Findings of the inaugural National Customer Satisfaction Index have brought our structural service delivery gaps into sharp, scientific focus.
For years, Malawians have endured deplorable treatment within public institutions and this survey simply provides the empirical data to prove it.
In Malawi, toxic customer care is not exclusive to the public sector. The private sector is equally packed with service providers who treat paying clients like a nuisance. From flat-out ignoring digital complaints to displaying a terrible attitude in physical interactions, the culture is broken.
To commemorate the Customer Service Week, the Chartered Institute of Customer Management (Cicm) hosted a breakfast meeting in Lilongwe last Wednesday where Minister of Industrialisation, Business, Trade and Tourism Simon Itaye rightly warned that administrative inefficiencies and toxic customer relations undermine Malawi’s investment competitiveness.
His concern is backed by grim data. Malawi’s overall customer satisfaction score stands at just 58 percent, below the 63 percent continental benchmark.
The survey, which sampled 4 200 respondents across Malawi’s three regions, exposed a deeply uneven landscape. Local councils propped up the bottom with 38 percent satisfaction rate compared to 75 percent for hotels, 68 percent for commercial banks and 66 percent for mobile money networks.
Worse still, a standard visit to government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) eats up an average of 4.2 hours and 38 percent of complaints remain unresolved after three days, the report showed.
There is an old corporate mantra that customer service is not a department, but an attitude. If an organisation is to survive, everyone from the security guard at the gate to the chief executive officer must buy in. Tossing frustrated clients from one office to another trying to find a basic solution is a sign of operational rot. In a previous column, I argued that while true customer care maximises satisfaction, many Malawian organisations seem to have instead mastered the art of “customer scare” and “customer disservice”.
The depth of our local problem is best highlighted by looking abroad. A marketing colleague some rains ago shared his experience purchasing a vehicle online from Japan. Desiring to check the condition of the car, he called a sales executive, agreed to terms over the phone and received both a professional invoice and a sales agreement in his inbox in under 10 minutes. That is why the Japanese economy thrives. They recognise that international business is a global competition and they treat the customer like royalty.
Contrast that with a local example shared on the exact same thread. A consumer applied for an electricity connection with the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom). He was informed the connection would cost K600 000. Two months down the line, Escom had not even managed to compile a simple paperwork quotation.
So, as Minister Itaye pointed out, this structural sluggishness bleeds real wealth because every investor begins as a customer and any delayed response or misplaced file can cost Malawi a multi-million dollar opportunity before negotiations even begin.
Not all is lost, though as some strides are being made with several MDAs and utility providers such as water boards investing heavily in 24-hour call centres. The recording of these conversations is an excellent step toward internal audit and performance tracking. However, technology alone will not save us. On the other hand, the sudden rush toward automated chatbots has created a highly mechanical, rigid environment. When input scripts are poor, these bots tend to provide answers that completely fail to solve complex human issues because one size does not fit all.
Capital Hill has set an ambitious target of hitting a 63 percent national satisfaction score by next year, climbing to 72 percent by 2029. On the other hand, Cicm Global executive director Rinos Mautsa maintains these goals are entirely achievable if the country embraces this year’s organisational theme ‘The extra mile.’
Mautsa summarised it as a matter of raw commitment. It brings to mind the philosophy of Walmart founder Sam Walton, who famously observed that “there is only one boss, the customer and he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else”.
To cap it all, customer service is not a favour. It must become our national lifestyle in our daily endeavours, not just during the annual Customer Service Week.
Happy Mother’s Day to all Malawian mothers and mother figures, your sacrifices and love are highly appreciated.
