Studies have consistently shown companies that deliver great customer experiences outperform their peers in value creation, shareholders return and more. And if there’s anything the current economic trends have shown, investing in improving customer experiences and awareness on the importance of providing good service are a necessity for every organisation. As a leading player in Rwanda’s financial sector, the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) has embarked on enhancing its member-first experience by undertaking some major structural changes aimed at achieving this. Amidst lots of global disruption due to the Covid-19 crisis, RSSB adopted a Strategic Plan in 2020, to become a member first, data driven and high-performing institution. This entailed three main structural changes that will see the institution achieve total transformation within five years: The first step was to move RSSB from being a government organisation to a state-owned enterprise, enabling the institution to have lean internal processes that allow faster decision making to better serve our members. I’m happy to note that RSSB was granted autonomy in February 2021 paving the way for a modern high performing institution. Secondly, we are improving our recruitment processes in order to have highly motivated and qualified people who can deliver satisfactorily on our members’ ever-changing needs. The new staff will bring an injection of specialist skills (such as IT and actuaries to name a few) that will benefit RSSB in the long run through increased collections and investments that create impact within communities through the creation of jobs and incomes. Thirdly, we are in the process of automating over 90% of our processes in order to improve our capabilities for faster and better decision making, and increased efficiency and productivity. With digitisation and automation, RSSB will offer efficient, streamlined services to its members and transform into an evidence based and data driven organisation. We are on a mission to enable RSSB become an evidence-based and data-driven organisation and a major policy partner in the future of Rwanda’s social protection and healthcare programmes. This ongoing organizational transformation will enable RSSB to play a more significant and impactful role in the development of Rwanda, and offer efficient and member-centric services to our members in an ever-changing world. Going forward, celebrating Customer Service Week will no longer be a once in a year feature for us at RSSB, but a culture we are going to instil to all our staff and stakeholders whom we are here to serve. It will all be visible in the membership schemes we roll out, investments we make and the returns we give to all who trust in us as we embark on this new journey. Through RSSB, we can deliver on Rwanda’s ambitious development goals, including Vision 2050 which aims to transform Rwanda into an upper-middle income economy. We cannot do this without you, our dear members and we invite you to collaborate with us on this journey, as we work towards the RSSB you deserve and Rwanda we want. Happy customer service week. The writer is the Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Social Security Board.
