FIND US ONLINE ISSUE 20: DECEMBER 2014 - FEBRUARY 2015 www.theservicemag.com Médias sociaux et marque personnelle? How good service can convert into a sale Ibyiciro bine byo kongera ubumenyi CEO SONARWA’S NEXT LEVEL IN INSURANCE FOCUS: Insurance Review Awareness and product diversity needed to grow Insurance Industry SCAN TO VISIT OUR WEBSITE
The ServiceMag Issue 20
Apr 06, 2016
In three months, we will be celebrating our 5th anniversary. As I decide to take a break from publishing this magazine in March next year, all I can say is thank you Rwanda for giving me the opportunity to be part of an extraordinary journey in sensitizing for improved service delivery. I knew nothing about publishing at the beginning but seized the opportunity to make an impact.
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
FIND U
S ON
LINE
ISSUE 20: DECEMBER 2014 - FEBRUARY 2015
www.theservicemag.com
Médias sociaux et marque personnelle?
How good service canconvert into a sale
Ibyiciro bine byo kongeraubumenyi
CEO
SONARWA’S NEXT LEVEL IN INSURANCE
FOCUS: Insurance ReviewAwareness and product diversity needed to grow Insurance Industry
SCAN TO VISIT OUR WEBSITE
2
Plus...
Focus Story - 32
Our frustrations – 35
Where we have been – 36
Have your say - 39
Travel Review – 48
Youth Talk – 50
Your health matters – 52
They wowed us – 54
Fashion – 58
Pictorial – 60
At your service –62
Youth Talk
Contents
Ibi ni ibyo ushobora gukora igihe wumva wacitse intege mu byo ukora ukumva ushaka kubireka – 21
Ibyiciro bine byo kongera ubu-menyi – 22
Médias sociaux et marque personnelle – 24
Understanding Marketing – 25
AdvertorialsRicta: for a better internet community – 10
RGB: Indicators to measure the quality of service delivery in public sectors – 26
ICTUsing ICT for Customer Service Feedback – 56How to use Social Media effec-tively – 57
Customer ServiceKwita ku bakiriya ni bum-we mu buryo bwibagiranye mu guteza imbere ibikorwa by’ubucuruzi – 12
How good service can convert into a sale – 13
Parlez-vous vraiment le même langage que votre client? – 14
Si vous étiez un acheteur, achèteriez-vous de vous-même? – 16
Business ManagementBuilding a conducive working environment – 44
The key to success: hire people better than you – 45
Training=Panacée? – 46
Cover StorySonarwa General Insurance over the years –28
Sales and MarketingKunoza itumanaho mu mushin-ga wawe – 20
Travel Review
“Almost every business problem has an ICT solution.”
On October 2nd and 3rd, Rwanda, under the auspices of the Ministry of Youth and ICT held a two-day event that was well spiced with topical ICT content such as Digital Payments, ICT Governance, Internet innovations, Smart City, Open Data and Digital innovations.
It is worthy of note that the Smart Rwanda conference �ows from the Smart Africa agenda of which Rwanda plays a pivotal role. In this article, I will share my re�ections on the signi�cance of ICT in creating Smart businesses.
We can look at two distinct sets of businesses and entrepreneurs under this theme. First, those operating in the ICT industry itself providing value-added services to the Telcos, ISPs or any other entity requiring such services.
These providers could be locally developed Content, Apps, Programming, Software developers, business intelligence systems,IT service providers etc. The beauty of these enterprises is that they are knowledge driven, scalable and exportable at a least cost. This is because to build scale or export the service, they rely on the same Smart ICT facilities.
Rwanda is not short of ideas. What Rwanda needs is to open up big multi-national Telcos and ISPs to do business with these up and coming ICT entrepreneurs.
In the same vein, those entrepreneurs must also learn to build strong business cases and thoroughness in dealing with Telcos. That said, we must both be Smart in engaging and even taking risks to support locally bred businesses to grow.
The second segment are all other businesses and entrepreneurs that must use ICT as input to deliver Smart services, processes and products to their customers. SMEs must become smarter in their approach in adopting simple, cost-e�ective ICT solutions to grow their businesses. Take advertising services for a start-up or SME with a limited advertising budget for instance.
A simple example of advertising their business or product as a ring-tune on phones may help. Subscribing to digital Directory services is a creative way to make their services known to millions of potential customers in no time.
Adoption of Mobile Payment solutions such as Mobile Payroll may be an e�cient way to pay outbound sta� working in the �eld or in the regions in the shortest possible time.Accepting mobile payments a�ords an SME the opportunity to attract new customers who are Mobile Money users. Almost every business problem has an ICT solution and it is
ICT and Smart Businesses
Ebenezer Asante.
E-mail: [email protected]
CEO, MTN Rwanda.
about time businesses avail themselves to ICT services provided by other developers.
Local content and Apps developers need to turn their attention to providing customized services to local businesses and not always target the big Telcos.
For ease of access, it may be about time that the ICT entrepreneurs and would-be members came together to create a one-stop shopping Portal to display all available general apps so businesses will know what is available before they reinvent the wheel.
Such a portal or a site will even make it possible for them to retail simple Apps solutions on line without compromising on intellectual property if it is well crafted.
Going smart means �nding smarter ways to reach customers with smart ICT solutions, as business opportunities for going Smart and thinking Smart are enormous.
PublisherSandra Idossou: [email protected]
Online Editor:Simon Corden: [email protected]
Design & Layout:Conti-net Designs Ltd: [email protected]
English Editor:Aryantungyisa Otiti: [email protected]
Kinyarwanda Editor:Gaspard Habarurema: [email protected]
French Editor:Diana Ramarohetra: [email protected]
Marketing Consultants:Jean Paul Uwayezu: +250 788 781 562/ 788 746 [email protected]
Eva Gara: +250 782 029 803
Bea Umwiza: +250 788 304 226
Photography:High Media Studio: [email protected]
Contributors:Sandra Idossou, Jean Paul UWAYEZU, The Ser-viceMag, Camille Sinclair, John Kageche, Jean-Pierre Lauzier, Thomas Oppong, Anthony Giton-ga, Lansana Gagny Sakho, Henrietta Rugamba, Gerald Mpyisi, Fahima Milenge, Evelyn Mbula, SSEBUDANDI Robert, Lorenza Julius Begumisa, Musoni Hubert, Betty Sayinzoga, Gloria Iribagi-za, RHD, Dr. Rachna Pande, Manisha Dookhony, Robert Nsinga, Yinka Olaito, Efua Hagan.
The following organizations supported us in producing this issue:Sonarwa, RDB, Bralirwa, MTN, Airtel, Hotel des Mille Collines by Kempenski, Rwanda ICT Associ-ation (RICTA), Access Bank, Rwandair, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), RGB (Rwanda Governance Board) Genesis Business Solutions (Pty) ltd, Akagera Busi-ness Group (ABG), Akagera Aviation, Aflink, Select Kalaos.
Disclaimer:The opinions, articles and photos in The Servicemag & The Servicemag On-line do not necessarily reflect those of the editor, publishers or their agents.
While every care is taken to ensure the accuracy in preparing this magazine, The ServiceMag assumes no responsibility in effects risen there from and can-not accept responsibility for accidental loss of errors in articles and pictures.
The ServiceMag RwandaTel: +250 788 781 562
email: [email protected]@theservicemag.com
www.theservicemag.com
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
I met Graham, a young Kenyan aged probably 22 on a Matatu recently in Mombasa. He jumped on the bus while it was still moving and then realized there was no free seat. As if that was the norm, he simply bent down and squeezed himself between another passenger and myself. Much as I tried to be accommodative, I could not resist asking him why he did not wait for the next bus. His answer, in English that would have made Queen Elizabeth very proud, was simple “I have to arrive at my destination on time and how I get there is not as important is being there on time.”
Amidst the loud music, the crazy driving, and his awkward position in the bus, Graham maintained the conversation with me as if we were seated comfortably in a cosy sitting room. When he discovered I was visiting Mombasa, he made sure he sold most of the attractions to me. Graham became my tour guide.
Most times, we wait for opportunities to knock at our doors. We wait for the right opportunity to do certain things, take certain decisions. You probably know people who have drop off their resumes and comfortably sit at home waiting for their phones to ring. We often ask ourselves too many questions and simply waste too much time waiting for doors to open for us rather than seizing opportunities.
Orison Swett Marden, an American inspirational author said, “Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.”
Usually, what holds us back is not exactly who we are or where we come from but it is what we think of ourselves. Usually, fear is the weight that stops us from taking advantage of opportunities
surrounding us. Today, maybe, that opportunity you have been waiting for only requires, a word, a step, a push or a phone call.
In three months, we will be celebrating our 5th anniversary. As I decide to take a break from publishing this magazine in March next year, all I can say is thank you Rwanda for giving me the opportunity to be part of an extraordinary journey in sensitizing for improved service delivery. I knew nothing about publishing at the beginning but seized the opportunity to make an impact.
The journey these five years has been very rewarding and challenging. We tried, failed several times, stood up again, failed again, knocked on many doors, some opened for us while many remained closed. Getting advertisers and sponsors for each single issue has been the toughest part of this journey and looking back, however, I am extremely happy that I tried and seized different opportunities, just like Graham, in publishing this magazine.
Thank you Rwanda for a wonderful and exciting seven years spent on your land. I love you from the bottom of my heart and always will.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and an excellent 2015!
My last but one issue
Editorial
“Almost every business problem has an ICT solution.”
On October 2nd and 3rd, Rwanda, under the auspices of the Ministry of Youth and ICT held a two-day event that was well spiced with topical ICT content such as Digital Payments, ICT Governance, Internet innovations, Smart City, Open Data and Digital innovations.
It is worthy of note that the Smart Rwanda conference �ows from the Smart Africa agenda of which Rwanda plays a pivotal role. In this article, I will share my re�ections on the signi�cance of ICT in creating Smart businesses.
We can look at two distinct sets of businesses and entrepreneurs under this theme. First, those operating in the ICT industry itself providing value-added services to the Telcos, ISPs or any other entity requiring such services.
These providers could be locally developed Content, Apps, Programming, Software developers, business intelligence systems,IT service providers etc. The beauty of these enterprises is that they are knowledge driven, scalable and exportable at a least cost. This is because to build scale or export the service, they rely on the same Smart ICT facilities.
Rwanda is not short of ideas. What Rwanda needs is to open up big multi-national Telcos and ISPs to do business with these up and coming ICT entrepreneurs.
In the same vein, those entrepreneurs must also learn to build strong business cases and thoroughness in dealing with Telcos. That said, we must both be Smart in engaging and even taking risks to support locally bred businesses to grow.
The second segment are all other businesses and entrepreneurs that must use ICT as input to deliver Smart services, processes and products to their customers. SMEs must become smarter in their approach in adopting simple, cost-e�ective ICT solutions to grow their businesses. Take advertising services for a start-up or SME with a limited advertising budget for instance.
A simple example of advertising their business or product as a ring-tune on phones may help. Subscribing to digital Directory services is a creative way to make their services known to millions of potential customers in no time.
Adoption of Mobile Payment solutions such as Mobile Payroll may be an e�cient way to pay outbound sta� working in the �eld or in the regions in the shortest possible time.Accepting mobile payments a�ords an SME the opportunity to attract new customers who are Mobile Money users. Almost every business problem has an ICT solution and it is
ICT and Smart Businesses
Ebenezer Asante.
E-mail: [email protected]
CEO, MTN Rwanda.
about time businesses avail themselves to ICT services provided by other developers.
Local content and Apps developers need to turn their attention to providing customized services to local businesses and not always target the big Telcos.
For ease of access, it may be about time that the ICT entrepreneurs and would-be members came together to create a one-stop shopping Portal to display all available general apps so businesses will know what is available before they reinvent the wheel.
Such a portal or a site will even make it possible for them to retail simple Apps solutions on line without compromising on intellectual property if it is well crafted.
Going smart means �nding smarter ways to reach customers with smart ICT solutions, as business opportunities for going Smart and thinking Smart are enormous.
6
The Service Mag ni ikinyamak-uru nkora kandi mpora nso-
ma uko gisohotse. Cyatumye menya ibijyanye n’ubucuruzi, byanamfashije kumenya ko nahanwa ntarakoresheje EBM machine ya Rwanda Revenue Authority.Christine.
Je suis toujours passionnée chaque fois que je vois une
nouvelle édition du Service-Mag. Quelle audace de vouloir améliorer la qualité de services au Rwanda. J’ai été aussi émue de voir le premier numéro du Burundi, je vous souhaite plein de succès parce que cela ne doit pas être facile.Claudette.
It was with great interest that I read the current issue of The
Service Mag. I particularly liked the story on “The truth about Di-abetes” where we learn how to manage ourselves every day.Silas
Inspiring and educative TSM
Congratulations on the last TSM event. I really enjoy
reading The Service Mag and I have become a fan. Thank you for bringing good services and initiative to our daily lives. I like what you are doing.NTIZIMIRA Christian, MD
Thank you for Tweeting!
I had a negative experience with the dream miles pro-
gramme of Rwandair. I tried to contact the team but no one replied my messages. After you tweeted about it, some-one from the DM team got in touch and solved my issue. I guess your tweet assisted. Mer-ci beaucoupSamuel Mugwaneza ([email protected])
What an impact you are making
I have been following your work closely on Facebook and
I must say I am amazed at the zeal, passion and drive you have towards creating better customer service. Keep up the good work.
I am a part time trainer and would like to contribute an article to TSM.It is nice to see like-minded people, let us join hands to take client service to the next level in Burundi.Praise Mutanu
Ikinyamakuru cyanyu kiratan-gaje. Kuva natangira kugiso-
ma nungutse ubumenyi bwinshi bumfasha mu kazi kanjye kan-di rwose mukomerezeho kuko mukora akazi keza cyane.Christian.
Please submit your comments and suggestions at [email protected] Ese mwakunze inyandiko tubagezaho? Turabasaba ngo muduhe ibitekerezo kuri [email protected]
TSM Mail Room
Letters
7
8
Rwanda Cultural Fashion Show
The 2nd edition of Rwanda Cul-tural Fashion Show was orga-nized by Iris Pro Films on Sep-tember 27th 2014 at Petit Stade Remera in Kigali with the aim of providing Rwandan fashion de-signers with a platform to show-case their work.“We wanted to showcase our rich culture through fashion and also create business opportuni-ties for Rwandan fashion design-ers,” says Ntawirema, The Man-ager of Iris Pro Films.
Amongst the attendants of the event, Honorable Ambassador Joseph Habineza, “Why should we wear clothes from abroad when we have such fantastic Rwandan fashion designers? These are our stars.”Among the standouts at this year’s Rwanda Cultural Fashion Show was Teta Isibo of Inzuki De-signs, who kicked off the show on closing night with a presentation of traditional outfits made from bark cloth. Young designer Diane Muberarugo put forth a largely Kitenge collection, presenting mostly office-appropriate tops,
to promote the Rwandan culture worldwide through education, music, and poetry.
