Profits at the expense of Customer Service Delivery?
Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot

Accra, Feb 9, Ghanadot - A school of thought may argue in the affirmative as a response to the above. If that response is anything to go by, then why have some Ghanaian businesses relegated the customer to the periphery in the attempt to pursue abnormal profits?

 

It has been reiterated that businesses that lack mutual trust with client base or the customer are bound for failure.

Are businesses or firms in Ghana simply not in tune with modern trends in marketing and service provision or oblivious of customer service needs?

Nobody is arguing that profit maximisation is a customer disincentive. After all, companies or businesses have to make some profit to exist. The worry stems from the total disregard for value addition and the lack of solid relationship with their customers that can be found in many businesses.

In a small market of strong competitive forces such as found in Ghana, one would have thought that businesses would hold the customer in high regard. But some do not.

It is against this background that this piece is written to find out why some companies in the telecom area of business do not match their performances, in relation to customer service, to the service they deliver in Ghana.

Let us begin with the telecommunications industry. Ghana has five vibrant telecom companies, namely MTN, Tigo, Kasapa, Ghana Telecom and Zain Communications Ghana, all of which are providing mobile and fixed line services to Ghanaians.

 

According to many customers that Ghanadot has spoken to, many of these companies are not providing the quality of service they promote in their service brochures.

Services provided are mostly not worth the value of customer's money. It is irritating to be told at the end of the line that "the mobile equipment is either switched off or out of coverage area" when in reality the network is flooded with calls and, therefore, is unable to pass through the call.  this is often the case with the mobile phone service.

 

Customers pay so much for the mobile phone usage but the rate of return, in terms of minutes used and customer satisfaction, is nothing to write home about.

The dispenser of so much customer dissatisfaction within the telecom industry, is Ghana Telecom, which provides mobile telephony, fixed line and internet services for Ghana and was recently acquired by the Vodafone PLC, a British telecommunications giant.

 

There is so much complaints about Ghana GT services.  Customers like Ghanadot, the publisher of this site, can attest to shoddy internet service provision - frequent disconnections, snail pace download speed which is far lower than what is to be expected and sold under the broadband designation.

One would have expected that with the coming of  Vodafone PLC, services; the broad band service, especially, would have been improved, but there is the perception out there that that is not the case.

 

There is also the belief by some that customers are switching service from the GT brand to other broadband service providers assumed to be more trouble free.

Some customers complained that activities of personnel of the Ghana Telecom Broad Band Care 4-U Centre at Accra North leave much to be desired for a company which has been trumpeted as the best telecom service provider in the country.

A customer has revealed that the centre, after installation and advance fee payment, would assure customers that they would be connected to the internet within a matter of two weeks. 

The experience is different.  The waiting period experienced by many, including Ghanadot, exceeded the two weeks.

 

"I don't know why they keep giving two weeks when they can't honour it", said the business manager at Ghanadot.

There is a deep suspicion among those who are technically savvy that the expertise of the GT broadband center is not at par with the task; hence so much dissatisfaction with the service.

 

"I think they don't know what they are adoing and need to be directed immediately.  It is really a shame on the part of a big company like this", a customer told this writer while on a visit to the centre.

With such negative responses from customers, how is GT making money?  It seems that the customer is so much abused in Ghana to the extent that it has become oblivious of its own power in the market place.

It has led these big service providers to forget the all important customer in their ongoing business plans.  This arrangement must give way to one in which the customer is integrated into the general plan of the business.

 Without the presence of the customer at a firm's premise, you have no business. Service like a smile behind the counter, will help on solidify the company's profile as a service provider.  And the smile, or lack of it, at the service counter could eventually determine whether customers would pass on the good word, or negative ones to friends and relatives.  In the end, the company will be either the looser or winner of this aspect of client relationship.

Ghanadot