AT A CROSSROADS: Let us be customer-centric to offer well-deserving services

For those who use public transportation, sometimes you meet the crew that is very polite and customer friendly. Other time you meet those who are very rude, and with no manners to talk home about.

Sometimes you may be driving, and so at one time or the other you may visit a petrol station, and you may meet an attendant who might be extremely rude!

Sometimes you may visit a hotel, and you are kept waiting for service for half an hour or more, and when the waiter comes over, there are no apologies. Then you finish up your business… for example, after eating, you have to waste more time, looking for the waiter who served you so that you can pay. Then there is no change. You waste another 20 minutes or more, and you are expected to understand without even an apology.

In some other cases, one can visit a private or a public office to seek certain services and get frustrated, because the service is not the best. I am giving out the above examples, because there are many times that we forget that, it is the customers, those that we serve, which in colloquial Swahili, we say, “ndio wanatuweka mjini,” that is, they are the ones who keep us in town”.

I cannot be a teacher if there are no students to teach. It is only imperative that I must honour my students who are my clients by treating them with dignity and decorum. In as much as they need education, so I also need them for my career and self-actualisation. What is a class without students? What is a class without a teacher? It does not add up. So a class to be “complete” even a class under the mango tree, two parties must be available – the students and the teacher/s.

Because the students are my clients I must strive to establish a positive relationship with them. For the children, it is even more paramount to have a positive relationship so that the young ones can feel safe and comfortable in the classroom! All this is about customer care! It does not matter your sector, good customer care is a necessity for success.

Ask people in competitive businesses. One of the major determinant factors for success or failure is customer related issues. A business without customers is dead before it starts off!

I remember a friend who had a business in a very strategic area with the huge inflow of people, but never used to get return customers like her neighbours! After some talks, it was clear that she was the root cause of her problems! She was not customer friendly! She knew nothing about providing superior customer services to her clients! After she changed her behaviour by becoming more friendly, more polite to customers, started using words like welcome again, etc, things started changing for the better.

For those in public service, every institution has a customer-centric charter on offering services to the public. It is important to honour the commitments to offer great services to the people, respectively and within a reasonable time.

As a nation, in all sectors, we need to be able to deliver the best quality services as we move to become industrialised. A customer who has paid for goods being manufactured in Tanzania, and s/he is in another country, needs to get those goods in time.

We have our precious agriculture that can feed Africa, we have our minerals, world-class tourist attractions, but to capitalize on all that, we also need to develop world-class service delivery. It starts from where each one of us is based. The best customer service you provide, it’s one of the great assurance of maintaining and attracting more customers, and so your success.

Saumu Jumanne is an Assistant Lecturer, Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE)