Businesses fail customer test: study

A MAJORITY of businesses in Zimbabwe are not performing well partly because of failure to meet their customer needs, latest research findings show.

Delayed response to customer queries and failure to manage long queues are the top factors that frustrate customers in the country.

The Chartered Institute of Customers Management (CICM) in partnership with Select Research (SR) conducted the study whose findings were revealed at a business gathering in Bulawayo on Friday. The Contact Centre Association of Zimbabwe (CCAZ) hosted the meeting at a city hotel under the theme: “Maximise business through customer service”.

Presenting the 2018 National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI, data analyst, Mr Peter Ndaramu, said this year’s overall index of 63,7 percent was a poor benchmark as the expected minimum must be over 70 percent.

“The overall index according to the NCIS is 63,7 percent and this is a low percentage in comparison to our neighbouring country (South Africa), which is over 70 percent, the latter being the general expected percentage,” he said.

The index is a national indicator on how companies are performing in terms of customer satisfaction at industry sector level. It is based on modelling of customer evaluations of the quality of goods and services purchased in Zimbabwe.

Mr Ndaramu also said the overall index this year had dropped from the one recorded last year, which was 73.5 percent. He, however, attributed the decrease to the increase in sectors that were researched on this year. The research covered 15 sectors that include the aviation sector, banks, customer service, energy, food outlets and hospitals to mention but a few. The sample involved over 3 000 people both male and female over 18 years of age from urban and rural areas with a bias towards the urban.

According to the research, the highest ranking sector was the food sector with an overall index of 68,6 percent while the lowest ranking were Government agencies, mainly parastatals who settled for 52,3 percent. The research concluded that the low overall index was a result of widespread customer complaints that are not being dealt with. Management of customer queues appears to be a major challenge in most organisations and customers are failing to be brand ambassadors of the brands that they use, says the report.

Mr Benson Mukandiwa, a Chartered manager and member of the Chartered Management, said business people should be wary of social media and quickly respond to their customer queries on the online platforms.

“Unlike old times customers no longer pick up the phone to call an organisation if they are not satisfied with their services but rather splash it on social media platforms where the whole world can see and comment,” he said.

“Since social media has become so fundamental in the communication process organisations should pay particular attention to their customers’ needs and address them”

Mr Mukandiwa also said that customer base grows if an organisation does not only assist their customers but also their competitors’ customers. — @queentauruszw