Rwanda’s premier insurance company, UAP Insurance Rwanda, on Tuesday, October 5, joined the rest of the world to celebrate customer service week, commonly known as ‘The Power of Service’.

For UAP Insurance Rwanda, the celebrations normally pave the way for customer-oriented engagements to among others recognise their importance and excellence portrayed by the firm’s staff.

However, owing to the challenges induced by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the firm has laid out plans to appreciate its customers in a hybrid format.

On Tuesday afternoon, for instance, several members of the insurer’s executive team were seen putting aside their supervisory roles to appreciate customers by awarding them gifts alongside appreciation cards.

On the sidelines of the ceremony, The New Times’ Edwin Ashimwe caught up with UAP Insurance Rwanda’s Managing Director, Annie Nibishaka, to understand what this means for both the firm’s clients as well as the staff.

How significant is this week to the company you lead?

As a subsidiary of Old Mutual Limited and UAP Old Mutual Holding group operating in East Africa and another region of Africa. Customer centricity is at the core of our business.

Customer service week is an opportunity to reinforce our commitments toward our customers and show appreciations to our employee who works hard every day to deliver the best service.

The celebrations come when the world is grappling with a pandemic, will this not deter proper celebrations?

The one thing we learned in this pandemic is to be able to do everything digitally. Due to the extraordinary work done by our government, we can be working in a hybrid setting where some of our staff are in the office and others at home.

This enabled our celebration to be cross-cutting from the office to people working from home as we continue to encourage everyone to get vaccinated and keep themselves safe while respecting the measure put in place to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

Specifically, for the customers, what is your message to them?

My message to our customers is a message of appreciation. We are happy and honoured to serve them every day.

And we promise to keep our commitment of putting them at the centre of all our operations, take care of their needs and deliver the best experience every time.

Consequently, what would you say to the staff?

My message is not only to the staff in the office but also to the ones working from home. This pandemic has presented a lot of challenges, economic and social, through all that.

However, the staff has put their utmost work to deliver the best service to each of clients. To that, a warm thank you to each of them.

Different organizations celebrate differently. What is on your schedule?

We have chosen to dedicate the whole month of October to customer service instead of a one-week global standard.

October month will be filled with activities engaging our customers through our broker partners & agents. And of course, a staff engagement to show our appreciation, boost their morale and teamwork.

Departing words

The year 2020/2021 has brought challenging times. We are not yet on the other side of the story.

However, we are not giving up; we are ready to adapt to the changes and ensure we deliver the best service while keeping our staff and customers safe.