The event featured many differ-ent artists including Mighty Popo, Mariya Yohana, Mani Martin, In-ganzo Ngari dance troupe, Ka-lisa Rugano, Kipeti, Masamba Intore and Gakondo Group. The event was hosted by comedian Atome.
Some of local designers had a chance to show their crafts and paintings before the concert.The audience had a chance to experience all kinds of ancient disciplines: Imivugo (poetry), Inanga (a traditional cithara), Imbyino (dance), Umwirongi (a traditional flute), Imigani (story telling) and Indirimbo (songs). “We wanted this event to offer an alternative to globalised cul-ture. We cannot make a judge-ment on the lack of interest that the youth of today show towards Rwandan culture. Besides wed-dings and other official events, it is indeed quite unusual to see traditional culture showc ased” said Rugamba Raoul, The Man-aging Director of MAV ltd.
Prime acquired 85% of both Cogear and Prime Life Assurance
On October 17th 2014, PRIME came into existence officially after a ceremony held at Kigali Serena Hotel following an ac-quisition of 85% of shares of both COGEAR Ltd and PRIME LIFE AS-SURANCE ltd by GREENOAKS Global holdings, an international group based in London, UK and Zurich, Switzerland.
Prime vision is to bring protection to the client with an exceptional
NEWS DESK
skirts, shirts, suits and trousers.Other designers featured were Patrick Muhire, Monica Umwari and Janvier Ntwara among others show cased unique col-lections that displayed a level of craftsmanship that impressed the audience.
Hobe Rwanda 2014
Hobe Rwanda cultural event was held on September 13th 2014 at the SERENA Hotel in Ki-gali and was attended by more than 1,000 people. It was orga-nized by MAV Ltd. with the aim
NEWS
8
9
customer service. “Our solutions are customer-centric insurance plans that help our clients se-cure their family’s future plans and businesses. We are distinct in character, caliber and capabili-ty. We bring to table the credibil-ity, financial strength and exper-tise’ said PRIME insurance CEO, Jean Baptiste Ntukamazina.
Andrew Okwara, PRIME’s Chief operating Officer, added, “We are completely redefining our claims payment process through our new fast claims payment
Livestock Insurance benefits in-clude: • Insured farmers are better placed to invest more in Live-stock production projects since their investments are secured by insurance, • Insured farmers have greater access to Livestock improve-ment loans since a Livestock pol-icy document is accepted by financing institutions as an alter-native form of security, •In the event of loss of Livestock bought through a finance fa-cility, both the farmer and the financing institution don’t lose since insurance pays the loss.
The third product is a multi Per-il Crop Insurance cover for all commercial field crops including wheat, maize, barley, rice, tea crop, coffee, sugar cane, to-bacco, all horticultural crops; flo-
riculture and tree crop. They also give cover to farm assets and equipments including harvested crop, green house and irriga-tion facilities. It covers Crop loss-es as caused by hailstorm, fire, drought, excessive rainfall, frost damage, flooding and lightning.
Under this product, insured farms have greater access to agricul-ture credit since a crop policy document is accepted by fi-nancing institutions as alterna-tive form of security. Insurance cushions farmers against losses by acting as a fallback in event of a bad crop season crop In-surance is a finance innovation that stimulates investments in the agriculture sector through in-creased access to funding and motivation to all stakeholders.
UAP Insurance Rwanda Ltd launched three new products on the insur-ance market
On October 1st, UAP Insurance Rwanda Ltd launched three new products on the insurance mar-ket: UAP Icyashara, livestock in-surance and crop insurance.The first product is UAP Icyashara which is a comprehensive prod-uct for SMEs which covers: fire, lightning, earthquake, sponta-neous combustion, flood storm, tempest, water damage impact and aircraft damage, riots strikes and malicious damage; burglary and theft, accidental damage to property; loss of profit and/or revenue following business inter-ruption as a result of loss or dam-age by insured perils.
The livestock insurance is a com-prehensive product under two aspects: A Livestock mortali-ty which covers against losses due to accidental death, dis-eases of terminal nature, emer-gency slaughter on advice of a recognized veterinary surgeon and theft of Livestock in raising units or paddocks. The livestock covered are dairy cattle, beef cattle, poultry, pigs, sheep and goats.
process. For some cases, you can literally have your claims set-tled in 30 minutes and walk away with your payment. Application processing technology, heavy investment in staff training & 24 hour support are just some of the initiatives we are implementing to enhance our customers’ ex-perience”.
On September 29th 2014, PRIME Staff moved into new head office located in RSSB building (Péage), Tower II on the ground floor at KN3RD African Boulevard. TSM
NEWS
9
10
Ricta:
For a better internet community by TSM Reporter
In 2005, different Information Communication Technology (ICT) institutions and individuals came together to form an association that later came to be known as the Rwanda ICT Association (RICTA).
The objective was to manage the .RW country code top level domain, and act as well as a discussion forum for issues patterning the Rwandan internet community.
“Though RICTA started in 2004, it was formally registered in Rwanda Development Board (RDB), as a not-for profit company limited by Guarantee in 2011,” narrates Ghislain Nkeramugaba, the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer.
A domain name is a unique combination of alphanumeric characters that forms a string, which represents an Internet resource. Such domain name can be used to host Internet services such as WORLD WIDE WEB (web sites), emails, Domain Names Services, etc.
Besides managing the .RW registry system, RICTA’s mission is to enable the local Internet by promoting and encouraging the adoption of .RW domain names by either Rwandans and/or others. According to Nkeramugaba, it is important, and increasingly crucial nowadays, to have an online presence. With the even of social media networks, Web 2.0, and so forth, the world is globally reachable
Why use a .RW (dot RW, “Akadomo RW”)? “Primarily, its the Rwandan identity being promoted. The identity of Rwanda is very important. As opposed to a .COM domain name, which is more generic”. He explains.
“From a historical point of view, .COM domain names are more popular hence their wider adoption compared to .RW domain names. Nevertheless, .RW domain names are
served using the same Domain Name Systems (DNS). The .RW domain names are NOT LESS secure, as many people tend to believe.” He added.
On the other hand, he said that there are a number of challenges affecting the take up of .RW domain names; the first being wrong mind-set and wrong belief that .RW domain names are geographically limited to Rwanda or that it is prone to hacking or things of the sort” He explained. “That wrong mind-set and wrong belief: the same protocols used to run the Internet are the same we use in Rwanda” He pointed out.
He said they were now educating people on how .RW domain names have the same value as .COM. Besides that, there is more like hood to find a specific string under .RW than to find the same string under .COM
“Concerning the price to acquire a .RW domain name, he mentioned that RICTA has put in place a pricing structure to encourage Rwandan (and citizens from the East African Community) to acquire .RW domain names at an affordable price. We have tried to match .COM prices, and we are making progress on that aspect” He noted.
In regards to .RW domain name business, RICTA uses a Registry-Registrar model (Wholesale/Retail model). This means that any person willing to acquire a .RW domain name, has to contact the RICTA accredited registrars (i.e. resellers). As of now, RICTA has accredited upto eighteen (18) registrars (their list can be found at RICTA website [www.ricta.og.rw/registrars]). Those registrars operate locally, in the region, and internationally.
With this business model, a .RW domain name can be acquired in less than an hour once the annual subscription payment has been made to the registrar.
“RICTA and its valuable partners strongly encourage people to get .RW domain names for either their businesses websites, for their schools, organizations, conferences and events, etc. As Rwanda is building up to become an ICT hub, online presence is becoming crucial, and the number of .RW domain names ought to grow to enlarge that online presence. As online presence will
grow, the more the Rwanda Internet economy will grow as well, electronic commerce will grow thus the whole economy.
Through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RURA, RICTA is also managing the Rwanda Internet Exchange (point) infrastructure.
Simply put, an Internet Exchange Point is where Internet networks come together to peer or exchange local traffic between their networks. The primary role of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is to keep local Internet traffic within local infrastructure and to reduce costs associated with traffic exchange between Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In Rwanda, RINEX constitutes that infrastructure that allows local Internet Service providers (ISPs) to exchange their traffic WITHOUT leaving the country.
“For example, Without RINEX, here is what would happen: a file sent from a user on MTN network to a user on TIGO network would first leave MTN network, and the routing would be in such a way that both MTN and TIGO networks would exchange that file at any nearest exchange point (this can be Nairobi or London if there is no exchange point in Rwanda). This resulted in very bad internet user experience, delays, and any sorts of bad quality of service. Beside the bad user experience, it would be expensive for both the sending network (i.e. MTN) and the receiving network (i.e. TIGO)” explained Nkeramugaba.
RINEX bears tremendous benefits not only for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), it (RINEX) can as well accommodate content providers, and/or any other business eyeing on distributing Internet content.
Going forward, being the .RW registry and RINEX platforms, both constitutes key infrastructure resources and systems that will enable the growth of the Rwanda Internet. TSM
ADVERTORIAL
10
11
12
Ni ibintu byinshi bituma umuntu agira igitekerezo
cy’umushinga rukana. Harimo kuba hari icyo akeneye, kuba akeneye inyungu nyinshi, cg kuba hari icyo abona kibura. Abantu bakoresha igihe kinini bategura imishinga, bigatuma bavumbura uburyo bushya. Ikintu cy’igenzi baba batekere-za ni ugukurura abakiriya.
Bakora buri kimwe cyose gishoboka babiyegereza bak-abagezaho icyo babifuzaho n’ibindi n’ibindi. Ibi bigerera-nywa n’umuntu usinzira akaro-ta kuberako yanyweye inzoga nyinshi ariko yakanguka bika-ba birangiye. Bigenda bite iyo umuntu yakoze umushinga uk-aba mwiza? Ni iki gituma aba-kiriya babagaruka? Ni iki gitu-ma bumva ntahandi bajya? Ni iki cyatuma batagukubita?
Cg utekereza ko batabikora? Kuba hari abandi bantu muko-ra bimwe, kutagira konti ukaba wibikaho imitungo yawe, kuta-rangura kenshi,..bituma abakiri-ya bagenda bagucikaho.
Ntabwo bihagije gutekere-za ibyo uzakenera wabibona ugahita ufungura riakaba Uburyo bwiza bwo kubikora ni ugusangira n’abakiriya, kuko iteka baba bashaka kumva ko bafite agaciro.
Nubwo bamwe batakaza ku bakiriya $100 abandi bagako-resha $ 1000 imishinga yabo irushaho kuba myiza kandi ntakibazo bagira. Kwita ku ba-kiriya si ibintu bihambaye cy-ane bitangira igihe witabye terefone, igihe usuhuza uje akugana, kwakira neza abakiri-ya byumvikana mu magambo
bikagaragarira ku isura yawe, n’ibimenyetso ukoresha.
Waba warigeze kwigira nk’umukiriya wawe ngo ure-be mu by’ukuri serivisi uba-ha uko zimeze? Wakwikorera umushinga wawe? Wagira uwo ubwira serivise utanga uko zimeze? Gutanga serisi nziza ntibigusaba amafaranga na make. Icyo bigusaba ni ukure-ba umushinga wawe ukawu-ha intego n’icyerekezo, ukiye-meza n’uburyo uzabikoramo. Niba hari icyo abakiriya bawe bigeze binubira ukabitesha agaciro, bazageraho bumve ko ntacyo umaze. TSM
The author is Media, Communi-cation, and Marketing Profes-sional. Voice-overs. Writer.
Byanditswe na Camille Sinclair
CUSTOMER SERVICE
13
BY John Kageche
I drove through three successive fuel stations seeking to inflate my car tires; received three suc-cessive “haifanyi” (the pressure pump isn’t working”). At least one of them had an “out of order” sign clearly displayed, however, at all three, the fuel at-tendants and the hapless askari largely ignored me. I tend to see this mind-set aplenty at fuel sta-tions-the tendency by fuel at-tendants to frown upon the cli-ent who just wants to inflate his tires. Preference is given to the one who has come to fuel; most probably because he is gener-ating income as opposed to the one inflating tires who is simply engaging staff in a non-income generating activity. Whatever the reason, fuel stations lose out owing to this discrimination.
It is not just them: every job we love has a component in it we don’t. It’s just the way life is-the yin and yang I suppose. Sales people detest doing reports; yet without them, being assist-ed is difficult and monitoring their own progress impossible. In fact, many who feel the burden of the job usually lack reports with which they can quanti-fy their progress and points of weakness that can be worked on. Truly exemplary salespeople have a scientific method to the “madness”. They can give you their conversion ratios with de-tailed accuracy, for instance. Some library assistants and su-permarket aisle attendants, de-test being asked the location of a book or product respectively because, they argue, “can’t
the customers read the signs?” They may win the argument but lose the sale by customers who feel spited by their behavior.
Yes. Paradoxically, the com-ponent we detest is intricate-ly weaved into the success of the job. This realization should be exciting news and progres-sive salespeople know this. And so, there are those who have staffed that thing they detest: like having someone else do the proposals. This delegation however ends with authority not accountability. The accuracy (or lack thereof) of the proposal lays squarely with the salesper-son. Others have seen the silver lining in the cloud and so they in-vite the walk-in client who asked for a quote to spare a few min-utes to come see the products in the showroom, knowing that this demonstration of interest in the prospect is an investment in the most rewarding asset-human in-teraction. This gesture may be the one that tilts the balance in their favour when the decision is being made about the quote to go with. Progressive fuel stations should train their attendants not only tolook forward to inflating the tires but also invite the driv-
er to have their oil and water checked while inflation pro-gresses and the windscreen is cleaned. All free and waste of time, you think? I don’t. Espe-cially not where the playing field is level and differentiation must come from other avenues. Whatever avenue is chosen it must start with the realization that there is a problem (I hate doing this), it’s a two-sided coin (in the problem is the solution) and acceptance (I must make a conscious effort and adapt progressively to it).
In case you are wondering, the fourth fuel station had a func-tioning pressure pump and the attendant happily guided me to a stop just in front of it and proceeded to inflate all the tires. Two sales happened. Not only did I tip him, I also fuelled there. TSM
@jkageche is Lead Facilitator Lend Me Your Ears- A Sales and Speak-er Training Firm; [email protected]
CUSTOMER SERVICE
14
Par Jean-Pierre Lauzier
Lorsque vous rencontrez un cli-ent potentiel, est-ce que votre
niveau de communication vous permet d’établir une solide con-nexion et un haut degré de con-fiance qui l’invite à être ouvert et transparent avec vous? Il est fort possible que vous vous répondiez « oui », mais à l’inverse, si on pose cette question à ce même client, il est fort possible qu’il réponde « non ». En fait, la question que vous de-vez vous poser est celle-ci : « Est-ce que vous pouvez améliorer votre approche client afin d’obtenir de meilleurs résultats? » J’espère que vous répondrez « oui ».
