Customer service is determined by the giver. Customer experience is defined by the receiver. Be clear of this difference if you are a business owner. We shall use examples from Kenya’s governance to illustrate the difference and importance of customer service and customer experience. As MP Ndindi Nyoro said, “When services are working you don’t need to be told; you see it for yourself. It’s not for the government to tell us how good a job it’s doing (customer service); citizens will define it by the experience they have.” This serves as a job description for how service delivery should be measured—by the experience of those who receive it.
How to define good customer service and customer experience
Customer service insists, “The economy is great,” and struggles to understand why customers are complaining. “Can’t you see we’ve brought down inflation to an all-time low of 2.7% and unga prices to 150 shillings? What’s wrong with you people?” Customer experience responds, “For all we care, inflation can be negative, and unga could cost 50 shillings, but it means nothing when we don’t have the 50, let alone 150. Success, after all, is measured by the lived realities of customers.”
Customer service relies on pontificating facts; customer experience speaks from the heart, sharing emotions.
“Housing Levy is not a tax. And it’s for your own good. You will get an affordable house,” insists customer service.
Customer experience retorts, “I won’t ‘get it’ I will have to buy it. Salute the honesty in this critique. You build a house on my (public) land, using my money and then you sell it to me. What is that? Besides, I don’t need a house; I’m already servicing a mortgage, own a home, or have my own plans. Why are you forcing me to pay for a house I neither want nor need, with no guarantee of getting one?”
Customer service looks inwards customer experience, outwards
“We have created 120,000 jobs in our affordable housing scheme and have secured hundreds of thousands of others in Austria, Germany, Qatar for you. This support is vital for economic growth.” All you have to do s apply. We will even buy the plane tickets for you. In fact, over 243,000 Kenyans have secured jobs abroad since September 2022, with opportunities in healthcare, construction, agriculture, and other sectors. “
Customer experience reveals another reality: “German government denies reports by President Ruto on job opportunities for 250,000 Kenyans. In fact, part of the deal will see an unknown number of Kenyans who are in Germany illegally repatriated to Nairobi. Help! The working conditions of jobs in the Middle East are akin to slavery. These agents of exploitation highlight the gap between promises and realities. Not only is there no free air fare, we ae now being told to pay a fee for the free jobs. How do you ask me to pay 200,000 shs when I am jobless? You even tell me you can get me a loan to pay it. Even if I do, when will I finish paying for it with my expected 45000shs? And with these shifting goalposts how do I even know I will get the job?”
Fun fact: Watch CS Labour Alfred Mutua’s convoluted response to Olive Burrows question on Citizen’s Sunday Live about which company this is that is offering Kenyans these thousands of jobs in Qatar)
Customer service blames the customer; customer experience obsessively listens
Like NTSA blaming drivers for accidents, customer service blames the customer for any friction. “Two administrations have tried and failed. We are the first to have achieved Universal Health Care. SHA (SHIF, TaifaCare) is working. 11 million Kenyans have signed onto it.”
Customer experience challenges, “Why did you have to use 104B of our dwindling taxes on a system we don’t need? NHIF was working and we understood it. Upgrading the NHIF system to your system’s standards was to cost less than 1 billion 100 times less. Why do we have to waste 103 billion? As for SHIF most of what you have promised will either take effect after months of signing on, hospitals are declining, and I don’t know what I am covered for or not. I also take exception to you calling the creation of two classes of Kenyans as progress. Why should civil servants be favoured over the rest of Kenyans?” Customer service looks inwards; customer experience, outwards.
Customer service fights, customer experience questions
Customer service asserts, “We need to increase NSSF Contributions. So, starting January 2025 NSSF contribution will be 6% of your income. Yes, I know that I promised that we shall not add any more taxes. And we really haven’t. I mean, it’s only 1.5% for housing levy, 2.75% for SHA and now 6% for NSSF. And those are the direct ones. There are more in indirect taxes, which is why, for instance, you get less tokens for the same price. You see, the problem is that Kenyans been socialised to believe they pay the highest taxes when, in fact, the overall tax burden was lower compared to peer countries in Africa and beyond. So, as you can see, we have kept our end of the bargain. Now it’s your turn”
Customer experience counters, “Our disposable incomes are rapidly shrinking. Making ends meet is bordering on the impossible. In fact, the minimum one third headroom we had that had allowed us to borrow has been reduced. Meaning that for the nth time we have to ask the banks and microfinances to restructure our loans. With increasing interest rates this exercise is squeezing us dry. By the way, according to an African Union report, in 2021 the average for the continent as a whole was 15.6% – not much higher than Kenya’s.
Addressing customer concerns
As for NSSF, instead of increasing the contributions why not resolve the inefficiencies instead. I mean, the local and global standard for administration fees of pension funds is less than 5%. For every 100shs a maximum of 5 should go to administering it (that is, operations). NSSF’s is at a whopping 46%! Borrowing from the logic of the Cabinet Secretary (CS) for The National Treasury and Economic Planning, John Mbadi, “If we reduce corruption from the current 2 billion shs daily to 1billion we can raise 300 billion without increasing taxes.” With that reasoning, instead of increasing the contribution, why not reduce the inefficiencies at NSSF to 23% to increase the fund amount. After all, isn’t corruption a euphemism for theft by (public) servant?”
Difference in CS and CX
Customer service often speaks at customers, while customer experience engages with them. As a business leader or policymaker, which approach will you choose to create meaningful connections and drive sustainable change?
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