A moral and cultural perspective on customer care in Rwanda

The 21st century organisational philosophy of competitiveness and leading edge has put Customer Care Relations in the limelight and has become part of the holistic framework for sustaining growth and competitive advantage in both private and public sectors.Be it in banking, telecommunication, manufacturing, health, education, infrastructure, or in informal sector, customer oneness has received profound significance in the history of management than ever before.The classical concept of customer care is not new to Rwanda and in business ethics.It is deeply entrenched in our culture but the real nucleus of the matter is that the Rwandan 21st century workers, companies and government departments are not taking on our culture.In Rwanda, the government’s stance on customer service is very clear: According to President Paul Kagame, “we can no longer accept a culture of mediocrity, either from Rwandan business or government institutions that give poor services or Rwandan customers who quietly accept sub-standard customer care.”As a country that is positioning itself to become a high value destination and whose lead-development sector is service based, customer care is fundamental to Rwanda’s success – whether in public or private sector.More outstandingly, the fact that Rwanda is a landlocked country, our competitive advantage partly lies in customer care.With this in mind, while potential clients, whether they are searching for a tourist destination, banking services, or healthcare, are partly motivated by competitive prices, it is difficult to overrate the importance of good customer service.”Why then poor customer care in Rwanda? Most companies believe that their staff lack customer care skills and, in fact, customer service has been identified as one of the pressing capacity building challenges this nation is faced with.But in essence and from a philosophical point of view, poor customer service in our hospitals, banks, schools and in various service centres reflects degenerating morality and lack of appeal to our good Rwandan culture of hospitality. My opinion is conveyed in the words of Prime Minister Dr Pierre Damien Habumuremyi – that customer service “lies at the heart of our heritage and culture.”He noted pragmatically that “the hospitality that is evident in so many Rwandan homes somehow does not always seem to make its way to our places of work; be they offices, shops, hospitals or schools.”Nevertheless, most people were reported saying that “there is a Rwandan culture norm against complaining.I am inclined to think that much of our country’s moral values and details of history have been passed down to our generation but customer care and cordiality seem to be vanishing.Hospitality is what kept the generations before ours united.That is why, for instance, a man would give another man a cow generously with no strings attached (generous giving) to bolster their relationship during the days of our grand and great grandfathers.It was a moral action done from a sense of duty. It was also natural that a visitor received a warm welcome and treated with generosity at someone’s home.Even today, on most of our wedding ceremonies, you will notice that the in-laws are treated with utmost hospitality and it becomes prudent that they eat and drink very well before returning home; otherwise they will never come back to that home or never accord respect to their fellow in-laws – and at worst they may decide not to give away their daughter.Conversely in business, a customer is like an “in-law” and should be treated as such.In fact, a customer is a special “in-law” because, without them, a worker in a corporate telecom company may fail to get their pay check at the end of the month, and the same company may fail to service a loan it acquired from a bank or pay dividends to the shareholders.The above leads me to a more fundamental concept; what is good or bad conduct?You see, moral philosophy brings to our attention, the systematisation, defence and recommendation of concepts of right and wrong conduct.The poor customer care you see in Rwanda is a wrong conduct and is a moral outcome of these companies, government departments and their workers.Worldwide, companies have narrowed down these philosophical concepts to what is termed as corporate ethics – to enable them regulate their profit-maximising behavior with non-economic concerns.This has seen the birth of ethical codes and social responsibility charter in private companies and public service.My opinion is that while there are tested and robust systems and practices that enhance customer care (such as call centres in private sector, and citizen charters, community score cards and social audits in public sector as our honorable prime minister pointed out), it will always be a question of behavior and morality – one that is beyond government and its laws to regulate.It’s only when our brothers and sisters who are working both in public and private entities live by the principles of morality and the true Rwandan culture that Customer Care will be rejuvenated in Rwanda.The writer is a cultural heritage analyst/Philosophical studies consult.

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A moral and cultural perspective on customer care in Rwanda