What you need to know:
While organisations carry the responsibility to train staff, design systems, and set standards, customers play a quieter but equally influential role in shaping what service culture becomes. If customer care is to improve meaningfully, consumers must participate more deliberately too.
We are three months away from Customer Service Week, and the question I find myself asking is not how organisations will celebrate it, but whether anything will meaningfully change once the banners come down and the emails stop.
Last year, when I wrote an article questioning whether Tanzanian customer service matched global standards, the piece went viral. The comments were revealing. They carried frustration, fatigue, and long-standing dissatisfaction. What was less visible was follow-through. A year later, it is worth asking a harder question. How do we, as customers, contribute to the problem we are criticising, and what will we, the consumers do differently?
While organisations carry the responsibility to train staff, design systems, and set standards, customers play a quieter but equally influential role in shaping what service culture becomes. This is particularly visible during Customer Care Month, which often arrives with mass emails, scripted greetings, and temporary enthusiasm, but little structural change. If customer care is to improve meaningfully, consumers must participate more deliberately too.
