One crucial negative practice stunting the growth of businesses in Ghana is poor customer service.
Businesses, especially start-ups, which are both in the formal and informal sectors tend to overlook the way they treat or communicate with customers and this has led to varied stories of customer-dissatisfaction and in the long term, the gradual collapse of businesses in the country.
A Business Development Consultant and Customer Service Trainer, Madam Sarfowaa Duncan has said that Ghanaian businesses take their customers for granted and the effects of these attitudes are indirectly affecting the economy of the nation.
She said many new local businesses are collapsing within a short period due to one customer complaint or the other.
“To thrive in your new business setup, you must know who your specific customers are. You must see your customers as your priority and the reason why the business is in existence” She said.
Madam Duncan said this during a training workshop for young entrepreneurs in Accra. Participants in the training programme included Young business people in both the formal and informal sectors. The workshop was organised buy Duncs Consult, a business management consultancy firm. Participants were taken through the theories and practical steps of satisfying the customer and growing one’s business.
A Facilitator at the workshop who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Sesil Company Limited, a car servicing company, Emmanuel Awunee, noted that the government needs to pay critical attention to providing information on customer service to small local businesses as part of it’s support for private sector development.
“If government just provides capital and other investment packages to business startups without furnishing them with the necessary information to practically grow their businesses, the investments will yield no profitable returns. Starting a business is not as serious as sustaining the business” he said.
Mr. Awunee called on government to offer regular training programmes or engage business experts to equip small businesses to be well informed in the practical know-how of making their businesses last the test of time.
The training programme, which has been a regular project for Duncs Consult, took the participants through how to analyse their customer-base through psycho-analysis and scientifc research of every relevant attributes of the customer before setting up the business.
Participants of the workshop expressed their delight in being enlightened to grow their businesses through the programme. They urged all young entrepreneurs to access such programmes because they are beneficial. They are planning to taki the programme nationwide.
By Kwaku Bolton