Mais pourquoi est-ce si difficile d’établir rapidement un haut niveau de confiance avec un cli-ent potentiel? Parce qu’il est méfi-ant dû au fait que, dans le passé, un ou des vendeurs égocentriques et manipulateurs ont exercé de la pression sur lui afin de faire une bonne commission. Ce genre de vendeur l’a rendu craintif, ce qui rend votre tâche aujourd’hui beaucoup plus difficile. Même si vous avez un produit exceptionnel ou un service hors pair à offrir, ce n’est plus un gage de succès, car le client achète d’abord la confi-ance envers vous et votre entre-prise. Votre meilleure façon d’instaur-er la confiance et d’augmenter vos ventes consiste à développer votre « langage client ». Si vous me dites que c’est ce que vous faites déjà, alors bravo, car vous faites partie d’un groupe sélect de ven-deurs qui a beaucoup de succès. Mais si vous croyez que vous utili-sez le « langage client » et qu’en réalité, vous ne le faites pas ou très peu, alors vos chances de réus-site à long terme demeurent très
faibles. Voici ce que signifie le langage client : dans toutes vos communi-cations écrites ou verbales, vous devez d’abord communiquer ce que sont les besoins de l’ache-teur, c’est-à-dire SES bénéfices, SES avantages, SES résultats, SES objectifs, etc., bref, les bénéfices et les résultats positifs qu’il pourra réaliser grâce à vous. En fait, le coeur de votre discussion et de vos pensées doit être dirigé vers le client et non pas vers vous avec VOS produits, VOS présentations, VOS produits, VOS besoins, VOS objectifs, VOS commissions, etc.
Cette façon de communiquer est difficile à appliquer sur une
base régulière, car vous devrez apprendre à mettre de côté votre ego et vos besoins. Une telle exi-gence n’est pas naturelle chez l’être humain parce notre ego dé-sire toujours se faire entretenir. Généralement, l’être humain pense instinctivement à lui-même, à SON argent, à SON plaisir, à SES passions, etc. Pour parler le lan-gage client, vous devez discut-er de ce qui intéresse le client, c’est-à-dire ses défis, ses préoc-cupations, ses ambitions, etc. Cette façon de faire peut pren-dre quelques années à maitriser et vous devez vous améliorer tous les jours, comme un athlète qui pratique quotidiennement pour mieux performer.
Observez, sur Internet, les mes-sages de plusieurs entreprises;
vous remarquerez que peu d’entre elles s’expriment dans un langage client. L’erreur commise, c’est qu’elles font un étalage de LEURS produits, de LEUR mission, de LEUR expérience, etc. Mais le client s’en fout!!! Il serait préférable qu’elles indiquent d’abord les avantages et les résultats que le client pour-rait obtenir en faisant affaire avec elles. Certains vendeurs, qui font beau-coup d’activités de réseautage,
ont élaboré une façon rapide et percutante de se présenter en quelques secondes (ce que l’on appelle en anglais : Eleva-tor Pitch). Habituellement, cette courte présentation est bâtie dans un langage client : elle mentionne d’abord ce que le client achète et ensuite ce que le vendeur fait. Or, il s’avère qu’après quelques min-utes de discussion, le client réalise inconsciemment que le vendeur ne parle pas le langage client et que son Elevator Pitch n’est qu’un texte isolé, appris par coeur par le vendeur et qu’il n’est pas en harmonie avec l’expérience que l’acheteur désire avoir avec ce dernier. Pour parler et développer un ré-flexe de langage client, il est indis-pensable que le vendeur améliore :• son niveau d’expertise dans sa conversation afin d’apporter de la valeur au client;• sa curiosité à comprendre les défis du client, ses objectifs, ses préoccupations, en lui posant beaucoup de questions;• son écoute afin de bien saisir les réponses du client et de lui pro-poser une solution à haute valeur ajoutée;• son désir de créer une différence chez le client afin qu’il atteigne plus facilement ses objectifs;• son niveau d’intégrité afin que l’acheteur puisse compter sur lui à tout moment.
Ces ingrédients sont les fon-dements essentiels servant à
parler le langage client, car sans ces ingrédients de base, il vous est difficile de développer ce ré-flexe. En fait, c’est surtout une « façon d’être » que vous devez cul-tiver avant de développer votre « façon de faire ». Bon langage client! TSM
L’auteur est Conférencier, forma-teur, expert-conseilJPL Communications inc. www.jeanpierrelauzier.com
CUSTOMER SERVICE
15
16
Par Jean-Pierre Lauzier
Qu’est-ce qu’un acheteur re-cherche ou à quoi s’attend-il
de la part d’un vendeur ou d’un fournisseur? Que veut-il vraiment? Ou encore, que désire-t-il? Pour-quoi achète-t-il? Ne sont-ce pas là des questions pertinentes qu’un vendeur doit se poser? Nous som-mes tous d’accord qu’il est es-sentiel d’apprendre à répondre aux objections, de bien négocier, de savoir comment fermer des ventes, de poser les bonnes ques-tions, etc., mais ce qui est beau-coup plus important, c’est de connaître les raisons qui incitent une personne à acheter. Comme les gens adorent acheter et dé-testent se faire vendre, pourquoi ne pas s’améliorer en se mettant à la place de l’acheteur? En agis-sant ainsi, on est en mesure de constater qu’il est préférable de comprendre « pourquoi un client achète » plutôt que de vouloir ap-prendre « comment vendre »?
Un client ne vous le dira pas, mais voici le genre de questions qu’il se pose lorsqu’il rencontre un représentant :• Est-ce que je peux lui faire confiance?• Connaît-il bien le produit dont il parle?• Quel est son niveau d’expertise?• Comment va-t-il m’aider à obtenir ce que je désire?• Est-ce qu’il comprend ce que je fais et ce que je veux accomplir?• Est-il différent de tous les autres représentants?• Est-ce que je me sens bien avec lui?• Est-il crédible ou n’est-il qu’un charlatan qui ne pense qu’à pousser son produit?
• Essaie-t-il de comprendre mes besoins et de découvrir ce que je désire?• Est-il fiable, honnête et intègre?• Veut-il m’aider à m’améliorer?• Recherche-t-il une solution gagnant-gagnant?• Croit-il en ce qu’il dit?• Est-ce que je veux avoir une re-lation d’affaires avec cette per-sonne?
Comme vous pouvez le constater, l’acheteur accorde beaucoup plus d’importance au fait d’avoir une relation de confiance et une bonne chimie avec le vendeur. En fait, le client veut une relation d’affaires avec une personne qui est sincèrement intéressée à l’aid-er à être mieux.
Or, il est manifeste que l’objec-tif premier de la grande majorité des vendeurs n’est pas d’aider le client, mais de faire beaucoup d’argent, et ce, le plus rapide-ment possible. Ce qui est com-plètement différent de l’objectif de l’acheteur. Lorsqu`un vendeur discute avec un client potentiel, il ne devrait pas voir son client com-me le paiement de sa prochaine voiture. Cet exemple semble ex-agéré, mais il illustre bien que, dans un tel cas, le bien-être de l’acheteur n’est pas une priorité.
L’opinion d’une grande majorité de vendeurs s’exprime comme suit : « Mon objectif est de faire beaucoup d’argent en vendant tout ce que je peux, le plus rapide-ment possible, afin que je puisse très bien vivre. » Or, il s’avère que bien peu de gens ont eu du suc-cès en pensant ainsi.
Voici l’énoncé que je vous pro-
pose : « Mon objectif consiste à améliorer constamment mon ex-pertise parce que je suis passion-né dans ce que je fais. En étant une ressource de confiance pour mon client et en l’aidant à obte-nir ce qu’il désire, j’aurai le succès que je souhaite et que je vise. »
Le marché a beaucoup changé depuis quelques années. Pour
ne citer qu’un cas, il y a environ trente ans, nos choix d’achats pour un téléphone étaient limités au modèle A ou au modèle B, et nous devions acheter d’une seule compagnie qui détenait le mono-pole dans ce type de communi-cation. Dans le marché ultra com-pétitif d’aujourd’hui, nous avons énormément de choix. On a le loisir d’acheter le modèle de télé-phone qui nous convient parce qu’il y a plus d’une centaine de modèles de téléphones sur le marché, lesquels proviennent de différents manufacturiers.
Étant donné que les acheteurs se retrouvent devant une sura-
bondance de choix et que les produits sont souvent semblables, pourquoi un client achèterait-il votre produit plutôt que celui d’un autre? En définitive, c’est la qualité du vendeur, son expertise, la confiance qu’il dégage et sa sympathie envers le client qui fer-ont la différence.
Si, dès maintenant, vous prenez la décision de mettre à votre prof-it, et à considérer en priorité, les raisons qui motivent un client à acheter votre produit, vous devi-endrez un des meilleurs dans votre domaine et votre succès financier dépassera de loin toutes vos es-pérances.Bonne vente TSM
L’auteur est Conférencier, forma-teur, expert-conseilJPL Communications inc. www.jeanpierrelauzier.com
CUSTOMER SERVICE
17
DIGITAL PRINTING
Printing as you’ve never seen it before!
SELECT KALAOS LTD DELIVERSFULLER, RICHER PRINTING SERVICES
FOR A SUPERIOR PRINTING EXPERIENCE.
OFFSET PRINTING
LARGE FORMAT PRINTING
PACKAGING & LABEL PRINTING
Call 0788 300 890 or 0781 132 090www.selectkalaos.com
EQUIPPED WITH THE SPEEDMASTER SM 74-5 COLORS MACHINE,
20
Imishinga, inganda cyangwa ibi-go byigenga byinshi bigaragara
ko bitangira ari bito, nubwo uru-ganda rwaba runini nabwo ruhura n’ibibazo bitari bike. Uko urugan-da rwawe ari runini ni nako rugira imikoranire cyangwa se itumana-ho ryisumbuye. Kugira ngo uko-meze utere imbere mu byo ukora, ugomba kwereka abakiriya bawe ko ubitayeho kandi ko ushoboye gusubiza ibibazo, ibyifuzo byabo vuba kandi mu buryo bunoze.
Ibi byose ushobora kubifashwamo n’isesenguranyandiko. Isesengu-ranyandiko ni iki?
Isesenguranyandiko ryakozwe na NICE Interaction Analytics ikaba if-asha imishinga cyangwa inganda nini gusobanukirwa neza impam-vu abakiriya babagana. Ishobora kandi gutandukanya no gusoba-nura ikibazo icyo ari cyo cyose ki-baye mu ikoranabuhanga.
Ubutumwa bwose wohererejwe n’umukiriya buguha amakuru atandukanye nyayo y’imikore-re yawe. Ayo makuru ushoboran kuyakoresha uhindura cyangwa unoza imikorere abakiriya bawe bakarushaho kunyurwa. Ikoranabuhanga rigufasha kumen-ya n’iki abakiriya banjye bakunze kunsaba. Kwakira no guhitamo
ubutumwa n’ibindi wohererezwa bishobora kugufata ibyumweru n’ibyumweru ariko igihe ukoresha ikoranabuhanga ubikora ako kan-ya mu gihe gito cyane.
Imbuga nkoranyambaga zigira akamaro Abakiriya bakunda kugira aho bahurira n’inganda cyangwa imishinga bakorana nayo. Niba ntabyo ufite ubu, nakugira inama yo gushyiraho paje ya Facebook na Twitter bigaragaza ibyo ukora. Imbuga nkoranyambaga ni kim-we mu bikoresho ushobora kwi-fashisha mu kumenyekanisha ibyo ukora. Ushobora gusubiza aba-kiriya bawe byihuse, ukabamara impaka n’impungenge ukoresheje imbuga nkoranyambaga.
Ibi kandi ubikora ku bakiriya bawe ndetse no ku bakozi. Iyo ugaraga-je ko utega amatwi abakiriya uka-bumva neza bituma bumva ko ari ingenzi kandi bafite agaciro. Ku rundi ruhande nuramuka wimye agaciro ibivugwa n’aba-kiriya bawe babyanditse ku rubu-ga nkoranyambaga ukoresha, bi-zagira ingaruka zitari nziza ku byo ukora.
Guhangana n’ibibazo by’ururimiUmubare munini w’abakiriya bawe bakoresha Ikinyarwanda. Ariko nk’uruganda cyangwa umushin-ga munini, uzashobora kugira abakiriya baturutse ahantu hatan-dukanye, bamwe badashobora kuvuga ururimi rw’iwanyu, aha ni ho ibibazo by’ururimi bivukira.
Ibi bishatse kuvuga ko ugomba ku-menya izindi ndimi cyangwa se ni-buze hari bamwe mu bakozi bawe babasha kuvuga indimi zitandu-kanye.
Muri rusange kunoza itumana-ho mu mushinga wawe bisaba imbaraga kugira ngo ugere ku byo wifuza kugeraho. Uko ushi-misha abakiriya bawe ni ko ba-rushaho kukumenyekanisha no ku nshuti zabo n’imiryango. Ijam-bo ry’umunwa ni igikoresho kiza cy’imenyekanishabikorwa. Uko uruganda rwawe rwaba runga-na kose ntuzibagirwe ko abakirya bawe bafite akamaro. Kurikiza ibisabwa byavuzwe hejuru maze utangire kunoza itumanaho cy-angwa imikoranire uyu munsi. TSM
The author is the founder @Alltop-startups. www.alltopstartups.com
Kunoza itumanaho mu mushinga wawe
Byanditswe na Thomas Oppong.
SALES AND MARKETING
21
3. Anga ko ibigeragezo bituma uva ku izima! Umuntu wese ukom-eye uzi nawe yageze kuri uru rwe-go rwo kumva ko ananiwe akum-va yabireka. Kwihangana no kwiyemeza ni byo bituma ugera ku byo ushaka kugeraho. Ntabwo uri uwa mbere unyuze mu byo uri kunyuramo none.
Gerageza kumva ko abagiye bagera ku nsinzi bose n’abageze ku byo biyemeje bose mu mate-ka bagiye banga kuva ku izima. Yego, ibintu bishobora kuba bi-komeye, ariko wowe rangamira intego zawe, icyerekezo cyang-wa indoto, uzagira ubuhamya bw’amateka uzabwira abandi.
4. Ushobora guhitamo gutera int-abwe yo gukomeza, ni byiza. Umuntu wa mbere uzagusunika mu kuyitera akagutera ingabo mu bitugu ni wowe ubwawe. Iko-mezemo akanyabugabo kugira ngo ugire ibyo uhindura mu buzi-ma bwawe.
