All set for 4th Zimbabwe Service Excellence Awards

Captains of industry and several cabinet ministers are expected to grace the 4th Zimbabwe Service Excellence Awards which will be held at Cresta Lodge on the 30th of November 2015. The Zimbabwe Service Excellence Awards are organized and managed by the Contact Center Association of Zimbabwe (CCAZ) in partnership with Ministry of Tourism, Consumer Council of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Tourism Authority. What's new? The awards  are now being monitored by a global customer service board Chartered Institute of Customer Management (CICM) which is a global customer service and call center professional and academic board currently represented in three continents through its global implementation and certification partnership network with its regional  head offices in South Africa. According to the Chartered Institute of Customer Management's CEO  Ms Ricky Harris, winners from Zimbabwe will battle it out with other countries at the continental awards to be held in South Africa next year.

It has been four years since (CCAZ) first began recognizing the commitment to service excellence of individuals and organizations. Speaking on behalf of CCAZ, PR, Events and awards assistant Cynthia Tapera highlighted that the Service Excellence Awards: brings to focus the importance of excellent customer service as a strategic tool for business success, serves to raise the profile of customer service practice and professionalism nationwide by providing a platform to showcase Customer Service Excellence, provides an opportunity for Zimbabwean organizations to benchmark themselves and to learn best practice from service excellence leaders.

The awards which are being sponsored by CBZ bank and Drishti Soft from India will see companies and organizations vying for the following award categories: the hospitality sector, ICT and telecoms, banking and financial services, Government departments, local authorities and utilities, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, transport sector (air, rail, road) and retail and fast foods. Other sectors that will be competing for recognition for service excellence include the education sector, health insurance, funeral insurance, financial insurance, automobile industry (vehicle servicing, assembling, and sales), security and the courier services. Special awards to be given out to also include: the Lifetime Achievement Award, Customer Service Executives of the Year, Best Call Centre award and the Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility Award among others.

Tapera told this paper that all is set and over 400 delegates are expected from various sectors to grace this prestigious ceremony.  "This year's awards are coming at a stage when service delivery is topping on the national agenda," Tapera indicated. Last October Zimbabwe saw the launch of the Consumer protection bill by the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mr Mike Bimha. The Consumer Protection Bill seeks to establish The Consumer Protection Commission whose functions include; coordinating and networking consumer activities; promoting fair business practices and protecting consumers from unreasonable, unjust otherwise improper trade practices, deceptive, misleading, unfair and fraudulent conduct. The office of the president and cabinet is also taking service excellence serious with a hotline being established for complaints and enquiries. Similarly the ministry of ICT is working on a government national call centre which will see improvement in complaints handling for various state owned enterprises and government departments.

The awards are hosted in several countries including in Malawi, Kenya, and Zambia among others. According to the CICM CEO Mrs Ricky Harris "winners from each country including Zimbabwe will participate at continental awards next year. "This year's Service Excellence awards will culminate into the continental awards with winning Zimbabwean companies and individuals competing at continental level" Cynthia Tapera confirmed.

Just like most of the countries in Africa, Zimbabwe has generally lagged behind in terms of service delivery and customer service, making its customer-facing industries generally uncompetitive on the global landscape, which makes the Service Excellence Awards a positive initiative. Various researches pointed out that the service sector in Africa is on the boom and firms can only partake to the dividends of such through offering legendary customer services.