The Pro-Vice Chancellor of Ghana Communication Technology University, Professor Robert Hinson, has said that building the right customer experience will be critical in ensuring the sustainability of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

According to him, little attention has been devoted to proper marketing and the right customer experience culture in the bid to promote the Intra-African trade. 

He made this call on Joy Business Social, a weekly podcast show which discusses pertinent issues on the business landscape.

“I hear about AfCFTA, about expansions in the African market. So my question is, what is the role of marketing and service excellence in AfCFTA?” he quizzed.

According to him, failure to build a resilient customer experience routine could lead to the collapse of many Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, thus affecting the AfCFTA agenda.

“If you have no standard operating procedures, no service level agreements, no corporate values, you will not be competitive. Again, if you do not build service routines in your SMEs, you are doomed to fail".

He furthered that building the right structures to sustain a cordial relationship with customers and keeping them happy will be key in guarantying the growth of businesses and facilitating smooth intra-African trade.

“This is because if you can’t keep your customers happy, they will cease to spend with you. This will make you less profitable and eventually lead to the collapse of the business”, he added.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a trade initiative designed to create a single market for goods, and services, facilitated by the movement of persons in order to deepen the economic integration of the African continent and in accordance with the Pan African Vision of An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa.