6 | The Lion King
Building the
‘Excellent’ U
By Titilayo Iwenjora
C
ustomer service has become a
central focus of management
strategy as companies strive to
achieve excellence in the increasingly
competitive market place. It is indeed
the new standard by which custom-
ers judge organisations and by which
organisations evaluate themselves. Or-
ganisations have come to understand
that the opportunities for growth in the
marketplace will not come from new
products or markets, but from the ability
to deliver high quality and excellent
customer service.
Organisations today are defining and
implementing roadmaps for custom-
er service transformation. They are
improving the ambience of their service
outlets, redesigning processes for im-
proved efficiency, investing heavily in
technology to support business opera-
tions, releasing new products to meet
perceived customers’ needs, improving
systems and processes for customer
complaints handling, paying more
attention to the ‘voice of the customer’
and building a strong customer service
culture.
The quest for excellence at UBA is no
different. Having set inspirational goals
on service, UBA is fully focused on the
customer and customer satisfaction.
Various service transformation initia-
tives are being implemented including
upgrade of its electronic channels,
heavy investment in technology to
support seamless business processes,
branch infrastructure upgrade, contin-
uous business process improvement,
the 24/7 Customer Fulfilment Centre for
complaints handling, product innova-
tion and various change management
programmes to bolster the high service
standards culture in UBA.
ORGANISATIONAL EXCELLENCE AND
SERVICE EXCELLENCE
While most organisations strive to im-
prove their service standards through
various programmes, ultimately, the
task of providing excellent customer ser-
vice falls on employees. The success of
the service transformation drive of most
organisations today is therefore largely
dependent on individual staff members
because it is impossible for an organisa-
tion to excel in customer service without
a crop of ‘service excellence driven’
personnel.
Excellence in an individual connotes
the individual’s stamp of superiority,
distinction, uniqueness and brilliance. It
sets the individual apart from the crowd
because it signifies extraordinary quality
and exceptionality. This trait is evident
in all very successful individuals and
indeed, majority of staff of successful
organisations.
HOW TO RECOGNIZE AN ‘EXCELLENT’
INDIVIDUAL IN THE WORKPLACE
Deep passion for service: The ‘excel-
lent’ individual understands that the
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