It’s surprising that in most Ugandan corporate statements, visions, or values, you will find an element of obsessing about the customer. Every business claim to have the heart for the customer, to go the extra mile for the customer, but do businesses walk this talk?
When is the last time you were called by your telecom provider for your opinion on anything? When is the last time the bank called to make your life easier instead of tried to sell you a product you don’t need?
Most companies these days claim to have Innovation functions, but who are they innovating for? When is the last time a Ugandan company did launch a product that was truly speaking to the Ugandan customer? It doesn’t matter the segment whether top of pyramid or bottom of pyramid. When is the last time a company did address your pain point?
The greatest danger today is that Ugandan Companies are not listening. Every day they are launching a new promotion, a new product, a new platform but none of them is listening. Restaurants are redesigning their interior spaces, launching new menu items but none of them is listening. The greatest threat to the survival of most organizations is their inability to listen.
And it’s not just about inability to listen to the external customer, it’s also inability to listen to the internal customer. We live in times when those in the C-Suite think themselves as superstars, as the godfathers of knowledge and wisdom, able to steer organizations to the best directions. Why would a CEO think themselves as proprietors of knowledge more than the field person? Although the C-Suite may have the strategic language, it may not have the grounded-insight. How do organizations convert the flow of knowledge back to where the action is happening?
Where is the human-centred philosophy in organizations in Uganda? Where are the companies that are listening to their consumers in Uganda? The information flow is one-sided. Organizations are shouting and throwing out service after service. The consumer is on the other hand blocked out seeking for that one moment. The consumer has that one wish; ‘I wish this company could just listen.” The employees have one wish, “how we wish the bosses could just listen.” Thus products continue to be launched and they die on arrival.
Organizations in Uganda are employing a Hit and Miss approach. They have forgotten the human factor in the product and service design. “We already know what they want, we just have to shout more about it,” so they argue in the boardrooms. But is it about shouting? Is it about a bigger marketing budget? Where is the customer at the heart of all this? Why is the most important person in this equation, the least listened to, the least understood?
There is a market in this gap of organizational listening. Organizations that figure out how to listen faster and with more empathy will take that market. Are the Hospitals listening to their patients? Are the schools listening to the students and to the parents? Is government listening to its citizens? Is the internet provider listening to the subscribers? Are the buses listening to the passengers? Are companies listening to their employees? We can’t over-emphasize the criticality of this, but it’s the greatest threat in the Ugandan market, the inability for organizations to listen. Are newspapers listening to the readers? Listen more, listen more, listen more and from this, create.