Top 7 Customer Service factors in Africa

Today’s customers are active players in any business, unlike traditional times when clients used to play a passive role. Earlier customers were less demanding and not that educated about their options and rights. However, now the paradigm shift is witnessed in the customer service industry. In countries like Africa, in which investors are investing to build new infrastructure, technologies, services, etc. customers have become more demanding. Demands and expectations of clients in African regions like Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Kenya, etc. have the highest number of consumers. Thus, businesses based in Africa and other countries that are investing in African regions must invest in learning about major customer service factors. 

In different customers, the factors that affect customer service would be different. Therefore, to design a winning customer service strategy, it is a must to explore the top influencing factors for a specific country. 

What is customer service?

According to the report shared by Forbes, 96% of customers are likely to repeat purchases from the same brand if they receive a good customer experience. This shows the importance of customer service. 

In African countries where the market is growing, understanding the factors of customer service is very crucial. Even if many markets are unfolding, customers are very well aware of their rights to receive a positive customer experience. 

7 Major factors that influence customer service

1. Trust

One of the major factors of customer service that can help in retaining clients and their investment in your business is trust. In Africa, trust is still the number one factor to do business. If your customers trust your business and customer services, then they are likely to keep patience until your team resolves their concerns. Thus, it is necessary to build a trust relationship with your clients.

One of the ways to build and retain a trustworthy relationship with your clients is to maintain transparency in your business with your clients. This can give the required understanding of processes, the possible time it may take, and the expectations your customers can have from your business. This can keep their trust intact in your business and customer service and it can be one of the top customer service factors you must invest in.

2. Proactive services

Proactive nature is one of the factors that affect customer service and its effectiveness. A majority of customer service centers in Africa focus on first contact resolution and that is what your customers expect from you. Thus, it is worth investing in your software, team, etc. to make the whole process of delivering customer services proactive.

3. Empathy

When clients contact a customer service center, they are agitated or frustrated because something is not working as per their expectations. This makes it vital to be empathetic to them. Being empathetic to clients is one of the major customer service factors in Africa to cultivate. A majority of agents focus on giving the solution to clients on an immediate basis. However, it is necessary to be an active listener and keep patience to show empathy to clients for their situation. The right training and experience can help you work on this one of the factors that influence customer service and delight your clients.

4. Consistency

Unified experience delivery is one of the major factors that affect customer service in a positive manner. Consistency in services, growth, customer experience delivery, etc. can impact your other customer service factors, too. Therefore, it is necessary to be consistent with your efforts of delivering excellent customer service to African customers. Defining clear processes, using the right tools and team, and giving ongoing training can help in adding consistency to your services. 

If you are using multiple communication channels to deliver customer services, you must use an omnichannel contact center solution to keep the whole process consistent across all touchpoints. This software gives integrated solutions to agents, so they can have a complete view of all customer interactions and deliver consistent services across all communication channels. 

5. Autonomy

It is also one of the important factors that influence customer service in Africa. African people are quite tech-savvy and they know how to use technology tools like an IVR to use self serving features. In Africa, businesses and end users often stay occupied with multiple personal and professional responsibilities, which makes it difficult for them to have too much time to wait for agents to respond. Thus, if a customer service center can add the required autonomy, then it can meet customer expectations. Whether you add it or not, it is definitely one of the major factors that influence customer service and its effectiveness. Customers definitely love this option as they don’t need to stay on hold. Moreover, they also don’t need to interact with agents who might be quite formal in the whole process as per the standards to be followed.

In addition to delighting clients that prefer autonomy options, it can also help other factors of customer service that influence quality standards of services. For example, self serving options will reduce the workload on agents as they will have some customers removed from the call queues getting autonomy options. This will help agents cater to other clients quicker and with less pressure so it is a better factor. Thus, it is necessary to consider the list of top customer service factors.

6. Expertise

Nothing can be achieved in any country in terms of customer service if you don’t have expertise in what you are offering. No matter what product you offer or what service you have to cater to clients, you must know that inside out. Likewise, your agents also must have knowledge of what they are offering support for. They must also know how to efficiently use the tools they are using to deliver customer services. Therefore, expertise is one of the factors that affect customer service negatively or positively. 

7. Timeliness

This is also on the list of major factors of customer service because your expertise, proactive and empathetic nature, consistency, and other factors that influence customer service will fail if you do not provide services and resolution on time to your customers in Africa. This is necessary to have a timeline and even deadline to resolve any customer query to enhance customer experience and retain clients. Using the right software, alerts and notifications can also be sent to supervisors if agents fail to deliver resolutions as per the predefined timeline. This can really meet the expectations of your clients and clutch them with your business.

Conclusion

Customer service is an unavoidable part of any business because competition is way too high and fierce in the African market. The opportunities are increasing and so does competition. Defining the right customer care strategy to meet customer expectations and demands to survive and grow in African regions like Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, etc. is necessary. 

There are multiple customer service factors that improve customer satisfaction rates to bring in several benefits related to delighted clients. We have shared the top 7 factors that directly or indirectly affect and influence customer service results and standards and each of them must be involved. 

We offer a feature rich call center solution that can help in working on major factors to help you improve your customer service outcomes. For more details, get in touch with us NOW!