By Tendai Chisiri
Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) launched its 2022 Customer Satisfaction Survey at its headquarters in Harare on Monday.
Speaking at the launch, POTRAZ director general Dr Gift Machengete said the main objective of the survey is to help POTRAZ to understand how satisfied are postal, courier and telecommunications consumers with service they receive from their service providers and them as the regulator.
“This has resulted in the computation of Consumer Satisfaction Indices for the various services that we use for regulatory interventions aimed at enhancing consumer well-being”, added Machengete.
The results of the survey highlighted that, for courier service, there has been an increase in use by corporates from 38% in 2018 to 60% in 2022.
However, there has not been any change in the uptake of these service by household. This calls for aggressive strategies to entice households to embrace courier services. It is important for the sector to note that both households and corporates view delivery time as their top service expectation. FedEx may need to pay key attention on its consumer complaints resolution strategies.
The survey also educated that for postal service, the key service expectations are delivery time, pricing and undamaged parcels.
In particular, corporates value speed of service amnd reliability. Although there is low incidences of complaints, 30% of the raised complaints go unresolved and ZimPost is urged to address this as well as on the other key indicators considering that its Consumer Satisfaction Index declined by 0,33% and 5,69% in the household and corporates segments, respectively .
According to the survey, the use of internet/data increased in both urban and rural areas. However, household consumers are concerned about connectivity. Network coverage, affordability, and download speed are the top service expectations. For corporates, speed of service, reliabilty and attendance to faults are more important.
Although Household Consumer Satisfaction Index for Data and Internet Service Providers increased by 10.31 percentage points, the Corporate Consumer Satsfication Index declined by 5 percentage points between the two periods under review.
Also another result highlighted in the survey is that in the Fixed Telephone Services, network coverage, affordability and call success are the top service expectations. TelOne is commended for the positive ratings on voice quality and less call dropout frequency. Engagement with the service provider from 53% in 2018 to 70% in 2022 has witnessed an increase in its Consumer Satisfaction Indices.
Engagement with the Mobile Network Operators increased reaching almost 100%. However, the study has revealed that there is an outcry from household consumers over network performance and call dropout frequency. This also reflected by the decline in both the Mobile l Network Operators’ ( MNOs) household and corporate satisfaction indices.
Last but not least result is that awareness of POTRAZ among household consumers declined from 23% in 2018 to 8% in 2022. However, it increased among corporate consumers to 76% in 2022 from 64% in 2018.
All the same, there is need for POTRAZ to do more in Matebeleland South. All in all, POTRAZ Household Consumer and Corporate Satisfaction Indices increased to 59,7% and 63,9% respectively.
“Given these findings, operators are encouraged to revisit their service delivery processes. As the regulator, we will work more on increasing awareness campaigns through the various channels as recommended.”, said Machengete.
” Today, we pause to reflect on the results of this study, celebrate what we’ve accomplished, and renew our focus as we seek ways to work with the public to better serve them”, he added.
The POTRAZ commissioned a nationwide Consumer Satisfaction Survey 2022 for the period of 2018 to 2022 for the postal, telecommunications and courier sectors. Consumer satisfaction surveys are a form of research in which you ask your customers for their views on issues that indicate how well or how badly your company is perfoming.
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