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Got a complaint or compliment? Website gives customers voice
A cyber cafe in Nairobi. Customers who are not happy with the services offered by various companies can now raise their complaints online. File
The Internet has revolutionised the way people worldwide conduct their daily businesses, boosted by the number of mobile and computer applications being developed to solve the challenges they encounter along the way.
In Kenya, the wooden suggestion box in the corner of most offices and business premises for customers or employees to give their feedback still is a common feature. But companies that want to know what their customers are thinking may need to go online as the internet threatens to make the suggestion box obsolete.
One site where customers can ventilate about companies and their products is GotIssuez.com which was established two years ago for consumers to give their feedbacks on commodities and services.
Research director
Mark Kaigwa and Anthony Mwangi, say they started the site to provide an avenue for users to vent out emotions, or even whine when things go bad.
“Customer care and service delivery can be appalling . But there is no online avenue to point out or address these shortcomings,” said Mr Kigwa: “We partnered to host a web page where Kenyans can give their views on products, service delivery and as well pick out brands that deserve mention.”
Recently, the corporate communication director at Safaricom, Mr Nzioka Waita, told the Business Daily that more local companies were become more proactive in reaching out to their customers online.
“In two to three years,” he had said, “it is likely that all our customer care agents would serve customers on the social media like Facebook and Twitter”.
What that means is that more companies could follow suit to meet their customers online.
The companies which will be unable to meet their customers on the official company sites but in future, here from them in online communities, which is where GotIssues.com is heading.
Interestingly, the youths behind the idea did not take the project seriously until visitors started streaming in after two months.
Kenyans like to debate issues, whether it is bad weather or traffic snarl-ups or poor services and that is precisely what this online community is all about.
Initially, the site used to attract up to 500 users per week but the numbers have been rising. Those who frequent the site are aged between 18 and 28 but there is emerging interest from older people.
What such sites herald is a change in the way customer give feedback to various organisations to influence change.
Whereas the old suggestion box was only one way — with the customer having no assurance that his or her complaint would be acted on — speaking up online means that companies will take notice and act not only to reach out to the customer but to improve service delivery.
Indeed, tech-savvy institutions have employees who trawl the internet to check what customers are saying about their products.
“At GotIssuez.com, we reward Kenyans for engaging with the site as well allow companies to collaborate with us to improve products and their customers’ experiences through feedback, conversation and exchanging ideas,” says Mwangi.
But how have they succeeded in attracting visitors to their site.
“We employ the use of established social media such as Twitter to market our site, and are proud of the strategy behind our approach, which is that of helping Kenyans solve problems.”
GotIssuez when appended to any tweet is automatically picked up by Gotissuez.com site and is indexed along with other issues from Twitter.
Another strong point for the site is that its content is all local, and the site acts as the link between the consumer and service providers. They are not only the platform upon which conversation happens, but where problems are solved.
Although this is more of a hobby-turned—business, this site is steadily growing, having employed five people, each with a different background.
Community is their chief concern as they work to create a system where active users can evolve a culture.
“We will eventually involve different companies and hopefully change circumstances for all,” they say.
For all the problems posted on the site, solutions are crowd-sourced from the same users for the most part, but in each case, the company in question is given the chance to respond and to engage with their consumer.
Members of the community receives incentives for participating and engaging with GotIsssuez.Com by awarding every user points for every issue raised, rated and resolved.
“We give them gifts that they suggest. Up to now, the business has given away over Sh50,000 in vouchers, mobile phones, modems, airtime, clothing and many other gifts,” says Kaigwa.
Gift gallery
Many of the gifts are provided by various companies who are also given the opportunity to show their products on the site’s gift gallery. The site makes money from advertising, which is based on the number of visitors it attracts.
“You need plenty of strategy and vision to know which ideas and suggestions will add most value,” says Kaigwa.
“Striking a balance and being patient are always crucial since this is a project that is growing organically and we’ve each been financing and putting our resources into supporting and growing the community.”
With more Kenyans embracing the use of Internet, Mr Mwangi says it is time to open up the various mobile payment gateways to programmers and other technology resources which he says in turn will spur great ideas.
