KIGALI - THE Institute of Policy and Analysis and Research (IPAR) Thursday evening launched a report on the root causes of poor customer service that is still a major challenge to the development of Rwanda’s economy.

Speaking at the launch that brought together policy makers and key stakeholders, Antonia Mutoro, the Executive Director of IPAR, said that the research focused on the financial sector as the case study. 

"The research was done through interviews and observations of key informants, managers, employees and consumers as we were investigating the causes,” said Mutoro.

According to the research’s major findings, the root cause of poor customer service is the same globally- ‘organisations not being customer care focused and thus failing to put in place policies, practices and procedures that are aligned to providing good customer service.’

The findings further indicate that institutions that have attempted to tackle the problem in Rwanda have only focused on symptoms rather than the root causes.

The research revealed among other challenges in the financial sector, lack of clear commitment or focus by senior management, no strategies in place for customer service delivery, little training of staff in customer service and poor management of mechanisms for getting feedback from customers.

The research suggested key recommendations to the government and institutions among them; a government campaign dubbed "know your rights campaign” to raise customer service awareness, introducing legal regulation for service and ombudsman service.

IPAR also came up with a toolkit on how to conduct process mapping, conduct customer satisfaction surveys and customer value audit aimed at making financial institutions more customer-centric.

Mark Cyubahiro Bagabe, the Director General Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS), commended the research done by IPAR and urged the Institution to build confidence during its research on customer service.

The research was commissioned by Rwanda Development Board (RDB).

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