NCC Advocates Effective Customer Care Services by Telecoms Operators

By Emmanuel Ugwu

Amid complaints that many consumers find it difficult to access the customer support services of telecoms operators, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has taken steps to take policy action and further regulatory intervention to protect consumers.

To this end the commission intends to generate such policy framework through the outcome of its Consumer Outreach Programmes. At the 63rd edition of the Consumer Outreach programme of the NCC held in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia state, the need for service providers to pay extra attention to the needs and concerns of consumers took the centre stage.

With the theme, ‘Customer care help lines: A veritable platform for effective service delivery’ the programme provided an opportunity for consumers, providers and the industry regulator to engage in heart-to-heart discussions of problems in the sector and find solutions.

Director of Consumer Affairs Bureau, NCC, Mrs. Mary Ambayi, noted that “there is an incredible emphasis by the service providers to connect new consumers because of the untapped market in the country”. But she pointed out that the same enthusiasm displayed by Service Providers when scrambling for customers “is not seen in the provision of after sales support to existing consumers”.

Ambayi, who was represented by Mr. Femi Atoyebi, said the commission was prompted to start insisting on adequate customer care services, following a survey it conducted which showed that the service providers customer care help lines were “either not easily accessible or dysfunctional”.

She emphasised that consumers are the greatest assets of any organisation; hence service providers in the telecoms industry must do everything to satisfy them. She stated that NCC would not accept any shoddy treatment of telecoms consumers and insisted that service providers must address the nagging issue of consumer care help lines “with a great sense of urgency”.

On its part the commission, she said, has established the NCC Customer care help lines “to serve as channels of communication and as a second level support for aggrieved consumers to complain to the commission when dissatisfied with the response received from their respective service providers.