I have been offline at home for two weeks and after multiple interactions with my broadband distributor, Vodafone Ghana, I feel compelled to write about my experiences. This is not a new topic for me, or for many other bloggers (last year, for instance I wrote about the upside to Ghanaian Customer Service) but I wanted to show some examples of how you can use social media for improving on customer service and faster reaching your goal.
1. Take it to social media.
The official routes of complaint (going to the office to report the issue and calling Customer Care) had little effect, so after a week my husband told me, why don’t you Tweet this? Within hours we had a response. The accounts I used were @vodafoneghana & @askvodafonegh On Facebook, I got friends to share their experiences. Yesterday, I live tweeted my call to customer service. I am now blogging about it. Hopefully, someone who is on charge of customer care at Vodafone will see this. The chance is bigger than if I just moan at home.
2. Always record the name of the customer service attendant you are in contact with.
Thus far, we have made around 12 contacts with Vodafone (plus friends at Vodafone seeing online complaints and stepping in). For the record it is good to know who promised what. I realise customer service people in Ghana are very reluctant to give out last names or direct numbers (maybe for good reasons), but insist on a first name.
3. Be persistent and claim your rights.
I believe that a pricy service must have excellent customer service. For 180 GHC ($90) per month, I expect my broadband to work every day. Two weeks interruption for what ever reason is unacceptable. I have not hesitated to remind customer service personel what I am paying for their service and what effects it not working has on my work.
4. Talk to friends
When I discuss my problem with friends on and offline it seems many have had similar experiences. It has encouraged me and I have also gotten hints on what to do. Some of my friends even work at Vodafone and have taken steps of me – talk about committed employees! (or very good friends…or both).
5. Educate the company
On Tuesday after 13 days without my broadband, I was offered a backup system. Although a dongle is not the same as unlimited broadband, I think this was a nice gesture. However, the information was we had to drive to the Accra office to pick it up during office hours. Travelling to a different town to belatedly get some help and also sacrificing work (the round trip is about 3 hours) is unreasonable. And so I told the company. Their attitude changed and yesterday they instead asked for my address.
Last month, the Third Customer Service Week was held in Ghana. Companies like Nest of Ideas do Customer Service Training. There is also a Gimpa Course in Customer Service Management. Clearly companies in Ghana are in a learning stage when it comes to customer service and I am hopeful.
However, I think customers have an important role to play. We need to use social media to highlight what is not working, be persistant and educate the companies on what we expect. I understand telecommunications companies in Ghana have many challenges and I appreciate their efforts at delivering customer service, for instance I think the Vodafone Twitter account @askvodafonegh is commendable. Through out the two weeks I have been in touch with Vodafone I have seen customer service systems change before my eyes!
What do you think, is customer service in Ghana improving?
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6 Comments
Great post.
At 90 dollars a month, that is way too expensive and that is just for unlimited broadband. Thus I assume this is because there is no competition… Correct?
On the issue of Customer Services, was a ticket generated for your issue? The reason I ask this is because would be interesting to know how the culture of Customer Service is handled in Ghana. How is system setup to handle client complaints and reported faults? If a client reaches out customer services, is a ticket generated? Does the ticket get monitored for Service Level Agreement aka SLA purposes by a supervisor?
Hi Kuku,
It is not just no competition, but it is Vodafone OWNING the infrastructure, a mistake(?) when selling out then Ghana Telecom.
I know a ticket is generated and the promise from the company is to get back to you within two weeks (which is too much to bare when you depend on the Internet to do your work etc.). I do not know the internal ways tickets are dealt with, but my experience is that the system is not effective and customers keep calling (nagging!) and it is rather that that in the end solves the problem. Thanks for your comment.
Hello Kajsa,
Yes, that is another element that needs looking into…the sale of Ghana Telecom. It appears the current telecom environment in Ghana wrt Vodafone is similar to what the UK Telecom was like when BT “ruled” it several years ago.
It is interesting that you mention about customers who keep on calling [nagging]. I remember having a chat with my tenant last year in November when I was in Ghana. He mentioned that he had placed an order to have broadband set up in my house. When the due date arrived for this to be installed….nothing happened. The funny thing is that when he called to check on the state of his installation he was told that an engineer would be over in a couple of days. My tenant said he then decided to speak to a contact at Vodafone and to his surprise was told that there wasn’t an order to install broadband on their system.
Frustrating experience with vodafone broadband. No proper service and nothing. The internet is not working for so many days. They are not even bothered to see after several complaints. if the 100 is not working you have to walkin to their office and they will take their sweet time to come
You are not alone. Some of us are sharing our experiences on the Vodafone Ghana Sux facebook page https://www.facebook.com/vodafoneghanasux.
Thanks for sharing your tips.
Customer Service in Ghana is Bullshit and the issue is no body them on because we live in a lawless country. In Ghana business think they are doing you a favour. Vodafone for instance have hidden behind SLA’s to misbehave instead of fixing problems that has been reported. Even with the dumsor their backup power cannot support their systems hence you have light but the internet may not be working because the exchange serving you doesnt have power. NCA is another useless organisation because i believe they are cool on they because they bribe them to quite on issues so they milk and rape the average Ghanaian out there. The fact is you and I can attest such an issue in developed country would attract a better response because of law suits be they take us for granted here. The best thing is to suspend your account and downgrade because it does not make sense to pay for what you have not used or an inconsistent service sure that would make they sit up and act fast.