Customer Service

I was at a bank today, one of the nice big ones (the mighty KCB, in fact). Guess what? I was in line for a hole hour and, get this, there were only two people ahead of me in the queue! The lady who was serving us kept disappearing into some back room for long stretches of time. God knows why!

So it got me thinking. Why do banks in Kenya always, always have long queues? And why is it that there is always a counter or two with no teller present? I cannot find a logical reason why “management” would let this happen. Can you? Perhaps it is the same flawed logic that opened up the opportunity for, and led to, the rise and rise of Equity bank. Who knows?

This just goes to show yet again that the average customer in Kenya is maltreated. And not just by banks, by everyone – with Safaricom being the chief and most visible culprit!

If you think about it, you will realise that that the maltreatment of the customer is not just a Kenyan affair, it happens everywhere. Often, the mentality is that customer service is some sort of necessary evil. Why else is customer service often an afterthought? Why else would companies, by the truckloads, be signing up to outsource customer support services (think overseas call center)? Jeez, outsource customer service? Really?

Customer service is not a cost center. Customer service is a profit center. Indeed it is the cheapest form of marketing.

Photo by 23am.com