RDB trains 40 trainers in Customer Care

Kigali: A two day training of trainers in customer care commenced today. The training is part of a series of initiatives of the Na Yombi campaign, which was launched by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) geared towards improving the quality of services across all sectors in the country.

In his opening remarks, RDB’s Head of Department for Human Capital and Institutional Development Apollo Munanura mentioned that “while RDB has been training and providing orientation to various groups about customer care, this new training is designed to equip trainers with knowledge and skills to address the root causes of poor or indifferent customer service, specifically in timeliness, communication and problem solving.”

This training is specifically designed to cover the foundations of good customer service as well as critical pillars of customer care including timeliness, problem solving and communication. Research conducted in 2010 to establish the level of satisfaction of users of services provided in 7 sectors, both public and private by the Boston-based consulting firm, On The Frontier Group, revealed that customer expectations with regard to those three pillars of customer care were minimally or in some instances never met.

The 40 trainers who are being trained are drawn from 18 organizations including the Private Sector Federation, Rwanda Tourism University College, School of Finance and Banking, Rwanda Association of Customer Care Professionals, Mount Kenya University, Akilah Institute, Adventist University, Rwanda Utility and Regulatory Authority, among others. 

Yves Ngenzi, the manager of the Customer Care Unit at the Rwanda Development Board said that “these trainers will now become resources for their institutions in all matters pertaining to customer care by conducting formal and regular training of customer facing staff. They will also be encouraged to mentor selected employees to transfer the right attitude and skills in customer care.”

In its efforts to foster fast economic development, RDB will continue to upgrade the skills of the trainers by providing them with other tools to evaluate the level of customer satisfaction in their respective institutions. It will also endeavor encourage them to provide their training and technical assistance to organizations which might seek to benefit from their services.

At the end of the training, trainers are expected to prepare training and skills transfer plan to ensure that the knowledge they have acquired is transmitted to as many of their colleagues as possible and that best practices in customer care are disseminated as widely as possible.

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