5. Reba amahirwe ari mu kibazo kigukomereye. Ushobora kubo-na amahirwe mashya nuramu-ka ufunze umuryango uri inyuma yawe maze ugafungura uri imbere yawe. Rimwe na rimwe ni mu bihe byo kubura akazi ubonamo akan-di, amahirwe yawe menshi yihis-he mu byo wita ko ari igihombo. Yashakishe kandi uyaharanire.
6. Girana amasezerano na we ub-wawe. Andika ibyo uteganya ku-zageraho n’uburyo uzabigeraho maze wihe igihe, uvuge uti amezi
Gucika intege ukumva usha-ka kubivamo ntabwo ari cyo
gisubizo. Ijwi rikurimo imbere riko-meza kuguhatiriza kubireka ntaho rizajya kugeza ubwo uzashira ub-woba maze ugakomeza urugen-do. Nta kibazo, gerageza kwiha andi mahirwe yo kugera ku cyo ushaka kugeraho. Uzatangazwa n’ibyo uzageraho nukomeza gut-waza.
Hano hari bimwe mu byo wakora igihe wumva wacitse intege mu buzima, mu mushinga cyangwa mu bindi waba ukora byose.
1. Aho kwibaza ikitagenda iyibu-tse icyo wakoze cyiza. Igihe wum-va unaniwe, wacitse intege kandi wumva ugiye kubireka, biroroshye kwibaza uti: “Ni iki kitagenda kuri njye? Ndi mu nzira itari yo cyang-wa idakwiye? Ni ikihe ndigukora ki-dakwiye? Ni ngombwa kwiyibutsa ibyo wakoze neza mbere.
Fata umwanya usubize ama-so inyuma maze ukore urutonde rw’ibyo wakoze byiza mu buzima bwawe. Reka kwibwira ko aho ari ho birangiriye.
2. Ongera ushyireho kandi usubi-remo intego zawe wari warihaye. Numara kubona ko amakosa ag-omba kubaho mu byo umuntu anyuramo byose, uzabasha gute-gura gukora icyiza kurushaho maze ukomeze. Fata akaruhuko, wicare urebe inyuma maze ure-be inzira nshyashya yo kugira ibyo uhindura.
atandatu ngomba kuba ngeze ku ntego. Bisinyire ushyireho n’itariki, ubishyire aho ushobora kubibona. Kora cyane kugira ngo ugere ku byo wiyemeje kandi ugendane n’igihe, ibuka kandi kwihemba igi-he wabikoze neza.
7. Ibuka ko kubireka atari cyo cyonyine gishoboka. Abatsinda ntibajya bacika intege n’abaci-ka intege ntibajya batsinda. Wik-wemera kumva ko utazifasha. Ukeneye ikizere muri wowe cyang-wa se ibyiringiro byo kugira imp-induka. Bisaba kandi gukemura ibibazo kubera ko ugomba kwer-ekana itandukaniro kuko ukora ibyo utigeze ukora mbere.
Uburyo bwonyine bushoboka bwo kumva ko ushoboye ni ukumenya ko ushobora kugira impinduka. Iyo utabishobora wenyine, usaba ub-ufasha. Icyo wakora cyose kugira ngo uve mu gihombo gisanzweho niyo cyakongera gutsindwa na-none, ni cyiza kuruta uko wari kubi-reka ntugerageze na rimwe.
Iyo ufite ibitekerezo byiza kan-di ukagira ibyiyumviro byo gu-komeza, nta kabuza ubigeraho. Akamenyero ko kwitegura guko-ra kabone n’iyo wahura n’ibiger-agezo, n’amahirwe nibyo bizatu-ma ugira impinduka mu buzima bwawe. TSM
The author is the founder @Alltop-startups. www.alltopstartups.com
Byanditswe na Thomas Oppong.
SALES AND MARKETING
21
22
Byatumarira iki gushyira mu-bikorwa ibyo twize dushy-
izeho umwete? Ni gute bya-kongera umusaruro mu kazi kacu kandi ni gute byashiman-gira imikoranire? Ndakeka ko byagira impinduka nyinshi ku buzima bwacu dushyize mu bikorwa ibyo tuba twarize, twa-baho neza kandi n’umusaruro ukiyongera. Muri iki gitabo, ib-yiciro bine mu kwiga, mvuga ku buryo bwo kwiga n’uburyo ibyizwe byashyirwa mu bikorwa bikabyara inyungu nyinshi kuri nyir’ukubikora. Reka turebe kuri buri cyiciro ukwacyo mu mag-ambo make.
1. Urwego rwa 1: Kugira amat-siko mu mutwe wawe. Icyiciro cya mbere, gukoresha cya mbere cyo kwiga. Muri iki cyiciro, twunguka amaku-ru adufitiye akamaro, dushira amatsiko binyuze mu kubaza ibibazo. Ibibazo no kumva, hari byinshi dukeneye kumenya, bi-tuma twemera ko ntacyo tuzi bikadutera inyota yo gushaka kumenya byinsi.
Amatsiko ni intangiriro yo kwiga, wakora iki kugira ngo uhorane amatsiko n’inyota yo kwiga? Birashoboka ko amatsiko yak-wicisha, ariko ugapfa umenye. Horana amatsiko, horana inyo-ta. Wige.
2. Icyiciro cya 2 kwiga ukore-sheje umutima. Muri iki cyiciro twigiramo kwitoza ibyo twako-ra. Tukiga dushishikaye, ikiba kigamijwe ni ukudasiga ku nte-be ibyo twize, muri buri kanya kose twiga haba hari ibyo du-shaka gusobanukirwa, tubona itegeko ry’umutima. Itegeko ry’umutima rivuga ko twiga at-ari ukugira ngo tumenye gusa ahubwo kugira ngo tugire ibyo duhindura.
Kwiga ni igikorwa gifite umur-ongo ngenderwaho umuntu ashakisha kandi akawugeraho, bituma yaguka mu bwenge ig-ihe akiriho, bikaba bimusaba ubwitange. Ntushobora kwiga wiyoboye. Ushobora kwihitira-mo kwiga wiyigishije, ariko bigu-saba kwitekerezaho no gukora, kugira ngo ibyo wiga bigende neza.
3. Icyiciro cya 3 kwiga duko-resha ibiganza byacu. Muri iki cyiciro cyo kwiga duhuza amagambo n’ibikorwa. Nyak-wigendera Stephen Covey yavuze kuri iki cyiciro agira ati “iyo wiyigisha umenya bikoro-heye.
Iyo guhuza imvugo n’ingiro tubigize intego, twubahiriza itegeko ryo kurambura ibigan-za tugatanga ibyo twahawe rivuga ko kwigisha abandi ari ukwiga neza.
Kwiga ntacyo byaba bimaze igihe ibyo wize ntacyo uza-bikoresha. Ahazaza ni ah’ aba-zabitekereza, bakabipanga, bakanabikora. Koresha ibyo wize kandi ubiheho n’abandi.
4. Icyiciro cya 4 kwiga ni akamenyero. Iki ni icyiciro cyo gushyira mu bikorwa ibyizwe. Ibyo dushyira mu bikorwa bihin-dura ubuzima bwacu. Bikadu-ha imyitwarire runaka. Aga-ciro ko kwiga ni uguhindura uburyo twumvagamo ibintu. Iyo dufashe ibintu twigishijwe n’ubuzima ubu n’ubu, tubona itegeko ry’akamenyero rivuga ko mbere na mbere habanza kwiga naho impinduka zikava ku bishyira mu bikorwa.
Ubwo ukaba urangije ibyiciro bine byo kwiga. Biroroshye? Yego. Ndakeka ko byoroshye kandi bitagoye kubyumva. Bishyire mu bikorwa ubone in-yungu zo kwiga.Umwanditsi ubuyobozi bw’ub-wanditsi, umuvugizi akaba n’umutoza. TSM
www.anthonygitonga.com
Byanditswe na Anthony Gitonga
SALES AND MARKETING
23
24
Médias sociaux et marque personnellePar Lansana Gagny Sakho
Quand vous tweetez, quand vous postez un blog quand
commentez un post, sans vous en rendre compte vous êtes pourtant entrain de bâtir votre marque personnelle (personal branding). Le terme est devenu ‘banalisé’ qui a perdu tout son sens avec la démocratisation des médias sociaux.....
La marque personnelle est la perception que nous vou-lons que la communauté ait de nous. Il nous faut par conséquent travailler pour forger dans la conscience col-lective les valeurs que nous incarnons, nos réussites, nos réalisations… La gestion de no-tre marque personnelle nous oblige à être modèle, mentor et / ou une voix que les au-tres seront toujours ‘pressés d’écouter’. Quand nous écriv-ons un blog ou un article – nous devons être conscient que no-tre communauté s’attend à une ‘expérience de pensée’ spécifique à nous et qui porte ‘notre marque de fabrique’.
Nous devons toujours viser à ‘élargir le portefeuille’ pour
attirer de nouveaux lecteurs en offrant quelque chose d’unique, quelque chose qui leur apporte de la valeur et qui doit les coller à notre marque. C’est beaucoup de pression et une énorme responsabilité. Mais au fil du temps la respons-abilité devient une partie na-turelle et instinctive de ce que nous sommes. C’est l’état d’es-prit que nous devons dévelop-per et le niveau de responsabil-ité que nous devons assumer en décidant de définir, vivre et gérer notre marque person-nelle. Chaque jour, chaque heure, chaque minute, nous devons remettre le niveau de confiance que nous avons défi-ni à notre communauté.
Au début, c’est un peu un défi. Toutefois, lorsque vous com-mencez à vous voir vivre à tra-vers la ‘lentille d’une marque’, votre point de vue va
changer et vous deviendrez plus conscient sur la façon dont vous vous approchez de la marque personnelle que vous essayez de définir .
Avoir une marque personnelle est une exigence de leader-ship. Il vous permet d’être un meilleur leader, un leader plus authentique qui permet de créer un plus grand impact global.
La marque personnelle n’est plus une option, elle n’est pas non plus une auto-promotion mais un puissant facteur de leadership. TSM
The Author is an Innovative, entrepreneurial and global in both Tought and Action based Senegal. He is also the CEO of www.experts-visions.com
SALES AND MARKETING
Marketing is a 50-year-old dis-cipline; it is very young, as
you can date other disciplines such as architecture and engi-neering to the early BC. Even if they were in a very pure and unrefined state, they still have or-igins to thousands of years ago. This probably causes the misin-terpretation that marketing is still being molded and defined, as it is centuries behind other disci-plines.
During the industrial revolution, also known as the production era, goods were scare. There was a demand supply issue, high demand and low supply. Indus-tries were selling all that they could produce, brands were ob-solete and quality was a distant thought. The focus was on pro-duction and distribution at the lowest possible cost to meet the demand.
However, in the early 20th cen-tury towards the Second World War, the market became more competitive. This period is known
as the Sales orientation era, in-dustries now had companies within them, and they began to push their own interests and told customers that they were the best out there. Customers had options- it was weird but it was also the beginning.
In the early 60s, the market was saturated and customers had a plethora of choices across many industries, this is the time when brands were birthed and brand equity was developed.
Customer loyalty was a reality and competition was alive. Peo-ple became strategic and used tactics to gain leverage for their brands, which caused people to pay a premium for perceived quality. The marketing era was born.
Marketing is an undermined dis-cipline, a lot like the continent we live in- filled with misconcep-tions. I often hear people define it as Advertising or Public Rela-tions. There is a lot more to it and
it encompasses various facets, and like any other discipline, it re-quires educating yourself, train-ing and passion.I like to believe that marketing is the perfect marriage between Economics and Anthropology.
This is the demand and supply of a product and a service in-fluenced by human behaviour or the same concept inversely. Economics entails the relation-ship within and between markets and Anthropology is the study of human behaviour. Marketing is what brings the two together. TSM
The author is Communications and Business Development Man-ager of [email protected]
By Henrietta Rugamba
SALES AND MARKETING
25
26
INDICATORS, SUB-INDICATORS AND SUB-SUB-INDICATORS TO MEASURE THE QUALITY OF SERVICE DELIVERY IN PUBLIC SECTOR
Public institutions have initiated service charters as a formal document that spells out the role of related institution, highlighting the services offered and the requirements therein, lists the service centres at which services can be accessed, the required timeline and the guiding legal instruments. The development of service Charters signifies institution’s commitment to serve its clients with a view creating a better understanding and enhancing service delivery, in the spirit of being responsive to citizens’ needs, transparency and accountability.
With the purpose to improve the delivery of services in public sector, the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) established an assessment tool reflecting the status of each and every public institution.
