Providing excellent services

The winner of the first Standard Bank Award for Service Excellence was announced last week, for the competition that ran on Radio Kosmos 94.1 from 1 October through which listeners were requested to nominate businesses that have given them exceptional service in Namibia. Listeners nominated via e-mail or fax and also give a short motivation on why they felt the business deserved to be nominated. This really added a lot of weight as people took the time and made the effort to nominate a business.

Dr. Leake Hangala (Chairman of the Board of Directors, Standard Bank); Theo Mberirua (MD of Standard Bank); Gerrit Snyders accepting the award on behalf of Novel Ford Walvis Bay (winner of the Standard Bank Award for Service Excellence for the month of October); Honourable Tjikero Tweya (Deputy Minister of Finance); Helmi Hitula (chairperson of Kosmos 94.1); and Kolie van Coller (MD of Kosmos 94.1).

First round nominations were received from listeners via e-mail or fax. For the second round nominations listeners were requested to vote for their top three or five businesses, with the same strategy running for the third round. The monthly winners automatically qualify as finalist for the grand event which will be held in October 2007. According to Kolie van Coller, MD of Kosmos 94.1, “the fact that the audience chooses makes it transparent and easy to administer.” Hon. Tjekero Tweya, Deputy Minister of Finance, paid tribute to Standard Bank for the initiative to recognise and reward businesses that provide excellent service. He said, “It is only through increased focus and education on service that our Namibian people will have the opportunity to value good service and be able to raise their concerns where bad service is rendered /delivered to them.”

The Managing Director of Standard Bank, Theo Mberirua said, “Standard Bank and Kosmos 94.1 continuously strive to give excellent service to our customers. We have therefore entered into this joined venture to promote the ‘Standard Bank Service Excellence Award’ competition in the market. Together we would like to promote better service to the public as well as give recognition to businesses that provide excellent service.”