The Institute of Customers Service Professionals (ICSP), an independent institute dedicated to providing holistic and specialized customer service solutions has unveiled a Ghana Service Excellence Awards to recognized institutions with best customer service practice.

Launched at the British Council in Accra, The Ghana Service Excellence Awards will acknowledge best customer service in eight key sectors namely; Financial institutions, utilities, telecommunications, hospitality, healthcare, retail food and non-food, public institutions and online businesses.

“The Ghana Service Excellence Awards will promote customer service as a profession and improve the level of practitioner’s professionalism through assessment and certification. It’s also to reward companies with the right customer service attitude. It will be done every year” President of Institute of Customers Service Professionals (ICSP), Yvonne MacCarthy said.

According to her, there will also be a yearly report dubbed “Ghana Customer Service Index” to measure the performance of companies with respect to customer service in Ghana.

Ms. Yvonne MacCarthy noted that the index which is research-based will consider the competence, ease of doing business, the look and feel, professionalism, process and procedure, feedback and complaint of companies for the ranking.

“The Ghana Service Excellence Awards will be held in the last week of October each year after the Customer Service Index has been out doored to provide an insight into the state of customer service in Ghana,” Ms. MacCarthy added.

Poor Customer Service in Ghana

Ms. Yvonne MacCarthy bemoaned the poor current state of customer service in Ghana adding that the service industry which accounts for 70% of the country’s workforce leaves much to be desired.

"The public sector who is a provider of mostly services is the largest culprit when it comes to poor customer service in Ghana. Their mentality is that we have to come to them whether we like it or not because of the nature of the services they provide, so there are virtually zero standards of customer service in this sector," she said.