Rwanda Governance BoardIkigo cy’Igihugu gishinzwe Imiyoborere
Office Rwandais de la Gouvernance
INDICATORS SUB- INDICATORS SUB- SUB INDICATORS1. Quality of customer service
1.1 Operational customer service infrastructure
1.1 Existence of visitors seats1.2 Presence of operating TV post 1.3 The TV post communicates vision, Mission, and other institutional messages1.4 Presence of dustbins1.5 Presence of Magazines/Newspapers 1.6 Customer’s accessibility to washing rooms 1.7 Existence of separate male and Female appropriate 1.8 Existence of notice board in place 1.9 The notice board is updated 1.10 The notice board is translated into Kinyarwanda 1.11 Existence of indications directing to staff offices’ location1.2 Existence of emergence exit sign
1.2 Operational and equipped customer Service office
1.2.1 Existence of staff in charge of Customer service1.2.2 Existence of sign posts and indications on each door within the institutions (door number, names, officer bearer photo, of staff job title, phone number, supervisor)
1.3 Existence and awareness of comprehensive service charter
1.3.1 Existence of organization’s clear Mission and Vision statements1.3.2 The Mission and Vision statements of organization is clear 1.3.3 Existence of the organization services list 1.3.4 Existence of Services requirements and person in charge for each service1.3.5 Existence of person in charge for each service
1.4 Time taken to get appointment with the institutional authority
1.3.1 Existence of appointment requirements 1.4.2 Existence of register of appointments
1.5 Special facilities for people with disabilities
1.5.1 Existence of disabled runway1.5.2 Existence of disabled parking
ADVERTORIAL
26
27
The proposed indicators originate from diverse sources, both international and home grown, and are formed with the aim to reflect known bottlenecks in the Rwandan service delivery provision in the national public institutions. The proposed monitoring form and suggested scoring mechanism are inspired by the easy-to-do and self-assessment purpose of this exercise. It is envisaged that concerned institutions will periodically apply this monitoring and will take corrective measures which will lead to the tangible improvement of the service delivery provision in the suggested five dimensions. TSM
INDICATORS SUB- INDICATORS SUB- SUB INDICATORS1.6 Access to Public in-formation
1.6.1 Existence of Public Relations employee
1.6.2 Availability of centralized information at a common place (one stop service)1.6.3 Accessibility of the Public relation service to the wide circulation information
2. Facilitation Mechanism
2.1 Operational online facilities
2.1.1 Existence of website2.1.2 The website is updated2.1.3 An operational hot line service2.1.4 Existence of online facilities to request and receive for services2.1.5 Existence of online facilities to receive for services2.1.6 Online tracking system 2.1.7 Existence of online facilities to receive requested services
2.2 Operational Post office services
2.2.1 Existence of post office address
3. After care service
3.1 Existence of Citizens' feedback mechanisms
3.1.1 Existence of Citizens' feedback form3.1.2 Existence of mechanism for recording and feedback on the utilization of Citizens' feedback form3.1.3 Existence of the Citizens' feedback report
3.2 Number of Open days/Accountability day per year
3.2.1 The frequency of Open days/Accountability day per year3.2.2 Existence of open day report
3.3 Operational Citizen relationship management
3.3.1 Existence of monitoring and evaluation system 3.3.2 Use of suggestion boxes3.3.3 Follow up systems to recommendations made
3.4 Number of clients satisfaction surveys
3.4.1 The frequency of customer surveys 3.4.2 Existence of customer surveys report
4. Degree of responsiveness
4.1 Time taken to process request
4.1.1 Existence of timeline services4.1.2 Existence of records on timeline respect 4.1.3 Degree/level of respect of timeline
4.2 Reaction time to claims
4.2.1 Existence of mechanisms for recording claims 4.2.2 Existence of records on timeline respect 4.2.3 Degree/level of respect of timeline
5. Public procurement services
5.1 Operational public procurement mechanisms
5.1.1 Existence of public procurement records5.1.2 Degree/level of respect of timeline
5.2 Time taken to finalize payment procedures towards suppliers
5.2.1 Existence of normal payments records5.2.2 Existence of timeline for the payment
5.2.3 Execution of payments vis-à-vis the level of respect of timeline
ADVERTORIAL
27
28
1
Soji EmiolaCEO
Management team
which is
COVER STORY
2
s’ in
shorter
,
29
1
Soji EmiolaCEO
Management team
which is
2
s’ in
shorter
,
COVER STORY
30
3
distribution through
Sonarwa
COVER STORY
31
32
Martin Gakara, 37, is a sub-sistence farmer in Gatsi-
bo district, in the Eastern Prov-ince. He says he mainly grows cassava, maize, sorghum and beans during the growing sea-son and once harvested, he keeps some of the produce for his family use and sells the rest, usually at farm gate price.
“We usually sell at low prices at the harvest time because there is an oversupply in the market. We all rely on the rains for our crops to grow, other-wise, in cases of long drought, we starve and have nothing to sell,” he said.
Apart from having medical insurance, which the govern-ment has ensured is provided for the whole population, Ga-kara, like many other farmers isn’t aware of other insurance products that may be of use to him and his source of livelihood, agriculture.
Farming is a major driver of Rwanda’s economic growth, and the sector employs over 80 per cent of the population.
FOCUS STORY
Gakara is not the only one who isn’t aware of other insurance services.
It was during this year that a number of SMEs in Kigali city lost their merchandise worth mil-lions in different fires that were caused by avoidable reasons like electric short circuits.
“We found out that most of them had not insured their busi-nesses which meant that they either had to leave their busi-nesses or start afresh which is costly,” said Tom Mulwa, man-aging director of Liaison Group, a regional risk consultancy and insurance brokerage firm.
Mulwa said had they been in-sured, it would have been up to the insurers to pay the claims.David Bakuramutsa, advertising manager at Radiant insurance said that the few who had pro-vided the required documents in order to be paid their claims for the fires were paid within a space of three days.
The National Bank of Rwanda (BNR), the sector’s regulator has tried to ensure some sort of
awareness is created among the sector stakeholders.
An urge for Rwandans to know about insurance services and for insurers to think outside the box to provide insurance prod-ucts that meet the clients’ needs has been the constant outcry.
“There is limited innovation and product development, high operating costs leading to de-creasing profitability in the sec-tor and low public awareness about the insurance activities,” read a statement from the reg-ulator.
However, there has been an influx of new insurance com-panies in the industry which has been greeted with expec-tations of introduction of new products that meet the needs of the population.
In October this year, UAP Rwan-da, subsidiary of Kenyan un-der-writer giant, UAP Group launched two products aimed at reducing losses for farmers and SMEs.
By The Service Mag Reporter
33
Greenoaks Global Holding bought controlling shares in Prime Life Assurance and Cogear insurance companies, a move that was completed in October this year with the rebranding of the two com-panies as Prime Life Insurance and Prime General Insurance respectively.
Following the buyout, the two companies now have 27 branches nationwide and 200 insurance agents.
“We are bringing on board international insurance ex-perience and expertise that enable us deliver outstand-ing insurance services on the Rwandan market,” Romain Dequesne, the Prime Insurance board chairman, said at the re-branding event.
“There is no reason why cus-tomers should have travel long distances to the headquarters or branches to submit a claim in this era of ICT. We are work-ing on new technology solution that will help us to deliver world-class services to make the cus-tomer experience much better and simpler,” Dequesne said.
FOCUS STORY
The firm’s chief executive offi-cer, Pauline Wanjohi said un-der the UAP Icyashara policy, the firm would provide SMEs cover against loss or damage to property caused by fire, bur-glary, terrorism and acciden-tal damage to property. She added that the agro-insurance products target both crops and livestock against drought, excessive rainfall, hailstorms, flooding, frost damage, fire, as well as pests and diseases.
Wanjohi said they would focus on cereals like wheat, barley, and maize, as well as coffee, tobacco, horticultural crops like cut flowers; greenhouses and irrigation equipment.
“The insurance policy for crops is based on value of inputs or pre-agreed market value of harvested crop,” Wanjohi ex-plained.
Jonathan Gatera, the director general for financial stability at the National Bank of Rwanda, lauded the insurer’s move to venture into agro-insurance, noting that it will contribute greatly to the growth of the sector.
He, however, advised the firm and other insurance compa-nies to carry out extensive sensi-tisation among farmers and en-trepreneurs on how insurance cover can safeguard their en-terprises.
“These products need to be explained to the beneficiaries. This can be done through the fi-nancial literacy campaign that we are undertaking and we are ready to work with insurers to ensure people are aware of these services,” he said.
Other sector developments have included Saham, a Mo-roccan investment company, which in April this year said it had received the necessary regulatory approvals from the central bank to buy 66.7 per cent of Rwandan insurance firm Corar SA for an undisclosed amount.
To add to that, in June, Soras Group, concluded an agree-ment worth $24.3 million that gave Sanlam, a South African financial services firm a 63 per cent share in the company.
33
34
Kenya’s Britam too, joined the insurance market in July this year, them too, promising to providing insurance services to SMEs as a way of establishing its presence in the Rwandan mar-ket.
The insurance sector is now composed of 12 private insurers of which eight are general and four are life insurers.
Though the sector has regis-tered significant growth in terms of assets over the years, it is still grappling with low levels of penetration which stands at 1.6 per cent, below the continent’s average of three per cent. The global average is between eight and nine per cent.
“We have many assets out here that aren’t insured and peo-ple don’t know the risks. Many don’t know that they can lose their house overnight if they don’t pay some little money,”
emphasised John Rwangomb-wa, central bank governor in a recent interview.
The insurance sector in Rwanda is one of the lowest performers in the financial services sector. This being shown by the 11 per cent decline in net profit for the sector by the end of June this year, from Rwf8 billion in June last year to Rwf6 billion.
However, the sector’s total as-sets grew by 13 per cent, from Rwf 219 billion in June last year to Rwf 247 billion end June this year, according to the central bank.
The industry’s capital grew by 15 per cent and gross premi-ums by 14 per cent, from Rwf 158 billion and Rwf 39 billion to Rwf 180 billion and Rwf 45 billion respectively.
The claims ratio increased by 5 per cent, from 44 per cent to 49 per cent but is still below the max-imum prudential benchmark of 60 per cent.
Soji Emiola, Sonarwa General Insurance managing director is of the view efficient service delivery is a key pillar in terms of increasing on the number of premiums paid while at the same time paying claims faster.
“We have invested a lot in cus-tomer service over the past year. We make sure that our staff are serving clients to their satisfaction, not allowing them to get frustrated or wait for claims payments for long un-justified periods,” he said in an interview with The ServiceMag.Sonarwa is one of the country’s oldest insurers and has 60 per cent market share in the mar-ket. TSM
FOCUS STORY
Knowledge is Power
GET YOUR
COPY NOW
EDUCATIVE3 LANGUAGESINFORMATIVE
@theservicemagFacebook.com/theservicemagtheservicemag
B U R U N D I R W A N D A
The ServiceMag RwandaTel: +250 788 781 562email: [email protected]@theservicemag.comwww.theservicemag.com
35
ETHIOPIAN, PLEASE GO THE EXTRA MILE TO PLEASE YOUR CUSTOMERSBy Fahima Milenge
ET (Ethiopian) has very well trained pilots. This is evident in the usually smooth and stress free landings. Their ground hostesses/stewards and check-in staff also demonstrate excel-lent customer care, and are very swift.
I wish I could say the same for ET airhostesses. Although they give passengers bright smiles as they board the aircraft, they need to know that customer care doesn’t end at boarding.
Many ET air hostesses don’t bother to camouflage their impatience when certain pas-
OUR FRUSTRATIONS
35
sengers make particular meal requests; pick extra sugar or creamer from the tray proffered by the air hostess; or simply call them to request something. A typical reaction to passengers who, for religious, cultural or health reasons, find the day’s menu unacceptable is appar-ent indifference. They simply move on to the next seat.
ET, kindly include a toothpick in the meal pack; as well as a few extra meals for those who don’t take meat or delicatessen (sa-lami, bacon, ham, etc.). TSM
Il y a deux sujets qui reviennent souvent lorsque l’on parle de cir-culation entre pays africains : le prix du billet d’avion et le visa.
Certes, beaucoup me donneront des explications logiques et concrètes pour me démontrer que c’est normal si un billet Kiga-li-Kinshasa ou Antananarivo-Port Louis coûte plus cher que un bil-let vers l’Europe. Mais je trouve quand même cela déplorable car cela réduit la circulation et par la même occasion, les échanges entre les pays et défavorise aussi le tourisme régional.
Je ne vais point m’attarder dessus. Car mis à part ce coût des transports aériens, il y a aussi et surtout la question des visas.
Obtenir un visa dans certains pays est déjà un vrai parcours du combattant. Mais devoir prendre 3 visas différents pour se ren-dre dans des pays voisins, c’est un peu du gaspillage de temps et d’argent. Et pourtant, ces pays ont très souvent des accords de libre échange entre eux mais cela ne s’applique pas toujours de la même manière. Exemple pour la COMESA. En Ouganda, les ressortissants de ces pays sont exemptés de visa mais pas au Burundi. De même si vous êtes résidents en Côte d’Ivoire, vous devez obtenir un visa pour vous rendre au Ghana.
Ce qui veut dire que vous devez faire une demande,
fournir tout un tas de papiers, payer des frais de visa, vous dé-placer à l’ambassade, faire la queue et vous énervez contre certains personnels administra-tifs. Ne serait-il pas plus simple d’émettre un seul visa, même plus cher, mais valable dans plusieurs pays de la région ? Ensuite, afin de promouvoir les échanges commerciaux et développer le continent, ne serait-il pas plus judicieux de fa-ciliter les visas pour les africains voire les exonérer ? TSM
La libre circula-tion en Afrique, mention « peut mieux faire » Par RHD
Knowledge is Power
GET YOUR
COPY NOW
EDUCATIVE3 LANGUAGESINFORMATIVE
@theservicemagFacebook.com/theservicemagtheservicemag
B U R U N D I R W A N D A
The ServiceMag RwandaTel: +250 788 781 562email: [email protected]@theservicemag.comwww.theservicemag.com
36
I am a customer care strategist who has been providing train-
ing and customer care strat-egies for several years. In Feb-ruary this year I was requested to conduct customer care training for the National Parks employees. To design and de-liver effective and appropriate content I decided to spend a day at the Gorilla Camp in the
Volcano National Park to talk to employees as well as tour-ists with the view of establishing customer care challenges. I was amazed at what I encoun-tered.
My experience started at the La Palme hotel located on the Kigali – Gisenyi main road in Musanze town. On arrival, I
was shown a place to park my car by an eager security guard dressed in a spotless khaki uni-form. He greeted me enthusi-astically and then directed me to the reception area. At the entrance of the building I was warmly welcomed by a young lady who cheerfully requested to help carry my laptop and escorted me to the reception
WHERE WE HAVE BEEN
By Gerald Mpyisi
37
desk. My room was excellent, had internet, TV and I was de-lighted to find a hot shower.
While dinner was fine, much could be done to improve the quality of the food.
The next day started at 6:30am in order to be in time for the daily 7:00am tourist briefing. At this time the weather is quite cool but pleasant. The 20-min-ute drive to the camp is on a smooth tarmac road through green gardens surrounded by homes and roadside shops.
The camp is at the base of Byin-yo Mountain, one of the Virun-ga Mountains, home to the famous mountain gorillas. On arrival at the camp we were welcomed by a professional team of the centre staff and tour guides. We were all served with free hot tea/coffee – a very welcome service as I soon realized I was not the only one who had missed breakfast.
Every morning at 7am sharp the entire team of guides
holds a brief with the cen-tre’s manager. I was given a few minutes to introduce my-self and my mission. On asking which language to use I was told I could speak in Kinyarwan-da, English or French. My imme-diate expression was ‘wow’. These guys, they were about 15, are fluently trilingual. I was impressed to learn that they all had been briefed of my mission
and were all keen to attend the training.
Prior to departure for the gorilla tracking the tourists are briefed by the guides. They are split into eight groups correspond-ing to the eight gorilla families. I joined the Agashya (special) group and was quite impressed by the professionalism dis-played by our two guides as they explained in fluent English the entire gorilla tracking expe-rience. Up to this point I was yet to identify a challenge to justify my training as the level of cus-tomer care exhibited was quite impressive.
During and immediately after the group briefing I took time to interact with the tourists who came from all over the world including Americans, Dutch, British, Germans, Japanese and other nationalities to find out their impressions. Those I talked to made positive com-ments and were impressed by the quality of the service they received.
Despite Uganda being one of the three countries with moun-tain gorillas it was interesting to meet tourists from Uganda who preferred to visit the gorillas from the Rwanda side.
During the briefing by the guides I learnt that every team has two guides – one in front and the other behind. Also present is a tracker who knows almost exactly where the go-
rilla families can be found and a porter to assist a tired tourist or help with the camera bags. Porters are provided by the lo-cal community cooperative.
