Ghanaians advised to improve on customer service efficiency

Mr Simon K. Avorgah, a Lecturer at the Department of Marketing, Ho Technical University, has advised the citizenry to improve their customer service delivery to increase the development of the nation.

‘‘When anything within the service delivery chain is faulted, it affects us and that is where we are as a nation, we have not improved on our customer service efficiency and nobody cares,’’ he said.

Mr Avorgah who is also the Acting Head of the Department in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said, the nation was lagging behind on customer service delivery due to the lack of understanding of the subject.

He explained that customer service was performing a service with the aim of making the customer happier and delighted about a service being delivered.

The Acting Head said people confused customer care, which was supposed to make customers ‘‘feel at home’, with customer service.

He said after receiving customer care, and service delivery was delayed and was not of the expected standard of the customer, there has not been customer service.

‘‘We are confusing ourselves, we are not defining customer service as against customer care,’’ he said.

The Lecturer said people were only considering the customer care aspect, which was a unit of customer service, such as the smiles that they received from service providers, however, the service to be delivered was delayed.

He underscored the need for the citizenry to redefine customer service in a practical manner to get the best out of service delivery.

Mr Avorgah noted that some online marketers did not put prices on their items due to the change of prices that could occur at any time since it was a virtual market.

However, he said some of them would want to take advantage of their customers, which was unethical.

The Lecturer urged online marketers to have customer relations management to build relationships with their clients.

He called for their effective communication with their customers about change of price and provide  information to ensure customer satisfaction.

Mr Avorgah advised management of institutions, public services, businesses, among others, to ensure that service mechanisms were working effectively.

‘‘Services are poor, systems are shut down at any point in time and nobody cares, that is where we are all failing as Ghanaians from the highest point of leadership and corporate Ghana to the lowest point,’’ he noted.

In other countries, the Lecturer said, customer activist groups would raise issues about some of the issues and such companies would lose customers.

The Ghana Customer Service Index report ranked the Public Sector last in customer services in 2021 with 60.3 per cent.

The Hospitality Sector was the best ranked sector in customer services in the country, with a score of 73.16 per cent, a marginal decline from 2020.

The Ghana Customer Sector Index is a yearly report which provides an insight into the state of customer service in Ghana.

Source: GNA