The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has been ranked the public institution with the best customer services in the country.

This was made known when the Institute of Customer Service Professionals (ICSP) launched the 2018 Ghana Customer Service Index (GCSI), a customer satisfaction survey report for Ghana.

According to the survey findings, SSNIT customer service emerged the best among 35 State-owned institutions.

Ghana’s public sector has over the years suffered incompetence, absenteeism, corruption and lateness coupled with unsatisfactory service delivery against the robust public sector inherited after independence.

According to the report, the public sector scored very low on customer loyalty (-53.6%) due to the relatively low customer satisfaction of 51.85 in the sector but SSNIT stood tall among the rest in the perspective of good costumer services with a score of 64.42%.

Reacting to this new feat, Mrs. Victoria Gifty Abaidoo, the Customer Experience

Manager said, “It is the objective of the Trust to provide and ensure the achievement of the highest industry standards in customer service delivery,so this is a testament to the fact that the strategies put in place to serve our customers are yielding results”. She indicated that every staff is a trustee and the customers are the masters they are serving.

She revealed that customer-focus is one of the seven core values of the Trust.

“We exist because of our customers and without the contributor or pensioner there is no SSNIT. Though our existence is by law, we know the law is not sacrosanct and so the customer must be treated with respect.

Mrs. Abaidoo added that, “though the feat did not come as a surprise, we are motivated to keep improving because our focus is to become a reference point for excellent customer experience in the country”. She however suggested that SSNIT should be put in the category of financial institutions which in her opinion is more competitive in subsequent surveys.

“The people we serve are not just customers but stakeholders. We are trustees so we are only managing the business but they are the real owners. It is in this regard that we cannot compromise on our customer.” she said.

She further added that staff who are reported to have provided below the industry standards are investigated and sanctioned when found culpable.

She explained the measures put in place to include a customer service charter, customer service desks in all the fifty branches, vibrant contact centre that speedily attends to customer concerns and the contact details of Area Managers have been boldly displayed in all branches for customers to call and report any challenges they encounter at any of the offices.

The Trust also organises annual customer service surveys to ascertain whether staff are doing the right thing.

“Recently, we have intensified customer engagements on social media especially on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Management has also created a new department – the Customer Experience Department. This department is driving the agenda that customer service is an attitude and not a unit”. The Customer Experience Manager noted.

SSNIT has put out a direct WhatsApp number to the Director-General’s office where aggrieved customers can file their complaints on staff behaviour.

According to her, the Trust in its quest to ensure that customers are treated with some sense of urgency has rolled out a “mystery shopping” program adding that “we get people to visit our offices to measure the services that we are providing and they take videos and management reviews these videos so staff who do not meet expectations are taken through disciplinary measures and others are commended for exceptional service delivery.”

Other public institutions featured in the survey were National Health Insurance Authority, Passport Office, Ghana Police Service, DVLA and Ghana Revenue Authority.

BACKGROUND

The Ghana Customer Service Index (GCSI) is a customer satisfaction measure that would enable organizations to benchmark their own customer satisfaction results with firms in other industries, and to do so with the confidence knowing that the results are consistent, reliable, and proven over time.

The survey was open to anyone – Ghanaians or non-Ghanaians 15 years and above – who have had customer experience within the past 3 months in no more than 5 of the 8 sectors featured in the survey, namely Financial institutions (bank and non-bank), Utilities, Telecommunications,Hospitality, Healthcare, Retail Malls (Food and non-food), Public institutions, and Online businesses.

The data collection for the survey included a mix of both online and offline approaches.

Views of 1,872 people were sampled. The metrics include Look and Feel, Competence, Professionalism, Ease of Doing Business, Processes and Procedures, Customer-Focused, Innovations, Staff Engagement, and Feedback & Complaints.