Departure for gorilla tracking started at 8am but I stayed be-hind to plan the training with the centre’s management. By noon three teams had returned after visiting the gorillas and all the other teams soon followed. All groups saw the gorillas.
On my way back I passed by the famous Hanna Cottage owned by Jack Hanna which has hosted the likes of Bill and Melinda Gates. Anyone can stay there but ensure your bank account is quite healthy. I went to the centre to establish customer care challenges but could identify only a few. What I encountered was way above my impression before going to the centre. While there is room for improvement the overall customer care experience was well above average. Well done Volcano National Park staff and a pat on the back to RDB and especially the customer care unit. TSM
WHERE WE HAVE BEEN
If you are reading this message on such a small space, just imagine the number of potential customers who could be seeing your com-pany’s on a Full page or spread? Call us on 078 878 15 62 and let’s talk. [email protected]
Excellent Salon By Fahima Milenge
One of the things I miss most about Kigali - while away on missions - is high quality haircare. This, in my view, is epitomised by the little hair salon-cum-beauty par-lour tucked away behind the adults’ swimming pool of Serena Hotel.
The manager’s active involvement in almost every aspect of the hair & beau-ty treatment provided to clients; as well as her obvious concern for clients’ hair - puts clients completely at ease. Such empathy and involvement provides cli-ents with the assurance that they’re in the hands of a master of the trade.
Unlike MOST hair salon owners or man-agers, she doesn’t leave clients entirely at the mercy of the hairdressers. She is there to ensure that her staff are doing the right thing.
It is the first place I visit upon my return to Kigali; since I am yet to find a hair sa-lon providing the same high quality and dedicated haircare. TSM
My special mention goes to the owner and General Manager of NOBLEZA Hotel. Unlike many in his position, he’s quite accessible to clients, both resident and pro-spective. He is there to remedy potentially disastrous sit-uations for the client.
He sometimes offers his private number to anxious cli-ents in order to reassure them. I’ve seen him intervene without being requested to do so by the client. If only all business owners & CEO’s treated clients this way. TSM
A Big Thank You to the Owner ofNobleza HotelBy FahimaMilenge
WHERE WE HAVE BEEN
38
39
Customer feedback is a very important aspect of
business management. Every business should pay attention to what customers have to say about their services.However, simply getting the feedback isn’t enough; you need to act on it as well.
Imagine this scenario: a cus-tomer contacts one of your ser-vice staff members and makes a complaint about something they thought was wrong in your product/service. The staff mem-ber listens to the complaint and makes a note of it as well.The person responsible for resolving the issue is notified, the issue is eventually resolved, and ev-erything looks well and good to you.But then what? Do you check back on the customer to ask them if they still face the same problem?
Some companies have a no-care-in-the-world attitude. They believe that if the issue was recorded and resolved eventually, customers would realize this on their own and ev-erything would be fine. Howev-er, getting back is important if you want to know whether the improvements matched the customer’s expectations or not. There are a lot of things that can go wrong between receiv-ing feedback and acting on it. You won’t know if you’ve done the right thing or not if you don’t ask the customers themselves.
What Could Go Wrong?After the customer provides you with the feedback, there can be several things that could go wrong before any possible ac-tion is taken.
• TheCustomer Service Staff Can Misunderstand the Issue - The person taking feedback might not understand what the customer is saying due to their inability to understand the latter’s communication language or accent. This issue is really common in our region due to the challenge of finding perfectly multilingual staff who master English, French and Kin-yarwanda.
• Lack of Internal Communica-tion - The person recording the feedback might not communi-cate it to the person who should resolve it. This can be either be-cause they didn’t make notes and genuinely forgot about the issue or because they made a mistake and don’t want to tell on themselves, wishing that the customer would just go away without anyone discovering what they had done wrong.
• Lack of Resources, Time or Au-thority - The issue often doesn’t get resolved because the right people are short of time or re-sources. The responsible person might be busy or they might not have what they need to re-solve the problem even though it was reported almost instantly.
Regardless, your company will start losing customers. This can be 1 customer, 10 customers or 100. You won’t know wheth-er people came back or not to give your product/service another chance because you didn’t bother to ask or tell them that you’veprocessed their feedback and worked accord-ing to it.Always Respond to Feedback to Retain Customers
If you don’t want to lose clients, the simplest thing to do is to get back to them once you take action. This won’t only help you improve your customer satis-faction and retention rate, but can also tell your customers that you actually care and lis-ten to what they say. One hap-py customer would mean a lot more potential customers for your business.
One way to ensure that this pro-cess is carried out methodically is by automating the feedback process. This process ensures fewer human errors and fewer issues caused by sometimes un-reliable individuals. As a result, your customer retention rate will rise and so will your sales and profits. So consider this solution to keep feedback: a two-way street. TSM
The author is the founder & CEO of VOVACARE, a customer feedback management solu-tion company based in Rwan-da. Email him at: [email protected]
Why Getting Back to Customers after Feedack is critical.By Hubert MusoniFounder & CEO, VOVACARE
HAVE YOUR SAY
39
40
By SSEBUDANDI Robert
After completing my bachelors at universi-ty, I was determined not to get a job. I en-
couraged my close friends to join me in start-ing a company. They agreed and we opened an IT company.We lacked the skill we need-ed to run the company. Fortunately, I went for training on mobile applications development, which included business training in Kenya. This was the most informative time in my academic life; I even wondered what I had learnt at uni-versity.
I learnt a lot about business and couldn’t wait to go back to Rwanda. After the training I came back to Rwanda more determined than ever. I called for a meeting with my business partners and friends.
From the skills I had gotten from the training we developed the idea of the IT Company, devel-oped our services and we were good to go, we even opened up an office.
Things got really hard. The reality is entrepre-neurship is not as easy as people have painted it to be “quit your job and be an entrepreneur”.
My partners and I all had a background of IT, we were all running the company, and this was the first mistake. The second mistake was that we did not have a product. We didn’t know that we would need someone to market our services and someone to do the finance. May-be we did, but we thought we could handle it. This is the biggest myth among “techies”.
I learnt a few lessons. Before you start a com-pany, get business partners, don’t go in alone. When choosing a business partner, think of what value that person is bringing to the com-pany. If you have an IT background maybe you need someone to do marketing, you need an investor not another IT person. The second mistake is starting a company with-
out a product. Like us, many young entrepreneurs have started companies but without products, this cannot work out especially if you are to go for government tenders. It is better to develop a company around a product; a company with a product is easy to market.
Some young entrepreneurs think they can form a company then look for a product, it may work out sometimes but it is very difficult. The best way is to develop a product then start a company around that product. I made my mistakes, I hope you can learn from me and not have to repeat them. TSM
www.robesidetrip.wordpress.com
HAVE YOUR SAY
Akagera Eletronics. A Division of Akagera Buinsess Group
Telephone: +250782856007 or +250784118491Address: B.P. 3774, ABG HOUSE, NAYBUGOGO ROAD, MUHIMA, KIGALI, RWANDAEmail: [email protected] or [email protected]: www.abgafrica.com
40
41
Akagera Eletronics. A Division of Akagera Buinsess Group
Telephone: +250782856007 or +250784118491Address: B.P. 3774, ABG HOUSE, NAYBUGOGO ROAD, MUHIMA, KIGALI, RWANDAEmail: [email protected] or [email protected]: www.abgafrica.com
42
Know when to jumpBy Evelyn Mbula
If you put a frog in a vessel of water and start heating the water, the frog is able to ad-just its body temperature as the temperature rises. It keeps on adjusting to the increase in temperature. When the water is about to reach boiling point, the frog will fail to adjust any-more. At that point it decides to jump out but is unable to do so, because it has spent all its strength adjusting to the rising water temperature. Very soon the frog will die.
What killed the frog? Many of us would say the boiling water. But the truth is the frog was killed by its inability to jump out in good time. We all need to adjust to people and situations, but we need to be sure when we need to adjust and when we need to confront or leave.
There are times when we need to face the situation and take the appropriate action. If we allow people to exploit us phys-ically, mentally, emotionally or financially, they will continue to do so. We have to decide when to jump. Let us jump while we still have the strength. TSM
HAVE YOUR SAY
42
43
G i s h u s h u | N y a b u g o g o | G i p o r o s o
44
Many CEOs, business owners and heads of units have, on var-ious platforms, expressed their thoughts on what a conducive working environment should comprise of. Quick question-Are you working in a conducive work environment, and what does it comprise of?
A conducive working environ-ment is one with an atmosphere that has no detrimental effects on the employee’s physical or mental wellbeing and is suitable for the tasks required. In today’s fast-paced work place, it is very hard to ignore the rate at which the world’s paradigm is shifting in many ways.
Look at the constant improve-ments in information technolo-gy to increase work efficiency, human resource is also taking a pro-employee management ap-proach where they consider the wellbeing of the employee as an individual contributing signifi-cantly to the common whole to make execution of work easier and favourable.
To create a conducive work en-vironment, understanding what motivates employees is key and it could be premised on two fac-tors: physical and behavioral. They are as follows: equipment and facilities, workspace and atmosphere, noise-free environ-ment (although this could vary from one profession to another), encouragement to foster cre-ativity, and ability to make the workplace fun.
So, what are the necessary com-ponents for a conducive working environment? Effective leadership must be present. All employees have the capacity to be leaders. An envi-ronment that fosters leadership growth among staff and recog-nizes the importance and exper-tise of the staff will most definitely have a favourable environment.Communication is critical to a healthy work environment. Teams must work together to fos-ter good communication skills. Furthermore, employees should be able to participate in the decision-making process con-cerning their work environment; thoughts and opinions should be
sought and valued.
There has to be adequate staff-ing in a conducive working envi-ronment. There should be a need to pay attention to the dangers of understaffing to avert increase in errors, high stress levels, low morale, burnout, and ineffective work execution. A good work environment should recognise the efforts and achievements of the employees.
Collaboration is another key in-gredient for a healthy work envi-ronment. If this is upheld, teams work together to meet the goals for their clients both internal and external. Collaboration requires good communication skills and the ability to work with others. An unfavourable working envi-ronment can lead to low morale, disintegration of employees, high attrition rate which ultimately in-cur costs on the company. You know what they say about feed-ing the golden goose. TSM
The author is the Talent Acquisi-tion and Business Development Manager at [email protected]
Building a conducive working environmentBy Lorenza Julius Begumisa
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
44
45
By Lansana Gagny Sakho
One-mistake managers make when recruiting new staff is be-ing too cautious. Sometimes managers may subconsciously fear employing an individual who could potentially chal-lenge their position or under-mine authority within the work-place.
Any decision that is made by a manager should always be tak-en for the good of the organ-isation as a whole rather than what best suits individuals. One of the biggest flaws a business leader can have is thinking that they are the best at everything they do and not accepting other people’s points of view and opinions.
In factit can be a sign of strength if an individual recog-nises when they are not good at something so someone who isis brought in.
I have always looked to take on the right people to perform in areas where I do not feel com-fortable or have the necessary expertise to do the best possi-ble job. Of course, you should always ensure you are familiar with as much as possible. But nobody can be strong in every single aspect, so it makes sense to spread the workload.
As well as driving your business forward, hiring people who are better than you in certain areas will naturally improve your own skill set. Whether you are a fresh graduate or a seasoned Chief Executive, you should constant-ly be looking to improve.
One of the biggest challenges for a manager or business lead-er is to ensure you have the right mix of talents and characters. A successful team has people from a variety of disciplines with different approaches to prob-lems – but crucially, they are all working towards one shared goal. TSM
The Author is an innovative en-trepreneur based in Senegal. He is also the CEO of www.ex-perts-visions.com
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
“La meilleure des publicités est un client satisfait” Bill Gates
45
46
C’est un secret de polichi-nelle ; nous avons de réels
problèmes de compétences. Chaque année, de nombreux cadres s’enferment des jours durant dans endroits paradisi-aques, rêvent de la co mpag-nie idéale, établissent une stratégie et un plan de mise en application.
Leur conclusion est présentée au Conseil d’Administration pour approbation et après…rien, plus rien, nada, le vide to-tal.
Les ouvriers de la stratégie, les petites mains qui devaient l’ex-écuter, n’ont ni les compétenc-es ni l’attitude nécessaire.
La personne chargée des Res-sources Humaines est alors ap-pelé à la rescousse. Sa mission est d’envoyer tout ce beau monde en « training ». Et c’est ici que les romains s empoi-gnèrent.
Pour les plus chanceux, il y a une évaluation des besoins, souvent effectue par une so-
ciété qui organise elle-même des formations….PAM, pre-mier hic. C’est un peu comme amener sa voiture au garage et demander au garagiste si elle est en parfait état. A tous les coups, il vous conseillera au moins de changer vos essuies glaces.
Apres il y a les nombreuses of-fres de formations dans des hôtels de luxe avec un ordi-nateur portable offert au vingt premiers inscrits. PAM PAM, deuxième hic. En lisant le nom
Training=Panacée?Par Betty Sayinzoga
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
46
47
tion dans leur département.
Mon intention n’est pas de dén-igrer les formations, mais plutôt de remettre l’église au milieu du village. La formation oui, mais pas n’importe comment et à n’importe quel prix. La méthode utilisée, le nombre de participants, la langue d’in-struction, la durée, la fréquence sont tous des facteurs détermi-nants du succès.Construire une carrière est un investissement à long terme ; du cote de l’employeur et de l’employé. Si les formations ad hoc s’avèrent parfois utiles, le renforcement des capacités est de loin plus rentable.
La formation devrait faire part-ie d’un plan plus vaste : le pro-cessus de gestion des talents. On ne forme pas un employé comme on pose un sparadrap sur une blessure.
La gestion des talents débute au recrutement et se poursuit tout au long de la vie d’un em-ployé. Elle implique une prise en considération du plan de carrière de l’employé. Cela suppose donc un employé qui ne subisse pas sa carrière mais s’engage à son propre dével-oppement.
En tant qu’employeur, nous nous plaignons souvent de la qualité des nouveaux diplômes. Il semblerait que savoir écrire ne fasse plus partie du curricu-lum, qu’innovation soit confon-du avec copier-coller qu’esprit critique rime avec doléances et qu’analyse ne fasse plus par-tie du dictionnaire.
Ceci dit, nous ne pouvons pas
de votre compagnie sur inter-net, une personne bien inten-tionnée aurait senti que vous aviez besoin d’une formation et serait prête à vous faire un cadeau ? Accordons-nous sur le fait qu’il s’agisse souvent de présentation power point très cher payées.
Sans oublier les workshops en leadership à Dubaï, Zanzibar ou Hawaii que certains managers vous envoient, sans vraiment le faire exprès, lorsque vous vous enquérez du besoin en forma-
non plus nous cacher derrière les déficiences du système éd-ucatif et baisser les bras. Il est de notre responsabilité et de notre intérêt de participer au développement des talents (et il en existe, j’en suis persuadée).
