Covid-19: Silver lining for entrepreneurship

THE Covid-19 pandemic, which caused a global health crisis, has also resulted in a significant entrepreneurial drive in Zimbabwe, a survey by the Contact Centre Association of Zimbabwe (CCAZ) shows.
According to the survey, the pandemic saw a boom in the healthcare, agri-business, hospitality and cleaning services sectors.
“The Covid-19 era opened an entrepreneurship drive that provided opportunities for individuals to tap into these sectors and open new private hospitals, notably Milton Park Medical Centre.

“A lot of young people turned into farmers, thus contributing so much to the growth of the country’s breadbasket and lastly the cleaning services companies saw a lot of companies cleaning and sanitising their environments and engaging companies to create safe environments in the workplace,” Odiline Kava, a member of the 2022 Adjudication Committee for the 11th CCAZ Annual Service Excellence Awards, said.
Kava told the awards ceremony last week that Covid-19 also saw growth in the use of courier and delivery services by customers for the period under review.
“The notable increase is attributed to the Covid-19 regulations that were implemented and adopted during the year 2021-2022,” she said.
The pandemic, however, also resulted in a dent in service delivery in some sectors.
“Mobile telecommunications, supermarkets, hospitals and general insurers recorded a slight decline in customer satisfaction in 2022. This is mainly attributed to the tedious processes and long queues that they had to endure to get services,” she added.
Industry and Commerce minister Sekai Nzenza told the same event that customer experience had become a competitive battleground for businesses.
“Research has also indicated that customer experience is now the competitive battleground. As a continent and as a country we don’t have to be left out.
“This is the time to leverage on legendary customer experience so as to become competitive on a global landscape. The time is now to shift focus towards service delivery,” Nzenza said.
“With customer expectations continually rising, the wider community is becoming aware of the value and role that customer service plays in achieving business success.
“This highly demanding area is arguably the critical success factor for many organisations globally and countries at large.
“A quality service culture is essential in sustaining and driving the continuous growth of our African economies, which have become increasingly service-oriented,” she added.
Nzenza said customer service and service delivery was a catalyst for economic and social growth in Africa.
“Yes, we can talk of agriculture, we can talk of mining, however the service industry is also the future, with the potential to boost various economies in Africa. Customer experience reaches into the hearts and minds of every single citizen, it reaches the hearts and minds of investors, and of tourists.
“As we all recognise the vital economic and social role that Zimbabwe’s tourism industry plays in this economy, fostering a culture of service excellence must therefore certainly be high on the national agenda,” she said.
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