#IncludeEveryone: 5 Brands Nominated for #DIAA2019 Best Digital Customer Experience in Financial Services, Telecom and IT Sectors

Customer Service was a very popular phrase a few years ago. However, it has since been frozen out and replaced by Customer Experience (CX).

Business Dictionary (www.businessdictionary.com ) defines Customer Experience as entirety of the interactions a customer has with a company and its products. “Understanding the customer experience is an integral part of customer relationship management. The overall experience reflects how the customer feels about the company and its offerings. Surveys, feedback forms and other data collection techniques help a company to determine the customer experience.”

Put differently, Customer Experience is a client’s journey with a brand or product or service with Customer Support being part of this journey.

Further; according to www.hotjar.com , the 6 things that cause bad customer experience are Long wait/response time, employees who don’t understand customers’ needs, unanswered/unresolved issues & questions, too much automation/ not enough human touch, nothing ( customers just love the brands), services that are not personalized and rude/angry employees.

Now that we know what customer experience is and what causes bad customer experience; we can comfortably give a verdict on which brand is offering the best digital customer experience in Uganda.

The #DIAA2019 Best Digital Customer Experience in Financial Services, Telecom and IT Sectors are Airtel, Centenary Bank, MTN Uganda, Stanbic Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

As part of collecting data for this review, our team took time and tested the different digital customer experience channels that these nominees are using.

Firstly, all the nominees have reliable telephony, text and social media platforms for supporting their customers. Of course the toll free lines are sometimes congested and not accessible but in principle they eventually go through.

Secondly, on Social Media (Facebook and Twitter), they all respond to queries raised and questions asked. The only difference is on how long it takes each of these brands to respond. To analyse this, our team sent out questions to the different nominees at the same time with a difference of less than 2 minutes.

The first brand responded with 1 one minute but unfortunately with an automated message noting that they only work between 7am and 11pm every day, so they would only respond the following morning when they are back in office.

The first human response came through with in 10 minutes with the customer support person of this brand resolving the issue – answering the questions that had been asked.

Another came through after about 70 minutes, 5 hours and the last response after some 12 hours. Meanwhile, the one that sent the automated response within 1 minute was consistent with the 7am communication as a detailed human response was shared a few minutes past 7am.

These brands have also introduced self-service/ self-help tools that help customers resolve certain issues directly.

In all, even though there is still massive room for improvement, these 5 brands are doing well on matters Customer Experience. Whoever wins will be one whose customers appreciate the service they are receiving and are willing to go out and testify the same, in this case through voting.

The overall winner for Best Digital Customer Experience will be determined by a Jury/Research Panel assessment and public survey/vote.

Under the theme #IncludeEveryone, Digital Impact Awards Africa is a platform that promotes Digital Inclusion, Financial Inclusion and Cybersecurity. Precisely; the Awards seek to recognize, celebrate and appreciate different individuals and organizations that are spearheading the use of digital mediums to better serve their communities.

HiPipo looks forward to host all the nominees and other players come 20th September 2019 at Kampala Mestil Hotel. Contact the #DIAA2019 team to book your attendance package Standard ($1,595) for awards attendance Or Corporate ($3,450), Corporate Branded ($5,200) that will give you access to Include Everyone – Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Panel discussions with Digital Leaders.