Social media complaint prompts Nyarutarama hotel to clean up

Social media is fast becoming a popular medium for the public to raise complaints about service delivery in various institutions. Most of these queries are raised on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, where concerned agencies are tagged so as to get their attention. Last Sunday, a customer at Nyarutarama-based The Manor Hotel raised a complaint about the filth in the hotel’s changing room at the swimming pool, which clients have had to contend with for over five months. “Hotel Manor swimming pool changing room! Seriously, five months and no change? @RDBrwanda @TheServiceMag #mediocrity,” read a tweet by Johnny Kayihura on his handle @johnnykayihura. The tweet was followed by a photo of a room filled with a collection of seemingly dysfunctional gadgets. The Service Mag, a service-based publication, retweeted the post wondering if ‘Na Yombi’ and the City of Kigali still conduct hotel inspection, which drew the attention of Rwanda Development Board’s Chief Operations Officer Clare Akamanzi. She instantly tweeted back, saying “We will check it out immediately.” Yesterday, the Na Yombi account replied the same tweet, indicating that they had given The Manor Hotel a week to clean up the mess that had been identified. Na Yombi is a campaign by Rwanda Development Board aimed at improving customer service. Of late, several Rwandans have learnt to take to social media whenever they get poor service. “Social media is increasingly becoming an important platform for service providers and citizens in our society. Like the automation of services in a technological era, it’s raising citizens’ participation, efficiency in corporate communication, sharing of information, speed, responding to clients and allowing customers to provide timely feedback to organisations,” said Yves Ngenzi, the head of customer care unit at RDB. Allan Ssenyonga, a social media enthusiast, said it is now more efficient to use social media given poor service delivery due to its public presence. “Social media has the numbers…when dealing with a customer care agent, it’s the complainant to the business, but when you use social media, it’s the complainant, the business and the audience involved and this prompts the business to act fast,” Ssenyonga, a freelance journalist, said. He added that it’s this form of pressure that makes business act on a specific issue. He added that the biggest problem is how some businesses respond to queries raised on social media. “Businesses are too slow to respond to complaints and studies show that when customers or future customers use social media they expect an answer within 30 minutes. I have had experiences where I tweet a company and they respond after eight hours and this is because they use amateurs who only check social media when they are free,” he said. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Social media complaint prompts Nyarutarama hotel to clean up