanzi said that the pre campaign had yielded results because people were beginning to respond positively.

“We are having impact on the multitudes because close to 10 companies have come to us saying that they want to include customer care training in their programmes,” she said.