KAMPALA – Uganda Marketers Society (UMS) hosted the inaugural Pearl of Africa Customer Excellence Awards at the Kampala Serena Hotel on February 25 following the launch in October 2021.
UMS is the leading organization for marketing professionals in Uganda. It is responsible for professional skills development, promotion of professional marketing standards and practices through Individual, Corporate, and SMEs membership categories.
The awards are the first of their kind in Uganda aimed at rewarding and acknowledging companies showcasing excellent customer care in their business operations.
The initiative cuts across various industries ranging from Finance, FMCG, Tech, Health, and Media with a deliberate focus on MSMEs. It kicked off in November last year, with public nominations of brands and personalities that showcase excellent customer service.
The Pearl of Africa Customer Excellence Awards aims at recognizing brands and personalities championing excellent customer experience in eight categories; Best CX Cultural Adaptation Award, Best CX Training, and Organisational Learning Award, Best Customer Retention Strategy and Execution, Best Use of Digital, Best Use of Customer Insights and Feedback, Best Customer Support, Customer Excellence Champion of the year, Customer Experience Team of the Year and the UMS Honorary Award of the Year.
Ms Sharon Kiggundu, the UMS President shared that the industry has witnessed organizations that prioritize customer experience steadily rise to the pinnacle of their success.
She revealed that as the leading organization for marketers in Uganda, their core mandate is to promote professional marketing standards and practices in the industry.
“We understand that a brand’s reputation is just as important, if not, even more important than the products and services offered. We are celebrating organizations delivering exceptional customer experience because we want to assert the importance of customer experience as a key driver for long-term business growth,” she said.
Julius Tumuhimbise, the managing partner at HLB Jim Roberts and Associates, a leading auditing and consulting firm that conducted the audit of the submissions, submitted votes were carefully tallied and audited based on strict criteria.
He revealed that nominations were held between October 8 2021 to November 8 2021, after which nominees were shortlisted for the public to cast their votes.
“Upon completion of the voting process, UMS wrote to all nominees informing them of their nominations and requesting a justification of the work for which they were nominated. This was to ensure that the nomination was backed up by evidence,” he said.
Dr. Dorothy Kyeyune, who delivered the keynote emphasized that customer excellence ought to be made a culture across all public and private sectors as it is a critical benchmark to every organization’s growth and ultimate success.
Some of the brands that claimed top positions in the awards include MTN, Rocket Health, Café Javas, NSSF, Vision Group, Datamine, NCBA, Harris International, Roke Telkom, Vision Group, and Jumia.
The awards were organized by Uganda Marketers Society with support from Capital One Group (communications partners), AJUA (research partners), HLB Jim Roberts and Associates (Audit firm), Owaraga, Opto Media, Uganda Breweries Limited, Pepsi, Vision Group, Nation Media, Optimus Events, and Serena Hotel.
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