Accra, Ghana//-The Institute of Customer Service Professionals (ICSP), an Accra-based independent institute dedicated to training and providing holistic and specialised customer service solutions and strategies for individuals and organisations in Ghana and West Africa has revealed that customer service delivery improved marginally in Ghana last year.
In its latest report-Ghana Customer Service Index (GCSI) 2022, it said the country scored 69.37% (C+) compared to 2021, 66.26% (C+), and 2020 65.37% (C).
Speaking at the report launch in Accra on Thursday, January 26, 2023, the President of ICSP, Ms Yvonne Ohui McCarthy attributed the marginal improvement to some organisations improving in their overall scores and their performance.
However, these organisations which maintained their positions in the index are-37 Military Hospital and Enterprise Life.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and Melcom, a leading conglomerate of departmental shops, maintain consistency in their scores, according to her.
Ms McCarthy noted that during the year under review, the hospitality sector which is among the 11 sectors featured in the report has dropped in both score and rank.
While the public sector has improved greatly both in their total score and ranking. They have moved from last to 6th and the sector leader for this year (e-commerce) was last but one for last year.
The general trend that has been observed year-on-year, is that higher income earners are difficult to please, she said.
Sectors
The GSCI, a yearly survey and analytic publication of customer service performance, currently has 11 sectors namely, Banking, Utilities, Telecommunications, Hospitality, Insurance, Healthcare, Retail Malls, Public Institutions, E-Commerce, Transportation and Petroleum.
E-Commerce emerged as the sector with the best customer service delivery of 85.01%. The Transportation (Ride Hailing) and E-commerce sectors are still the most digitised sectors in the 2022 survey, the report noted.
It was quick to notice that interactions involving mobile apps appear to be on the rise. The survey revealed that as income increases, respondents prefer excellent service, even if it costs more. The banking sector has the highest concentration of both digital and traditional channels of interaction
Utilities and Petroleum sectors have the highest concentration of traditional channels of interaction.
Employees who work in Customer Service (Frontline staff) appeared to be valued more than before, after the pandemic, for 2022 respondents say they don’t have any change of feeling towards customer service staff.
Parameters
The GSCI spanned 10 parameters: Trust, Look & Feel, Competence, Professionalism, Ease of Doing Business, Processes and Procedures, Customer-Focused Innovations, Engagement with Customers, Complaints and Feedback, and Coronavirus Preparedness.
“Trust is the most important customer experience measure for respondents in most of the sectors”, Ms McCarthy who is also the board chair of the West African Association of Customer Service Professionals (WAACSP) indicated.
The GCSI, which Ms McCarthy explained, is a customer satisfaction measure aimed at enabling organisations to benchmark their own customer satisfaction with firms in other industries.
Coverage
The survey conducted in the 16 regions of Ghana with over 1,000 responses obtained from individuals who have had customer experience with companies within the various sectors, seeks to establish a link between customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Predictions
The GCSI 2022 being the fifth edition predicted that Ghana is going to see growth in proactive customer service. It also added that artificial intelligence (AI) would be used to make people more effective and efficient in the customer service space.
Recommendations
Ms MacCarthy who led her team to produce the report recommended the development of a Quality First Culture in the country.
She also called for the use of the inside out approach (care about your internal customers) and rather focus on being human centric and not customer centric.
