Human Interface Key in Customer Service – Vodafone Director

A Director of Fixed Business and Customer Operations at Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai has called on organizations not to replace humans with robots in the Customer Service field.

Rather, she said there should be a blend in the two to help deliver great customer experience.

Speaking at the just ended Vodafone Customer Experience Summit, she said ‘’Robots are delivering important transactional activities in a more efficient way. Machines will deliver the efficiencies we want but human interactions will deliver the feel, touch and emotions that machines are unable to deliver.”

Her comment comes at a time robots are replacing human workers in our organizations due to technological change.

It would be recalled that Ecobank Ghana, in 2017, laid off 181 contract staff with the reason that it is part of a digital migration strategy to improve banking experience for its clients.

This caused fear and panic as many believe there would be no jobs for humans in some years to come.

However, Mrs. Obo-Nai is of the view that not all customers would prefer the services of a robot.

She said “some customers still want a human touch and your business must be setup in a way that still allows you to deliver that human experience because again it’s what the customer wants.’’

‘’While the future may be bleak, I see it as an opportunity that the industry needs to embrace to win, so technology is key. At Vodafone, agents who are no longer doing the transactional things are retrained to deliver the more complex pieces that the customer will request. So the agents are not losing their jobs, on the contrary.’’ She added.

The Vodafone Customer Experience Summit dubbed “Technology and Customer Experience: Impact on business growth and economic transformation,” is one of the key activities Vodafone listed as part of its Customer Experience Week celebration.

The telecommunications giant lined up a series of activities to appreciate its customers and recognize deserving customer-facing employees throughout the week.

Vodafone’s management team led by the CEO, Yolanda Cuba presented gifts to loyal customers and also spent time at the Vodafone retail shops to engage and appreciate customers.

By: Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum