Let’s start with the customer, whose disappointment can be bad for business; which is not to say the larger picture cannot be rosy. So it is that one of the positive aspects allowing focus on the region with something to teach the world is the rise of mobile financial services. Following voice and the upward curve of data uptake, mobile money service is the fastest growing as business enterprise works to reach every corner in the region. Some estimates put the growth of mobile communications market in East Africa at a steady 11 per cent during 2013-2014. The regional reach is being driven by market liberalisation and fierce competition compelling network providers to further expand into neighbouring countries. Mobile money is the latest aspect in this growth. Kenya’s Safaricom has partnered with Vodacom in Tanzania, MTN Rwanda with MTN Uganda and Safaricom, while Tigo Rwanda has crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo to partner with Tigo DR Congo, and across platforms with Airtel Rwanda. It’s cheap and all about convenience and the utility value the service affords all and sundry – “from the well-heeled to the shoe shiner”, as the mobile money phenomenon was captured in a fascinating news documentary on M-pesa by the iconic CBS 60 Minutes recently. “You don’t need a bank account, you don’t need a credit history, or very much money for that matter, making […] East Africa a giant experimental laboratory defining the future of money.” The future of money it is. But it’s the customer in the mid of the brimming potential: At which point, without naming names (no point in shaming), I will confess to a gripe with one of the local service providers. Other providers could do well to take note as some are implicated on the other side. Cross-border mobile money is just beginning to take root, and it is understandable it may not be without a hitch before it flawlessly takes off. Nobody should expect that things will always be perfect. But should there be a hitch that in any manner or form may disrupt the service being offered, the customer has the right to be informed. This is basic business practice, as service is everything. The saying, “customer is king”, is not empty sloganeering. It is in the principle that things will, at some point, unexpectedly go wrong – and should be anticipated – that customer care centres are set up to help assuage any perceived client’s disappointment with a brand. This is business truism. But this is what has occasionally been happening with the local service provider in question. You send some money – usually needed urgently – but, for some reason, it doesn’t reach the recipient across the border. You do the next best thing and call the provided toll free number. But the automated voice welcoming you leads you to a dead end with attempts that are not coming even close to addressing your problem, asking you to press this number or that. The disembodied voice is cold and unfeeling. You desperately want to talk to somebody at the other end of the line to find a quick solution. The toll free number does not offer this option. You give up and now have to go to the nearest customer service centre, say, at the headquarters. And when you finally get to the chap at the counter, he appears clueless and has to refer you to some people upstairs. The fellow upstairs explains to you that they are aware of it, and the problem is on the other side of the border. Nobody bothered to tell the customer there was a hitch somewhere. Though the problems are solved in the end, the inconvenience and time wasted amount to penalising the client by having him jump through hoops to get to customer care centres that are few and far between and often characterised by long queues of people waiting to be served. The cost of this need not be belaboured.Concerned customers expect that the cause of the recurrent hitches is being addressed. As for me, I am not about to abandon the mobile service provider.
