Prioritize employees’ needs to engender good customer service experience- ICSP boss told businesses

The President of the Institute of Customer Service Professionals (ICSP), Yvonne Ohui MacCarthy says the success of any good customer service experience depends on how far owners and leaders of businesses, organizations and service providers can go in meeting the needs of their employees so they can be better positioned to deliver to meet the set objectives of their ventures.

She has therefore charged them to always endeavor to help prioritize the needs of their employees and ensure their physical and mental being are well taken care of in order to be properly positioned to deliver to meet the organizations objectives.

“The realization now is, it’s your employee that would go in to make the customer happy, so if your employee is happy, your customer will be happy so if your insides are not well, your outsides would definitely not be well”.

She made this observation in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the outdooring event of the 2021 Ghana Customer Service report on Thursday January 27, 2022 at the plush auditorium of Erata Hotel near Oponglo in Accra.

The colorful ceremony, an initiative of the Institute of Customer Service Professionals brought together various representatives of Ghanaian businesses, organizations and service sector players, including business models, brand ambassadors and members of the general public.

The GCSI 2021 rankings of the online business sector revealed that the online platform Jumia was the best in customer service, with a percentile score of 90.39%. This was followed by Jiji.com, with a percentile score of 47.29%, and Alibaba.com with a percentile score of 46.62%.

For the retail sector, with a sample size of 244, results indicate that Melcom maintained its first position from last year with a percentile score of 68.57%, whilst Accra Mall displaced West Hills Mall to take second place with a percentile score of 52.75%. The A&C Mall followed at third place with 28.00% whilst West Hills Malls was fourth place with 23.96%.

With a sample size of 378, MTN replaced Vodafone as the best in Customer Service in 2021 with a percentile score of 78.93%, whilst Vodafone moved to second place with a percentile score of 32.14%, and AirtelTigo third place with 17.26%.

Under the transport sector Bolt maintained its position as the best ride hailing business under the transport sector for the second consecutive year with a percentile score of 55.27%, though lower compared to last year’s score of 75.64%. Yango moved from third place last year to second place with a percentile score of 35.07%, whilst Accra Cab took the third place with a percentile score of 18.20%, and Uber fourth place with 17.50%. The new ride hailing service, Shaxi, was 6th place with 5% percentile score.

The Utilities sector, with a sample size of 530, had the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), as the best in customer service with a percentile score of 61.44%, displacing the Ghana Water Company which had a score of 65% last year, but a score of 59% in the 2021 edition, Zoomlion Ghana Limited was third, with a percentile score of 31% among others.

According to the report, the average mean score performance for each company indicates the company-level performance of the index. The mean average for all companies within each sector indicates the sector-level performance of the index.

The Ghana Customer Service is the mean average of the sector level performances. As shown above, the GCSI 2021 (average mean score of all sectors) is 66.26%.

According to the ICSP, In terms of an academic grading system, this translates to a C+ grade. Though slightly lower than previous year, Ghana maintained its C+ rating for customer service experience, with the top 40 performers in the 10 sectors being Accra City Hotel, Melcom, MTN, Agricultural Development Bank, Bolt, Electricity Company of Ghana, Enterprise Insurance, 37 Military Hospital, and Jumia. Melcom, Bolt, and 37 Military Hospital were the only organizations to maintain their first position from last year.

The hospitality industry ranked first in customer satisfaction, achieving a sector average of 73.16%, with the Accra City Hotel overtaking Labadi Beach Hotel as the best in customer service in 2021.

The hospitality sector maintained its position as the best in customer service in both 2020 and 2021.

The next most important sector in terms of customer satisfaction is the Retail Malls, with a sector average of 72.09%, with Melcom maintaining its position as the best in Customer Service for 2020/2021, scoring an average of 68.57%. The third best sector in customer service is the Telecommunications sector, with MTN overtaking Vodafone with a percentile score of 78.93%, a 23-point increase from last year. The fourth best sector for customer service was the 41 banking sector, with the Agricultural Development Bank overtaking Access Bank with a percentile score of 48.63 %, a 34-point increase from its performance last year.

The Transport sector specifically, the ride hailing service, maintained its position as the 5 th best in customer service, from the previous year, with a percentile score of 66.43%, with Bolt once again the best ride hailing service for 2020 and 2021, obtaining a percentile score of 55.27.

The 6th most important sector in terms of customer service is the Utilities sector, which improved its position from the 10th last year, with a percentile score of 66.12%. At the company level, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is the best in customer service, obtaining a percentile score of 61.44%, an 8-point jump from the previous year.

With a sample size of 213, the Insurance sector was the 7th best sector in customer service, with a percentile score of 64.39%, and led by Enterprise Insurance, which moved 14 places up as the best in customer service for the year 2021.

The 8th most important sector for customer service is the Healthcare centre. (64.16%), with the 37 Military Hospital maintaining its first position as the best in customer service for 2020 and 2021, with a percentile score of 47.18%.

With a sample size of 255, the Online Business (E-Commerce) sector was the 9th best sector for customer service, scoring 62.53%, and led by Jumia, which moved 37 places up to overtake Kikuu as the best in customer service. With a sample size of 323, the public sector was the last in terms of sector rankings, with a percentile score of 60.3%. However, the best performing organization within the sector was the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), moving 27 points up to first place, with a percentile score of 77.76%.

The Ghana Customer Service Index (GCSI) is an independent, national benchmark of customer satisfaction involving 10 sectors and that is published annually since 2018.

According to Yvonne Ohui MacCarthy, the ICSP’s President, similarly like the previous years, the 2021 edition of the index set out to uncover a deep understanding of customer motivations and their evolving needs in terms of the relative importance of ten (10) customer experience measures namely Trust, Look & Feel, Competence, Professionalism, Ease of Doing, Business, Processes and Procedures and Customer – Focused Innovations. The rest are Engagements with Customers, Complaints and Feedback as well as Coronavirus Preparedness.

“It is pivotal that the focus on service is maintained to help organizations improve their customer experience even in this uncertain environment. Organizations need to proactively manage and maintain customer relationships and communications as that will be key to customer satisfaction and business performance”, Yvonne posited.

The GCSI provides a fact finding and data collecting platform that allows the Institute of Customer Service Professionals to run surveys, analyze and predict consumer service behavior of customers and organizations. The Index also enables the Institute to give valuable information and support to organizations.

The GCSI 2021 report has for the fourth consecutive year showed the importance of customer service especially in the era of the covid-19 pandemic.

Source: Joseph Wemakor|Ghana24.org

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