A customer care agent’s main job is customer satisfaction

Michelline Nawatises



Kuphuna Mungenga, affectionately known as Uncle Wak, was born in Rundu. Growing up in the apartheid era made for an interesting youth where he would go to school the one day and toyi-toyi the next. Growing up with different characters enabled him to learn how to and love dealing with people.

His first encounter as a customer care agent was at the post office in Rundu, where he was hired as a clerk. After that, he assisted at the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) in the customer care department as well.

“When I started at National Housing Enterprise (NHE), my service was requested as a contact person and this was many moons ago, before there was a north-east office,” he said.

A customer care agent’s main job is customer satisfaction. That is to say, the agent has to be very inquisitive and be willing to help as that is the only way to ensure that the problems raised get lasting solutions.

Being a customer care agent, one has to assist with almost everything, from the printing of statements to explaining the entries on statements and filling in refund forms as well as assisting with insurance claims, he said.

Challenges

Mungenga said working with clients who have personal difficulties as well as those who are naturally difficult is one of the challenges of the job. He mentioned that the procedures followed back then are not the same as those now.

“Back then, there were so many loopholes that made room for unnecessary errors such as mismatched ervens,” he said.

Another challenge, he said, is insurance cases – the feedback from insurance is in most cases delayed and causes agitation in clients. This also causes delays in resolving matters. This may result in the account going into arrears, he added.

Clients often take things personally, especially those in arrears, when demand letters are delivered.

One of his accomplishments is ensuring that clients are assisted properly and he also managed to trace properties that had been incorrectly allocated.

For Mungenga, a typical day in the office starts with a cup of coffee while going through his emails. Then he checks for any pending items on his to-do list from the previous day’s work, returning of emails and calls and then continues with the new items on his current day’s to-do list, in between attending to walk-in clients.

Sharing his years of wisdom brings him great joy, he said.

“I draw my inspiration from seeing the joy on others’ faces, by equalising the playing fields where I can and in my little way and helping them to be self-sustaining.”

The advice he would give to young people out there is to remember the word FRIEND:

F – FEAR GOD

R – RESPECT OTHERS

I – [BE] IMPARTIAL

E – EXECUTE WITH PASSION

N – NEVER GIVE UP

D – DEMONSTRATE OR DETERMINE

Mungenga plans on going into full-time farming as it has been his passion since he was young as well as to continue mentoring young entrepreneurs in basic record-keeping as well events management.

His greatest fear is being unable to fully assist a client.

“If they leave my office with more complaints than when they walked in, that disturbs me, even to a point where it haunts me at home and in my sleep,” he said.

Best phase

Shifidi Day - 30 November 1986. He had just finished with his matric exams and was eager to experience life after school and out of Rundu. He and a group of friends, which were senior comrades, the working class - he was solely dependent on their pockets for food and the fare - decided to travel to Windhoek without informing his parents for a rally scheduled for 30 November 1986 around 14h00.

He was the youngest in the group and they drove the whole night and arrived in Windhoek during the early hours of the Saturday morning.

“Around 10h00, the street march began. We began to toyi-toyi and it was an exhilarating experience. I was so scared and yet happy that I could be part of such a thing. That day was my first taste of tear gas, and it was not pleasant,” he said.