Why Botswana's global competitiveness is declining

LAWRENCE SERETSE
Correspondent | Friday March 22, 2013 00:00

 

Giving welcome remarks at the 2013 Biennial Service Quality Convention hosted by Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) yesterday, Macholo stated that for sometime now Botswana's rankings on the WEF Global Competitiveness Reports have been falling and some of the key challenges are poor delivery and less than excellent service. She said that Botswana was ranked 112 out of 139 countries in 2011 and 108 out of 142 in 2012. She explained that this shows incompetence in the degree of service orientation. She said Botswana has been ranked 116 out of 139 on attitude towards foreigners, which is one of the key challenges for doing business in the country. As a specialist in leadership management and facilitator of the convention, Dr Buck Tang from the Service Quality Centre in Singapore told participants about tested methodologies in distilling an organisation's customer experience DNA. He said for an organisation to achieve the sought after customer experience, the employees must be 'excellent people in an excellent institution that offers excellent product through an excellent process'.

'We must have all these fundamentals to help our service delivery grow. Service never happens by chance, service must be designed,' he emphasised. He said that the convention forms part of a larger programme that aims to build a National Service Excellence Framework where service strategies and standards will be developed. This is meant to contribute to the creation of a national service experience, which will elevate Botswana's competitiveness ratings and ultimately differentiate it from other countries as a service leader.

The convention targeted leaders, service champions, directors, permanent secretaries, customer service managers, business development managers and marketing managers. It gave participants an opportunity to learn how to unleash employees' discretionary effort in owning the unique signature customer experience through a structured methodology. The theme of the convention was: 'Strategising Your Win: Creating a Signature Customer Experience'.