Customer Service Delivery In Africa

Customer service management is one of the key pillars of today’s business environment. Businesses operating in sub-Saharan Africa and other frontier markets have begun to embrace the concept of customer service management, with many incorporating the notion into their mission statements – with many forward-thinking companies transitioning from a transactional to a more strategic view of the customer. As customers have evolved and transformed from "passive audiences" to "active players" businesses are moving away from "the old industry model that sees value as created from goods and services to a new model where value is created by experiences". Today, businesses and customers create value through customised, co-produced offerings. This co-creation of value helps firms highlight the customer’s or consumer’s point of view and improve the front-end process of identifying customers’ needs. Given the increasing recognition of the customer as a co-creator of value, perceptions of customer service quality during COVID-19 and afterwards matter to businesses in Africa looking to thrive in a new post-COVID era since customers increasingly face several choices in the bid to access consumer products and services. This book consists of seven chapters beginning with an overview detailing the importance of customer service matters to Africa’s development and ending with a discussion of the future directions for enhanced customer service delivery in Africa. Each chapter in this book includes actual customer service and delivery practices from various countries on the African continent, including Egypt, Ghana, and South Africa, and uncovers the challenges, successes, and potential areas for improvement in delivering quality customer service.

Customer Service Management in Africa: A Strategic and Operational Perspective (978-0-367-14337-4, K410515) "Customer Service is Changing!" The message of 34 authors featured in Customer Service Management in Africa: A Strategic and Operational Perspective is clear: Today’s consumers are no longer ‘passive audiences’ but ‘active players’ that engage with businesses at each stage of product or service design and delivery systems. Consumer demands and expectations are also increasingly being dictated by changing personal preferences, enhanced access to information and expanding digital reality. The customer service principles – strategic and operational – advocated by these authors are universal, but particularly compelling as they apply to Africa’s unique and dynamic operating environment. In recognition of the importance of excellent customer service, this comprehensive and well-timed book provides an essential guide on the increasing role of the customer to business success. This book discusses the management and delivery of customer service under seven broad themes: Customer Service as Shared Value, Customer Service Strategy, Customer Service Systems, Customer Service Style, Customer Service Culture, Customer Service Skills and Customer Experience – Advancing Customer Service in Africa. Central questions posed and addressed include: What is the new definition of customer service management? How should organisations position themselves to create value for customers and stakeholders? How should employees project themselves to align with customer service promises made by their organisations? Overall, this book provides strategic and operational insights into effective customer service management in Africa. The customer service management concepts, roles and practices outlined, particularly as they apply to the African context, make it an important addition to scholars’ or practitioners’ reference works.

Customer Service Essentials is a must-read and a definitive source of information on effective management of customer service in Africa and beyond. Leveraging on unique concepts and practices developed in the field of customer service management, this book uses case studies and vignettes to reinforce learnings, drawing parallels to real life experiences. The book is a valuable resource for individuals and organizations, in the quest to achieve excellent customer service, increased productivity and enhanced employee satisfaction. It explores the practical challenges of customer service in Africa, examines critical success factors and provides guidelines for effective customer engagement in this evolving highly networked digital era. Policy makers, directors, managers and students will gain valuable and actionable insights on service management as they navigate the chapters. Praise for Customer Service Essentials: Lessons for Africa and Beyond "This book captures service excellence by detailing out in a most explicit manner essential services dynamics of Responsiveness, Accessibility, Tangibles, Empathy and Reliability. I highly recommend it!" Esi Elliot Assistant Professor, Marketing Suffolk University, Boston, MA "I am very impressed with this book and excited to see the topics being discussed in the Chapters are geared toward quality customer service in Africa. All the chapters are superbly written, relevant to the African context and above all, the authors cover incredibly interesting topics and support them with pertinent cases. Bringing together such fine minds in the field, this book is useful and a must for anyone serious about customer service, service branding and the need to respect the customer." Charles Blankson Professor of Marketing College of Business University of North Texas "Hinson and colleagues have skillfully put together a useful collection of new perspectives on modern customer service essentials with an African and global perspective. This is a highly recommended text for students and practitioners." Ellis L.C. Osabutey Reader Roehampton University Business School United Kingdom

The dynamics of the world’s pervasive digital technologies is transforming organisations and enabling enterprises to create sustainable competitive advantage. This presents huge economic opportunities for Africa. This book responds to the need for African enterprises and organisations—particularly those in the service sector—to fully exploit the inherent potential in digital platforms by putting in place processes to respond effectively to changing consumer demands. Digital service delivery is conceptualised as a key driver of effective management and service delivery across the value chain of businesses. The authors offer insights into the opportunities, drivers, structures, and models of digital service delivery specific to the African context, using case studies and country-based themes that highlight how the adoption of digital platforms and practices can transform service delivery for value-creation. The book examines the scope and applications of digital businesses, emphasising the emergence, value-creation, and strategic implications for Africa’s private and public enterprises. Students, entrepreneurs, IT innovators, academics, and policymakers will gain a greater understanding of how digitalisation is shaping consumer expectations, industry practices, and service delivery in Africa.

The V-Model of Service Quality offers a powerful tool for measuring service quality. This book grounds the theoretical interventions in data drawn from case studies in the Sub-Saharan African context to make the models applicable to both researchers and working managers.

Customer Service: The Kingpin of Business Success in Africa is a must read as it communicates how the power of customer service can revolutionise business on the African continent. The book uses proverbs and wise sayings to captivate the reader into action. The book captures both the African and Western experience to position the reader as a global player in the world of customer service. The book is a change agent and provides a platform how customer service can transform the African continent. The uniqueness of the book is that it uses both Western and African proverbs to help the reader to gain insight into the African culture. It stresses, motivates and inspires the reader to bring revolution to his or her world of service. You will surely bring transformation to your world after mastering the mysteries buried in this book. Its concepts are simple and easy to follow and drive you into business success.

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2020 in the subject Organisation and administration - Public administration, , language: English, abstract: The main objective of the study was to analyze the quality of public service delivery and to examine the level of customer’s satisfaction in Burayu Town Municipality, Oromia Region. The study was conducted to identify the level of service quality and customers’ satisfaction at the municipality. The total of 412 customers who were the service users of the municipality were selected as a sample size by using Yamane Taro’s sample selection formula as a study subjects. The study used convenience sampling method for sample selection of respondents’ and purposive sampling for interview of Public Service Manager. Open-ended questionnaires, closed ended questionnaires and interview were employed for data collection. Regarding research methodology; the researcher employed explanatory research method with both qualitative and quantitative data type. The analysis conducted using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and presented by using tables, graphs, frequency distribution and percentage. From the study it was found that service quality dimensions were positively related to customer satisfaction; as service quality meets customers’ expectation it leads to customers’ satisfaction. The result indicates that the dimensions of service quality measures were not fully practised by the municipality, which results in low level of service quality and customers’ satisfaction. Municipal officials need to ensure that all tangible attributes related to employee performance create a desirable impact on customer perception of quality. This is important as customer continue to look for tangible cue as a means to reduce perceived service quality and describe their service experience in Burayu town municipality.