De même que les compagnies ou institutions ont une vision à long terme, une stratégie et un plan de mise en application ; les employés ont un plan de carrière, une stratégie pour y parvenir et de nombreux outils à leur disposition.
Le rôle des ressources hu-maines et de planifier les beso-ins en capacité techniques et intellectuelles des institutions ou compagnies et de mettre à dis-position des employés les outils nécessaires a leur développe-ment. Les solutions toutes faites n’existent pas.
Les capacités nécessaires vari-ent certes d’une entreprise à une autre, mais aussi dans le temps au sein d’une même entreprise. Flexibilité et résil-ience sont les maitres mots de ces dernières années. Les pays, entreprises, employés résilients seront les survivants de notre décennie. Résilience implique persévérance. Rome ne s’est pas construite en un jour. Le renforcement des capacités est un processus à mettre en œuvre avec minutie et tact. Il prend du temps. TSM
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
47
48
There are some places on our beautiful continent that no
matter how many times one has visited, they always have to be rediscovered over and over again…simply because they are so unique and full of surprises.
Mombasa, the coastal city of Kenya, is one of these magical places that will always leave one refreshed. Well, I must admit that at the airport in Brazzaville, three different people working at the airport asked where exactly was Mombasa…because it surely isn’t part of the tourist destina-tions known in other parts of Af-rica.
Mombasa, located in the Indian Ocean’s bay is at 555 km from Nairobi and is one of the most dynamic cities of the country be-cause of her port and the num-ber of tourists that it attracts. The city was founded in 750 and is a combination of Arab traders, Portuguese and British coloniza-tion.Today it is a real cosmopoli-tan city that boasts of more than forty-two tribes.
Mombasa is a real tourist desti-nation because of its permanent sun, beaches and the diversity of its marine life. There are so many offers in terms of accommoda-tion.This time because it was a fami-ly vacation, we decided to rent an apartment in Nyali, one of the beautiful areas in Mombasa. The apartment was a service fur-nished one located right on the beach and few meters away from the City Mall.
Though the weather was ex-tremely hot, the morning breeze, the sound of the waves in the night, the afternoon activities on
the water, relaxing on the beach and riding on horseback were simply awesome and rejuvenat-ing. From my experience, here are 8 different ways you can re-discover Mombasa.
1. City tour of Mombasa in TukTukWell, every visit starts with a city tour. There is no better way to do this in Mombasa than in aTukTuk, a three wheel motorcycle origi-nated from Asia but available almost everywhere in Momba-sa. The city tour of Mombasa is very interesting because of the history, cultural heritage and the sea one sees from almost every-where. At some point, one has the impression of being in an Ar-abic city because of the many women wearing burghas and all covered up from head to toe in black.
2. Port Jesus and old MombasaLiving in the steps of the numerous captains…the visit is very interest-ing and the tiny roads of the old city a must experience. To avoid being bothered, it is better to
By Sandra Idossou
TRAVEL REVIEW
49
3. Why not try a Swahili meal?Stop at a typical Swahili restau-rant. I went to the Barka restau-rant right in the old town that specializes in Swahili dishes. Most popular dish: Biriyani with mut-ton Pilau rice and a glass of fresh tamarind juice. Apparently, Pres-ident Uhuru Kenyatta recently went there for lunch and since then, this place has become very famous though this is a tra-ditional local food where most people eat with their hands.
4. Visiting a Hindi templeMombasa is full of Indians Muslims who have been living together for centuries now. My curiosity made me visit one of the beauti-ful Hindi temples down town. You would surely love to be received by a temple keeper who will take time to explain some of the ritu-als.
5. Time to DiveIf you are an adventurous person like me, you will definitely want to go scubadiving in this clear Indi-an ocean. Well, Mombasa is the right place because even for the less experienced, you can prac-tice snorkeling (mask and snor-kel) almost everywhere on the beach.
For less adventurous people, you can also catch on a glass bot-tom boat trip over the coral reef that will introduce you to a co-lourful world of tropical fish and other sea life.
6. Indulge in fruits as much as possibleFor a fast and busy city like Mombasa, it is surprising to see the number of fruit sellers by the roadside. At every corner and with50KShs (approximately 7$) one can have a big bowl of sev-eral fruits sliced right before you. I loved doing this every single
day and this is probably one of the best fruit eating experiences I have had.
7. Unwind at Nyali BeachNyali Beach is 14 km from Moi International Airport and 10 km from Mombasa Island.You would surely love Nyali because you can live there without going to other sides of Mombasa be-cause it gives youa glimpse into the country’s past and present with a City Mall, the Golf course, churches, mosques etc. Sunset on the beach is awesome.Nyali is just the perfect place to unwind
8. Go feed animals at Hallar ParkYou cannot visit Mombasa with children and not take them to this extraordinary park where one can see different species of animals, from snakes, tortoises, giraffes, monkeys. Located at al-most 5 km north from the island, the feeding time of animals is ob-viously the most spectacular part of the visit so do plan your visit there for either 11am or 3pm.
Kenya is beautiful and has so much to offer. Mombasa is the perfect place to travel to unwind and relax. I will surely come back. I refuse to count the number of times I have visited; I guess I can never get enough of this beauty and serene ambiance. TSM
TRAVEL REVIEW
take a guide to take you through the museum and later on to the old town. The preservation of the old mosques and buildings make this visit an incredible one as one has the impression of walking in the same tiny streets of rulers of the city.
If you are reading this message on such a small space, just imagine the number of potential customers who could be seeing your com-pany’s on a Full page or spread? Call us on 078 878 15 62 and let’s talk. [email protected]
With the national push towards increasing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) literacy in Rwanda, the youth of Rwanda are taking their skills to a whole new level.
With an educational back-ground in Computer Science and Beauty Therapy,25-year-old Anne Lise Uwingabiye blends the rather diverse fields in the business world. The ServiceMag caught up with her to discuss what drives her business choices.
TSM: How would you describe yourself?
Uwingabiye: I am an entre-preneur who makes beau-
ty products, specializing in bridal makeup and braid-ing. I am working on a software application that will allow people to book appointments for hair and beauty services in different
salons in Kigali and to order a variety of cosmetics and have them delivered to their chosen locations.
I also work for DOT Rwanda as a facilitator and employment coach.
TSM: What role(s) do you play to influence change within your community?
Uwingabiye: As an em-ployment coach, I mobi-
lize, select, train, coach and ad-vocate for young people who have dropped out of school to enable them to start a career in business or seek suitable em-ployment or pursue further stud-ies. As an entrepreneur, I mentor and encourage young people who want to start a business they are passionate about but don’t know how to do it.
TSM: Why are these roles import-ant?
Uwingabiye: I believe these roles are important because at some point, we all need help. When we are young, we gener-ally struggle with the lack of ex-perience, resources or skills. We need to seek out people who can guide and encourage us. In my experience, this encour-agement and motivation helps a lot, every day I see young people being empowered, get-ting jobs, starting businesses or going back to school.
TSM: What do you consider the biggest challenge in your field?
Uwingabiye: In the beauty field, it is hard to break even because experience counts a lot and emerging technicians have a hard time finding clients. Addi-tionally, there are many shops/ boutiques within the city, how-ever, many services in this in-dustry have not yet been intro-duced on the Rwandan market.
By Gloria Iribagiza
YOUTH TALK
50
TSM: What are your aspirations?
Uwingabiye: My future goal is to have an outstanding beauty firm in Rwanda. I want to take this business to the next level and turn it into a sustainable venture that is internationally competitive, that empowers its employees and gives quality service to customers.
TSM: What is your take on ser-vice delivery in Rwanda espe-cially in this sector?
Uwingabiye: I believe we are on the right path especially with going green. When we put em-phasis on keeping the country clean, we will have clean streets and through whatever field we are involved in, we should en-courage employees to follow suit and maintain a green cul-ture.
TSM: What is your message to the Rwandan youth?
Uwingabiye: I would like to en-
TSM: How do you hope to over-come present challenges through your career?
Uwingabiye: I intend to be among the first people who will increase awareness of services like consultations, spa services, nail technologies, makeup in Rwanda. Also in the future, I would like to contribute towards training emerging and passion-ate technicians so that they can find their way in this busi-ness arena.
TSM: What is your biggest suc-cess story and how has it made you feel?
Uwingabiye: Having a business in a field I am passionate about is my biggest success story. Irre-spective of the fact that starting something new without resourc-es hasn’t been easy for me, little by little I have seen my business grow. When I do bridal makeup and brides like the look, when people tell me that the Vase-line I make is working great on their skin, when people tell me that digitalizing this business is a much needed step, I feel re-warded.
TSM: Where do you derive your motivation?
Uwingabiye: I try to stay pas-sionate about what I do, I stick to it and I believe in my dreams. People who know me personal-ly and professionally admire this attitude and the more they ap-preciate what I do, the more I feel indebted to improve myself and contribute more to society. This has won me clients, part-ners, investors and friends and it keeps me going.
courage the youth to put their ideas into action.They should do this in strength and cour-age. Thebest time to invest in your career is when you are still young, for when you make mis-takes you still have time to learn from them and do better.
Up Close1. When are you happiest?When I hang out with friends.
2. What inspires you the most? Prayers and devotion in open spaces with lots of nature and fresh air. I am also inspired by stories of young achievers.
3. What is your saddest mo-ment? When I am broke.
4. Your favorite hangout spot when in Rwanda? Gihinda-muyaga monastery.
5. Favorite drink/ snack/ dish? Freshjuice/fish.
6. What gadget can’t you possi-bly do without? My phone.
7. YourDreamCar? Any!As long as it is comfortable.
8. If you had one wish, which in-fluential person would you like to meet? Jesus.
9. Are you dating single or mar-ried? Single.
10. What is the most daring or craziest thing you’ve done? When I was six years old, I pierced my friend’s ears! TSM
YOUTH TALK
51
52
UNDERSTANDING EBOLA FEVERBy Dr. Rachna Pande
The recent outbreak of cases of ebola fever in West Africa
has become a matter of inter-national concern. Health care workers including foreign na-tionals have also been affect-ed and some of these returning home have alarmed the peo-ple there for fear of outbreak in their respective countries. The current outbreak started in March 2014 and was declared a public health emergency by W.H.O in August. Ebola out-break first occurred in 1976, in the tropical rain forests of Cen-tral Africa near Ebola River from which it derived its name.
Ebola virus disease (EVD) former-ly known as ebola hemorrhagic fever causes severe often fatal sickness in human beings. Fruit bats are said to be the natural reservoirs of ebola virus. Other animals like antelopes, gorillas, monkeys, etc. can be infected with this virus. Humans acquire infection by touching, handling the carcass of an infected ani-mal or consuming raw or inad-equately cooked meat. Man to man spread occurs through physical contact with an infect-ed person or even by touching objects like beddings, clothes, phones or any object contam-inated by body fluids of the in-fected individual.
After being exposed to the virus one can develop the sickness between 2 to 21 days. A person becomes infectious after he develops symptoms. One de-velops high fever, muscle and
joint pains, flu like symptoms, followed by nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. This may be asso-ciated with bleeding from any site in the body.
Diagnosis is mainly made by ex-cluding other diseases with sim-ilar presentations. Confirmed diagnosis is made by detect-ing the virus strands by specif-ic tests but transportation and handling of the infected body fluids is extremely hazardous. Currently there is no specif-ic treatment available for this disease. Treatment is palliative where the sick person is giv-en fluids, painkillers and other medicines to relieve suffering. Vaccines for prevention of eb-ola are under trial but none has proved successful yet.
Therefore prevention becomes much more important in case of EVD. People handling ani-mals should be motivated to use gloves and adopt good hand hygiene while doing so. Meat should be thoroughly cooked before it is consumed.Avoid direct physical contact with a suspected person with ebola. Greeting with a bow or with folded hands and palms together instead of a hand-shake is advisable. Thorough hand washing after coming in contact with a suspected indi-vidual will help to avoid infec-tion.
The body fluids like urine, stool, sputum, e.t.c of the sick person should be disinfected thorough-ly before being disposed of. The bedding and soiled clothes are soaked in antiseptic solution first, then washed and dried in strong sunlight or hand dried by
hot iron. Individuals strongly sus-pected of EVD should be imme-diately put in isolation. Persons nursing them are supposed to wear protective mask, goggles, cap, gown, gloves and shoes to prevent any direct contam-ination through body fluids of the sick person. W.H.O. has is-sued guidelines on how to put on and remove this protective clothing.
In case of death, the body should be handled with gloves as it is also potentially infectious. It should be washed thorough-ly, people should be discour-aged from coming close to it, only those directly working on it should be allowed to touch it. After washing it should be wrapped in plastic cover and then buried as deep as possi-ble.
Eventually there will be preven-tive vaccination, drugs and successful treatment for EVD as has emerged for so many diseases. Till then, people have to be sensitized to be vigi-lant about EVD and how best they can prevent it. Ministry of Health, Government of Rwan-da is taking very good initiative regarding sensitizing people in communities and medical per-sonnel down to level of health centers regarding preventive measures for EVD. In spite of its close proximity to DRC, there have been no documented cases here so far. TSM
The author is Specialist internal medicine at Ruhengeri District [email protected]
YOUR HEALTH MATTERS
52
53
‘Breakfast”, the first meal taken in the morning, literally means breaking the overnight fast. It may not satiate one’s hun-ger but it is vital for one’s good health. Normally one eats in the evening and stays without food for the duration of night. This lowers the blood glucose levels. Also as counter reaction to the surge of hormones after mid-night due to the body’s biologi-cal clock, the blood glucose lev-els become low. Glucose is an important fuel for the function-ing of the brain and the body, deficiency of which makes one feel dull and lethargic.
Taking a meal in the morning helps to boost blood glucose levels; it invigorates a person physically as well as mentally for the day’s work ahead. Regular breakfast helps in improving di-gestion also. It helps to stimulate release of digestive juices and neutralize acid of the stomach, thus preventing dyspepsia, flat-ulence and other digestive dis-turbances.
Many people skip breakfast in a bid to lose weight. But they tend to eat more thereafter, thus adding more calories and
negating the effects of missing breakfast. This happens be-cause by not eating in the morn-ing, an individual feels so hungry by afternoon that he tends to eat more. Breakfast helps one to make better healthy choices with regard to other meals.
Regarding nutrition, the body assimilates nutrients more if meals are divided in small por-tions instead of having one or two heavy meals.
A regular breakfast also helps to improve the mental well-being of an individual. When the work is started after a breakfast, one feels fresh both physically as well as mentally. He/she is able to concentrate more on his/her work. In contrast, if somebody has not eaten, he will tend to feel hungry after 1 to 2 hours of work. His mind will be distracted by thoughts of food and how soon food will be available, thus reducing focus on work ahead.
