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Africom marketing manager Mr Prosper Mutswiri (left) receives the ICT award from former Zambian First Lady Dr Maureen Mwanawasa in Harare last week

Africom last week received the service excellence award in the ICTs and Telecoms Sector during the annual Service Excellence Awards organised by the Contact Centre Association of Zimbabwe. Telecel Zimbabwe won the award last year, after it commissioned its state-of-the-art customer service centre.

The award was a fitting tribute for a company that has been coming up with innovative services and products throughout the years.
It is also important to note that while competition has been heating up in technology, most companies or organisations have been preoccupied with increasing the bottom line at the expense of increasing customer satisfaction, but Africom has gone the extra mile to ensure that it offers the best possible service to its clients.

The award also underlines the efforts being made in the telecommunications sector to respond to customer needs through the introduction of state-of-the-art 24/7 support centres as a customer service backbone.

Such initiatives help to protect vulnerable subscribers and creates an atmosphere of transparency where telecommunications companies are answerable to their subscribers.

Africom marketing manager Mr Prosper Mutswiri, who received the award, underscored his company’s commitment to ensuring quality service to its clients.

“Although we have invested heavily in technology, we are more than a tech company but a customer solution company. We have a dedicated pool of staff that is ready 24/7 and 365 days a year to give our valued customers the best service they deserve,” he said.

Africom provides services like broadband internet powered by various platforms, voice services, business communication solutions and value addition services to business and consumers.

It recently introduced a very innovative product, Guroo, Business in a Box, and were the first telecoms company to integrate voice, video and data over broadband.

Africom’s voice service is one of the cheapest on the market and their network destination code is 08644.
Africom has also been on the forefront of innovating voice over internet protocol (VoIP)-based products, a market which I personally feel is still very much underutilised in Zimbabwe.

All these products have been introduced with the customer in mind.
Accepting the award, Mr Mutswiri promised more quality products from his company and also thanked their customers who have been with them through thick and thin. Without the customers, said Mr Mutswiri, they are just as good as dead as their clients are their kings and should be treated as such.

Their motivation has been to ensure that their customers get the best solutions and best possible service.
While, I was happy with the whole awards ceremony, my advice to the organisers is that they should also have an award for the company with the worst customer service and hopefully this will help companies that are lagging behind to pull up their socks.

This I think will help to improve services offered by companies as some take their customers for granted without realising their true worth in the marketplace.

I am waiting eagerly for next year’s edition.

The writer is the founding editor with TechnoMag.Facebook page www.facebook.com/technomagzw. He can be contacted at [email protected] or you can tweet @TechnoMagZw