MIM trains front officers for central Region Water Board in customer service
The Acting Executive Director of Malawi Institute of Management, Samson Sikelo has urged companies to ensure that customers are given best products and services at all times because the market is competitive.
Sikelo made the remarks during Professional Customer Service and Business Etiquette Training Course for Central Region Water Board.
He said one of the greatest assets in business is to have highly qualified and skilled employees who are able to meet expectations of customers.
The main objective of this training course is to equip participants with skills and knowledge necessary for good handling of customers.
“We are always delighted to conduct such training courses especially for the public sector. The public sector remains our key priority in provision of training courses because such courses provide an opportunity for MIM to fulfil its mandatory obligations. Although MIM has expanded its business catchment to include other Sectors of Malawi economy such as Private Sector and Non-Governmental Organisations, we will continue to ensure that public sector courses are given the deserved attention and priority,” said Sikelo.
He described the training course as very high demand by their clients and that it continues to get popular due to the competitive landscape of our economy.
According to a customer survey, the reasons for customer defection are as follows: 68% due to rude or discourteous staff, 14% due to dissatisfaction with customer service, 9% due to competitive reasons, 5% due to new relationships, 3% because they relocate and 1% because of death.
“The majority of reasons for customer defection are to do with staff attitude such as rudeness and poor service delivery to customers. These reasons for customer defection can easily be avoided if staff are well trained and equipped with relevant skills,” he said.
He also commends the Management of Central Region Water Board for organising this training intervention which will equip the staff with vital knowledge and skills for providing best services to customers.
During the training course, some of the topics which were discussed include Introduction to customer Service and customer care, customer complaints handling mechanism, dealing with difficult customer situations, business etiquette and behaviours, consumer and organisational buying behaviour and professionalism, ethics and integrity.
The Chief Executive Officer for Central Region Water Board, Engineer John Makwenda, said the course was very critical because it has taught the participants how to handle customers.
“Our expectation is that our staff will be more professional and presentable because these qualities may attract more customers to come to their offices by improving their organisation,” he said.
He said their staff will utilise the training well so that their organisation should improve in service delivery.
MIM because we have been given a rare opportunity by Central Region Water Board to facilitate this course in four sites of Salima, Kasungu, Mponela and Dedza respectively, for a total number of 119 participants.
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