A word of caution here, Break-fast is not only to satiate hunger; it is also useful to provide nutri-ents to the body.
One should take care to con-
sume whole grains in any form (germinated grains, porridge or any other preparation), fresh fruits or their juices, milk or milk products as breakfast. Eggs are not recommended for daily use as their cholesterol content is very high but once or twice a week is good. Fatty foods, sodas and alcohol should be avoided with breakfast. Milk without cream, yoghurt, or light tea or coffee is a better choice.
Breakfast should be taken ear-ly in the morning, not later than 9am. If one takes a very late breakfast, it does not provide all the benefits. It also clashes with the lunchtime, when one would not feel hungry.
It is advisable to include break-fast as part of one’s daily rou-tine, to keep and improve your physical and mental well-being. TSM
The author is a Specialist in inter-nal medicine –Ruhengeri [email protected]
Had Your BREAKFAST? By Dr. Rachna Pande
YOUR HEALTH MATTERS
54
Apart from all his soft skills, he is quite competent in
his work. If he is serving you, he will always hover around such that you may just turn your head and see him in the vicinity ready to take your order. He never takes longer than 10 min-utes to bring an order. If there is any cause of delay, he comes to inform the customers the reason for the delay and beg to be excused.
Menus in Rwanda can some-times be quite fancy and when you ask the waiter what goes in preparation of a particular dish… very often they will an-swer, ‘Let me ask the boss!’St-aphord not only knows what is in each item on the menu but can also advise the customer.
Staphord engages customers. I have had interesting conversa-tions with him. He is motivated and aims for excellence in his work and takes pride in it. He exults the feeling that the sky is the limit. Upon meeting him, you also get imbibed with his very hospitable optimism.
I do hope that service provid-ers engage more Staphords,
give them a sense of pride or at least train their staff to become like Staphord and WAOW their customers. TSM
One of the characteristics of good service is to be friendly. Staphord is genuinely friendly, very courteous and is easily ac-quainted with the customers. Customers look for him when they visit RZ Manna.
One of the key areas where Staphord excels is that he
is able to anticipate the request of the customer. Once during a long lunch, while seated out in the yard with a group of friends, he came by to ask if we want-ed to move. He knew that in a few minutes the sun was going to hit and that we were going to get uncomfortably warm. We appreciated this genuine concern for our welfare.
If you have been to RZ Manna, a coffee shop in Nyarutara-
ma, you will agree that the staff is extremely courteous. When you step in, you get a welcome greeting, a bow and a smile and when you are leaving, of-ten someone will hold the door for you and wish you goodbye. The place draws you back with its very warm atmosphere.
One person really stands out for me. His name is Staphord. He is easily recognizable as he smiles all the time and has a strong American accent, which in-cidentally he acquired while teaching himself English.
StaphordBy Manisha Dookhony
RZ Manna’s smile THEY WOWED US
55
RZ Manna’s smile
56
At any stage of human interaction, one of the greatest feelings that bind two personalities for good is the extent to which either side
is able to anticipate and bring about that wow factor. This facet is as true in the social fabric as it is in business. Anticipatory customer service enables the highest ratings of customer feedback. Whether delivered by humans or technology, it is any business’ opportunity to validate its brand in the eyes, the emotions, and the memories of their customer.
There is wide debate and mixed approach to true customer service. Some strongly believe strong customer service performance is only the feat of well-trained professionals. Others think that anticipation can be leveraged by technology. Andsome argue that a good use of both hu-man performance and technology power can stir great customer ser-vice.
The truth is that technology does nothing of its own. Rather, it
works in your favor as soon as you establish a sound policy and shift your mindset about communicat-ing and interacting with your cus-tomers. Technology supports the automation of certain interactions to let your customers hear from you before they even care to ask for anything. And if they so wish, have the option of interacting with a human at any stage of their ex-perience with your brand. It is cost-ly but necessary.
There are a few major areas in which technology is able to pro-
vide key advantages to businesses in cultivating loyalty amongst cus-tomers.But before we proceed I think it is in order to clear the fog between customer service and customer feedback. Customer ser-vice is the assistance and advice a company offers to individuals who buy or use their product or service. Customer feedback is the other way round; the customer’s response (of satisfaction or dissatis-faction) to the product or service.
So what can technology bring?Websites: The best space to give your customers what they want, when they want it. Spend your resources on data collection and analytics and insight-driven mar-keting. Invest in community-driven customer development strategies. It is simple: you provide the space and you let your customers speak.
Email: You can further harness the power of computing to effective-ly communicateen masse to your audience but in a fine, targeted way. Nothing beats email to that.
Software: We belong to an era of great innovation and super-ad-vanced mobility. Most of the time, off-the-shelf solutions to custom-er feedback management won’t help. There is an inclination to-wards hiring in-house geeks and technology savvy professionals to propose top-of-the-line applica-tions to getting closer to your cus-tomers. Embark on that train!
It is gross and repulsive to force your customers to provide feed-back, but technology can make it subtle, almost unnoticeable, to the attention of your audience and yet fill your servers with data. Especially through social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc. Interact with them in their comfort zone, like their mobile phones, and not by squeezing a paper form to fill along with their bill (invoice). Give them options us-ing rewarding schemes like a loyal-ty program or an email marketing campaign. Turn them into fervent loyalists by involving them, to a certain extent, in your product life cycle. TSM
The author is founder and CEO of Ceable, a software development startup focusing on cloud comput-ing and related consultancy ser-vices in finance and e-commerce. [email protected]
Using ICT for Customer Service FeedbackBY Robert Nsinga
ICT
Photo by: VOVACARE
2. Do you talk about your products and services only? Don’t be that guy at the party who only talks about himself. Posting status updates, tweets and pins that narcissistically revolve around your brand only is tantamount to social-media suicide. You’ll quickly come off as too corpo-rate, self-serving and disconnect-ed from your customers and their needs. An exodus of followers is sure to follow.Small-business expert Steven D. Strauss, author of The Small Busi-ness Bible (Wiley, 2012) suggests following the 80-20 rule to establish a meaningful connection with cus-tomers via social media. That is to say that 80 percent of the content you post should address your cus-tomers’ problems and only 20 per-cent should be about your com-pany and what you do.
3. Hashtag OverloadHashtags are a brilliant way of cu-rating information, providing con-text and categorising content to reach a specific audience. How-ever, people tend to abuse this by cramming many hashtags into a tweet or using it as a secondary voice, usually to denote sarcasm (the latter is arguably worse).Depending on the medium, two to four hashtags are an accept-
able amount (e.g. two for Twitter and more for the likes of Instagram where an image would appeal to a wider demographic) for people to know who the tweet is aimed towards, and provide context.
4. The announcer of literally every-thing Sometimes we get people posting these pointless updates:“Hi all!I am now at the barber.”“Wow, I just woke up from sleep!”“I bought a pen! Cool, right?”“Hey, friends, you know what? Lisa fell down and has a small bruise on her knee!”If an event is exciting, or an insight new and interesting, then tell the world. However, if your “updates” are generally boring or banal, try not to overdo it.
5. Automated Direct Messages on TwitterWhen someone follows you on Twitter, there isn’t an implic-it agreement saying it’s okay to send them a direct message. Twit-ter isn’t an email list, it’s a conver-sation centered around the con-cept of giving before receiving. Automated DM requesting a LIKE on your Facebook page when you haven’t done anything valu-able for that new follower is a bit greedy to say the least.
6. Asking For Shares or RetweetsWhen people or pages post an up-date or offer and then ask follow-ers to share or retweet, it comes across as incredibly needy and it offers no engagement. It’s the on-line equivalent of going up to a bunch of strangers, screaming “be my friend!” and expecting them to enthusiastically oblige.If you do post something like that, the only people that will oblige will be your closest friends. Avoid begging, fol-lowers will only ignore you or unfol-low. TSM
The author is the founder @Alltop-startups. www.alltopstartups.com
How to use Social Media effectively By Thomas Oppong
Social media is here to stay. There-fore, it is in your interest to stay relevant. People will follow you if there is something useful or valu-able they can learn from them. It is imperative that you continue to deliver that great content to win the trust of your followers. Make sure your updates are valuable, useful, informative and worth shar-ing. Here are a few points you may want to watch:
1. Is your Twitter Feed Professional-ly Boring?Marketing 101 dictates that you use Twitter to promote your spe-cific industry or company, right? The answer is yes, but not always. If your entire Twitter feed becomes a stream of on-brand blather all the time, you will become a deep-ly boring and uninteresting human being to the world at large. Yes, you will get a drab industry-related following if you work hard enough at it, but no one will relate to you. Unless you are providing actu-al data or real insight (no, that doesn’t mean “expertise.”)
ICT
57
By Efua Hagan
The Beauty in Simplicity There are countless directions in which one can go in regard to fashion; different occasions call for different fashion approaches. The notion that beauty lies in sim-plicity speaks volumes even in the world of fashion.
Simple fashion is elegant and bold in its own right.
For this look:- Wear few patterns and more solid colors- Stick to neutral colors, black or white- Accent your outfit with a modest touch of bright color and/or pattern through your accessories i.e. a belt, or earrings.
Art that Defines a RoomA work of art can become the accessory that defines a room. Use art to introduce diversity, and elevate the visual appearance of a wall and the overall look of the room. If you are looking for an instant and equally effective way to fill up a blank wall, art is the way to go.
From minimal art to traditional art, and expressive art to collage patch work, you can’t fail to find something you’ll adore. However, no matter how much you admire an art piece, consider how it will
tie in with the other decorative el-ements in the room.
Points to remember:- If you would like to hang up a colorful art piece, place it on a neutral and clam wall.- Proportion matters, so fill up the wall accordingly without cluttering it. For example in some cases one art piece will do, where in other cases three varying in size will do better.
Accessorizing with cushions Looking for an Instant Makeover?Cushions serve two main func-tions; to make a sofa or chair more comfortable and to trans-form it into something more visu-ally pleasing.If you happen to be tired of your couch, consider arranging an as-sortment of cushions on it, as this is one of the easiest and quick-est ways to revitalize a couch through color, textures and/or patterns.
A few decorative cushions can go miles to revive a living room or any waiting area. Here are some of the ways you can make this happen.- Applying patterns can give a sofa a new look.For a distinct look, use two pairs, in contrasting patterns or colors.- Explore with different shapes and sizes. For example two large cushions and two medium ones or a round cushion paired with a square one. TSM
Dress by INCO | icyusaModel: Alexia MupendeCost: 48,000 Rwf
FASHION PAGE
58
Outfits by INCO | icyusa are located at The Rwanda Nziza store. Contact information: Tel: +250722120012Email: [email protected]
Products by Malidine are lo-cated at Orchide ets NdamageTel: 0789610242
Pillows by Glo creations are located at The Rwanda Nziza StoreContact information: Tel: 0788627104Email: [email protected]
Canvas Art work by MalidineCost: 20,000 Rwf
Batik pillow cover by Glo Creations42cm x 42cmCost: 8,000 Rwf (13,000 Rwf with a cushion)
Back: Hand printed pillow cover by Glo Creations42cm x 42cm Cost: 7,000 Rwf (12,000 Rwf with a cushion)Front: Hand printed pillow cover by Glo Creations45cm x 25cm Cost: 6,000 Rwf (11,000 Rwf with a cushion)
Colorful Kitenge collage By Malidine10,000 Rwf (sold as a pair)
Hand printed pillow cover by Glo Creations 42cm x 42cmCost: 7,000 Rwf (12,000 Rwf with a cushion)
Canvas Art work by MalidineCost: 10,000 Rwf
Hand printed pillow cover by Glo Creations(42cm x 42cm)Cost: 7,000 Rwf (12,000 Rwf with a cushion)
Hand printed pillow cover by Glo Creations45cm x 25cmCost: 6,000 Rwf (11,000 Rwf with a cushion)
Earrings by MalidineCost: 1,500Rwf Bangle by Malidine
Cost: 2,000Rwf
Outfit byINCO | icyusaModel: Georgette UmutoniCost: 49,000 Rwf
FASHION PAGE
59
60
TSM Business Cocktail Sponsored by MTN, Serena Hotel, Rwandair and Bralirwa, was held at the Kigali Serena Hotel on September 30th 2014 andwas dedicated to discussing the importance of effective communication.
PICTORIAL
61 Africa Leadership Awards
Educat-GT Bank awards
Sour
ce: S
ara
Leed
omSo
urce
: ED
UC
AT
PICTORIAL
Emelyne AYATEKE is an IT graduate from AUCA
(Adventist University of Central Africa). She recently completed her Bachelor’s degree. She joined Airtel in June 2014. She is passionate about customer service and her IT skills have contributed overall to her duties and responsibilities in her current position.
Ayateke chose to become an ‘Airtel Data Geek’, a new concept in Airtel customer service. In addition to her desire to serve customers well, she is happy to be able to apply her IT skills. She enjoys solving customer issues and loves that appreciation from customers when they leave the service center happy and willing to come back. The smiles on their faces is the icing on the cake.
So far, Ayateke’s job is enjoyable and she hasn’t faced any crisis because most of the customers visiting the Airtel service centre
are satisfied and whenever she can’t solve an issue, escalation comes in handy until the customer’s problem is solved and they are fully satisfied with the service.
When she gets to work in the morning, the first thing
Ayateke does is to check her desk, make sure flyers are updated and well organized. She then checks internet connections to ensure they are stable and up to speed. Then opens her computer and makes sure all applications are up and running. Most importantly, she has to check all the devices to make sure that they are functioning. All this is done to ensure that customers are assisted on a timely and professional basis. Before she leaves the office in the evening, she submits a daily.
Asked about her advice to youth in pursuit of the same career, Ayateke advises young
people seeking to pursue the same career to be open and desire to serve customers. “As customer care executives, we always remember the notion that ‘customer is king’ and it is important to treat them as such” she affirms.
“Of course we can’t ignore the knowledge we acquire at school and through the training we have received but most importantly, we need self-confidence, positive thinking and hard work.”
Ayateke enjoys self-instruction which involves equipping herself with more information. She scours the web for any additional information to keep her up to date in an ever evolving IT world. She also enjoys watching movies and spending time with her family and friends. TSM
Emelyne Ayateke Data Geek at Airtel Rwanda
AT YOUR SERVICE
62
GREAT MOMENTS DESERVE A MÜTZIG.
64 www.nayombi.rw
Noza Serivisi
REPUBULIKA Y’U RWANDA
[email protected]#NozaSerivisi @nozaserivisi *788#
BE A CHANGE MAKER!TELL US HOW YOU THINK SERVICE
CAN BE IMPROVED IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR
Related Documents
