I recently visited one of Rwanda’s major telecommunications companies. Whether it was the yellow brand or the red one no longer matters. What matters is what I experienced while trying to buy a simple internet device.
When I arrived at the shop in the City of Kigali, the staff member responsible for selling the product had gone for lunch. I was directed to another service point a short distance away. When I got there, the employees asked what I needed and then told me to join the queue. They checked if I had my national ID, which made me hopeful that the process was moving along well.
But after waiting for almost an hour, I finally reached the desk only to be told that the device was out of stock.
I thought perhaps the head office would help. It is much bigger, and I assumed it would never run out of stock. I went there, explained what I needed, and once again I was told to sit and wait. More than an hour passed as each customer was served very slowly, maybe in the name of offering quality service.
At last, I reached the staff member. The answer was exactly the same: “Sorry, we are out of stock.”
I asked myself a serious question: Is the customer still the king in Rwanda, or has he become a servant?
To their credit, the workers tried to be helpful by calling another branch to check availability. The answer was still: “Not available.”
In Rwanda today, it is no surprise when a product runs out. We are used to long queues. But what should no longer be happening is this: customers waiting for hours to be served by staff who already know the product does not exist.
What is even more concerning is the lack of communication between branches of the same company. If one location is out of stock, why can’t the others know and inform customers immediately before they waste their time?
For companies in the telecommunications sector, customer waiting time should already be reducing because many services have moved online. So if a person still decides to come physically and queue, they should at least be respected and served efficiently.
Rwanda’s progress in customer service has been significant over the years. But this experience reminds us that there is still a long way to go. The customer cannot only be treated as king in slogans and advertisements. They must be treated as kings in real life — respected, informed, and valued.
