Companies and institutions within government and private sector must invest in technology to enhance customer experience, the Institute of Customer Experience (ICX) has said.
Entities should also set aside adequate budgets to train and equip those dealing directly with customers to improve service delivery, in the wake of changing markets trends and customer expectations.
Speaking in Nairobi during the 2019 Customer Service Week gala dinner, ICX board member Loise Mboo said: “Technology is here with us. If we don’t invest in technology, we will fail to meet our customers’ expectations. Our customers of today and those coming are people who are technology driven.”
The institution has commended government’s eCitizen platform and the one-stop-shop Huduma Centres across the country for bringing services closer to the public.
“That is a perfect initiative of customer experience where you have incorporated technology, customer needs and brought them to their doorstep,” Mboo said.
The online eCitizen platform and Huduma Centres offer all government services with the online platform enabling the public to pay, process and get relevant government documents.
She said investing in technology will also help address corruption both in public and private sector, by reducing human intervention in getting services.
“You can never eradicate people involvement in customer experience but investing in technology will help increase efficiency,” she said.
“We must also set budgets for training to ensure those handling customer experience understand what the customer wants. It’s beyond the product, we must have systems and structures that work. We are talking about capacity building for the people involved directly with the customers.”
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.
It is celebrated during the first full week of October with October 2, being marked as the customer experience day.
