About two years ago, it was common to go to a restaurant, sit and wait for up to 30 minutes without anyone attending to you. Sometimes nobody bothered to serve you, while some workers would ignore poor-looking clients.

To put it bluntly, service providers never cared about their clients, and were conducting business as if they were forced to do it against their will. There was no customer care/service to write home about.

This state of affairs affected the performance of most public and private organisations, especially those in the services industry like banks and the hospitality sector, according to experts.

But with Rwanda looking to be a service-led economy, government could not sit back quietly any longer.

By this time, Rwanda had lost millions of dollars year-on-year due to poor customer service.

As a result, the government, through the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), set up a customer care division to enable workers in the public and private sectors improve the quality of service they were offering their clients.

Subsequently, RDB launched the Na Yombi customer care campaign in March 2012, to sensitise service providers on the importance of delivering quality service. The drive included training employees, media campaigns, introduction of toll free lines for customers to call in and complain, in case of poor service. In 2013, RDB launched Noza Serivisi, a taskforce with an aim of examining barriers to good service delivery in public offices and organisations.

Two years down the road, one would say the initiatives have led to tremendous improvement in customer service, which expert say has boosted the services sector growth over the period.

"There has been a lot of improvement in customer service, especially in public sector institutions like Rwanda Revenue Authority and the Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration,” said Sandra Idossou, publisher of The ServiceMag, a quarterly magazine which conducts annual customer service satisfaction surveys.

The improvement in the public sector has been widely applauded by service sector critics, with many taking to Twitter to express their satisfaction on the quick service they get in government offices.

However, according to The ServiceMag survey of 2014, district local governments were rated the worst in customer service by respondents.

The private sector, which is expected to lead the way, still needs to up its game.

Laetitia Umwali, in charge of communications, customer care division at RDB, noted that in their last survey, Rwanda’s private sector was lagging in terms of quality service delivery compared to other private sectors in other East African Community, while the public sector was ranked top in service delivery.

"The problem is that some people in the private sector don’t know that good service has a direct impact on their business. If they could see a negative impact on their business, then they could improve. But in the public sector, people have targets to fulfill which makes them work harder,” she explained in an interview with Business Times.

Civil servants are compelled to work hard to meet targets, commonly known as imihigo in Kinyarwanda. The government is in the process of implementing recommendations from the Noza Serivisi taskforce, which sought to remove barriers in public service delivery.

Umwali said a similar taskforce had been set up to find strategies of improving service delivery in the private sector.

Experts say private firms need to realise that it is through efficient service delivery that they attain sales targets.

"Previously, Rwandans could accept any service, whether it was good or bad, but now at least people understand that it is their right to get good service. They know good service and will complain about poor service,” noted Umwali.

Firms have been encouraged to train their staff on offering good customer care, set up social media accounts to engage with clients, open up customer call centre services and speed up service delivery.

Soji Emiola, the managing director of Sonarwa General Insurance Company, said the firm set up a customer care unit last year and trained staff on customer care to improve service delivery and ensure customer satisfaction.

Sonarwa is one of the many companies in Rwanda which have realised that as a result of stiff market competition, customers today prefer buying from an entity which provides the best service and in a timely manner.

In fact, efficient customer service is fast becoming a key component of most firms’ competitive strategies. Organisations have also been literally kept on the toes as more people now have unrestricted avenues to air out their views, thanks to social media.

Most organisations have been forced to up the game because they are aware that they can be ‘named and shamed’ if they provide sub-standard service. No firm needs to be trending on social media or radio stations for failing to hit the bar as far as providing good service is concerned.

Despite the remarkable success achieved thus far, we cannot be complacent. The journey has just started and more needs to be done sustainably to create the kind of environment that make clients feel at home wherever they come for services.

Customers’ views on customer care

Claude Ishimwe, sportsman

There is a big change in customer care services. For instance, the phone numbers companies provide to reach out to customer care service providers are accessible almost all the time hence Rwanda is on a positive trend to achieve customer care in all sectors.

Hakim Kabala, teacher

The Education sector has had tremendous improvement as far as customer care is concerned. These days you can almost access all programme details through an online system. Students and parents can access more information without going through the hurdles and hustles.

Magnificat Ge’lase Ze’non, student

I think organisation in Rwanda have improved customer care service. The banking sector, for example, has tried to ensure that clients access the banking halls with ease. Besides that, sometimes they send text messages alerting customers to pick cheque books or ATM cards.

Ribendi Kamanzi, Kigali resident

Banks and telecom companies have done well on the issue of customer care compared to other sectors. For example, firms respond quickly to customer complaints or grievances compared to a few years ago.