Many old adages have mentioned that the customer is the king of the business.
It has also been agreed time and time again that the customer is the object, subject and the reason for every businesses.
This may be true in other sectors but not so in the telecommunications industry where the customer is meted with half measures and is asked not to complain.
The reasons operators give are sometimes hazy including lack of infrastructure, power and activities of militants in the Niger Delta region.
But the truth is that operators’ lack effective communication and have refused to acknowledge that.
The operators are guilty as charged for over-promising the customer and under-delivering the promises.
Even in the face of worsening services, operators of Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) kicked against decision asking them to show concern over poor quality of services.
Luckily, the operators are realizing that this is a clear case of bad estimation and inefficient communication and are now having a rethink.
At just concluded organized by IT & Telecom Magazine in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), stakeholders agreed to improve quality of services.
Another is hope raised at the forum that tariffs for calls will also drop further for the benefit of the Nigerian consumers.
Particularly heartwarming is the disclosure that government has gazetted a Consumer Code of Practice for users of telecoms services which now requires operators to submit for approval, a code which must stipulate the rights of the consumers, procedures for resolving disagreements with the consumers, and service level agreements with their consumers.
This will also compliment the monthly Telecom Consumer Parliament, an alternative dispute resolution of the NCC and other consumer outreach programmes.
It also important to publish price caps for services within which the operators were allowed to charge for services.
Consumers should also take the bull by the horn by suing operators for poor services.
