‘Create Millenial Tailored Goods and Services’

Budding and blue-chip companies have been urged to move along with trending customer service excellence strategies and focus on the millennials in their service delivery.

Speaking to TechnoMag on the sidelines of the Customer service excellence symposium organised by the Contact Centre Association of Zimbabwe, Huawei Sales Director Robert Gonye said corporates should tailor their products and services inline with the needs of these millennials. A millennial is defined as a person reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century.

“Whats key is that companies in Zimbabwe need to move with the fast pace of innovation and this innovation is also bringing some disruptions with it . some of these disruptions have been noticed in how trends are changing. We have seen the growth of fintech instead of brick and mortar.

“So my encouragement and personal opinion to anyone in business is that look we have got a new trend of people. These are the millennials, so anyone born from 1980 up to 2000 and these people are statistically proven to be sharing or spending over $200 billion in the upwards yearly,” he said.

He added that businesses should approach these spendthrifts in a convincing way.

“These touch points can be done through a system called a CRM Customer relationship management system,” said Gonye.

Gonye said companies should regularly update their websites to be relevant to consumers.

“Its pertinent for organisations because they are digital. Their websites need to be interactive because people are going check them out through that and that interactiveness through the website will then mean that a customer feels respect and feels like part of the team.

“Customer experience in itself has to be proactive. Proactive in the same way we receive service. Just when you open a running tap water, you got an expectation of clean water and that’s the same way a service should be given in anticipation that you know me,” he said.

Consumer Council of Zimbabwe executive director Mrs Rose Siyachitema said companies should walk the talk on customer service excellence.

“Most companies because they want to be seen as good companies about handling consumer handling processes then when you get there you find that there is no system. Sometimes its just a person there who is not trained to handle the complaints so consumers go there they bounce they are told to come again.

“They bounce up to a moment that they get tired and they give up. I think rather than just paying lipservice, we have been talking about this a long time actually companies need to take it much more seriously if they are going to be talking about consumer first mindset rather than just being a gimmick or a concept which is not put into practice,” she said.

ICT, Postal and Courier Services Deputy Minister Dr Win Mlambo while officiating the symposium commended the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe and the Insurance and Pensions Commission on protecting the consumers.