The maiden Gold Coast Excellence Awards has been launched in Accra to rate businesses and entrepreneurs on quality and customer satisfaction.

With growing competition in the private sector, concerns have been raised regarding the quality of goods and services businesses render to consumers.

It is against this backdrop that NMJ Ghana in partnership with Events and Logistic Hub are organizing the maiden edition of the Gold Coast Excellence Awards, a scheme set aside to celebrate firms and entrepreneurs offering quality goods and services to consumers.

Chief Operating Officer (COO) of NMJ Ghana, Mimi Andani-Michael told JoyBusiness the awards seek to challenge businesses on the need for excellence in the delivery of services.

“The mission is to develop innovation and excellence in people and the industries in Ghana just so to further their role in society. We hope to challenge Ghanaian industries for great standards as well as throw light on young entrepreneurs making strides to ensure excellence in their endeavor,” she revealed.

The Gold Coast Excellence Awards seeks to honor over 40 personalities and companies in Ghana with over 2000 individuals and firms nominated for the awards.

Nominations are open for the Gold Coast Excellence Awards and will close by the 12^th of December 2018.

The various categories for the awards include excellence in Agriculture, architecture, real estate, tourism and hospitality, electronics, telecommunications, data service  provision, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, textiles, banking among others.

State of Customer Service in Ghana

The Institute of Customer Service Professionals released its maiden Customer Service Index which has ranked Ghana C for what it describes to be an average performance in the area of customer service relations. 

The ranking, which tackled eight sectors of the economy also saw Ghana’s public sector score a grade F. 

Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Customer Service Professionals, Yvonne Ohui McCarthy, tells Joy Business this development sends wrong signals to investors.

“C is not where we want to be, especially now that we’re talking about drawing in more investors and being a wind of foreign aid. I think we can do better. If you look at the public sector, for example, we scored a ‘D’. This is unacceptable,” she said.

Meanwhile, the telecoms industry scored 4th below the retail (1st with Grade B), hospitality (2nd with Grade B) and online sectors (3rd with Grade B).

So far, Ghana has no existing regulatory body which streamlines customer service in the country. But the ICSP believes deeper private sector engagement could get things working in the right direction. 

"Customer service here in Ghana is very sick. There is a lot that needs to be done to address this issue. We can't monetize the effects of poor customer service here in Ghana but I must say that when you have foreign  investors experience poor customer service in the very first point of call, you must expect them to make a second decision on whether or not they want to explore business opportunities in the country," she said.