Jospong Group of Companies has launched Customer Service Month and Blue Heart Campaign to appreciate its customers. The month-long activity is on the theme ‘Delivering Excellent Service; the Key to Sustainable Growth’.
The Group Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Samanjith Udumalaga, speaking on behalf of the Executive Chairman, noted that the customer is key to the successes of the group’s business.
According to him, customer service is a thing of the past and that the new focus is on customer experience. He explained that customer service is usually considered as an after sales service while customer experience is the complete journey a customer takes with a brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase care, etc.
“We need to understand this very important factor and live up to it,” he emphasised.
Quoting the great philosopher, Mahatma Gandhi, when he said: “A customer is the most important visitor in our premises. He is not dependent on us; we are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work, he is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business, he is part of it”, the Managing Director of Zoomlion Private Services, Mr. Edwin Amoako, observed that customer of today is very unforgiving and will switch to the next option when his/her needs are not met.
“Superior customer service is not a choice anymore but a competitive advantage that staff must pursue every day and exhibit it even at the entrance of a landfill site,” he charged the staff.
He told the stuff to think less of how they feel and focus on what will make the customer experience better. He further asked the staff to genuinely care about the needs of the customer and not pay lip services to them.
“Intentionally go above the customer’s concerns and engage beyond the expected to thrill him or her,” he advised.
The CEO of Ghana India Trade Advisory Chamber, Mrs. Ama Amoah, who was the Guest Speaker, also noted that customers have become very sophisticated in their needs, adding that sometimes, staff forget that the world is also evolving.
“Without the customer, you better stay home and wait on God because you can’t be in business without a customer,” she reminded the staff.
She added: “Customers want to see that you have tailored interactions with them and must be a bearer of what you say you are”.
She noted that delighting customers must be a corporate style which has to be very intentional and transformational. This, she said, must be strategically driven and a shared value.
A Customer Experience Management Consultant, Adwoa Asare-Asamoah, emphasised that for Jospong Group to be referred to in the present continuous tense and not in the past tense will mean that the group has to strive to be customer-centric by leveraging insights from both customers and staff.
“The group can occasionally conduct customer satisfaction surveys. Suggestions from staff should also be considered and acted upon,” she recommended.
A marketing expert, Prof. Robert Ebo Hinson, in a brief remark, noted that customer experience is a shared responsibility and not the job of one unit within the group.
Customer Service Week is an international celebration of the importance of customer service and of the people who serve and support customers on a daily basis. However, the Jospong Group has decided to make it a month-long celebration.
