Service delivery
How you deliver your products is as, if not more, important than the actual products themselves. Inappropriate delivery methods can mean lost productivity, or extra costs for clients. To ensure that your MFI ‘does no harm’, maintains high levels of client satisfaction and low drop-outs, you should create an efficient delivery and servicing model that only puts reasonable demands on clients.
Once you have identified effective delivery mechanisms, staff will need to be trained to ensure consistent quality of delivery. You should consider designing:
- clear operational guidelines and policies for staff
- participatory training and role-playing to help staff address the issues they face – from marketing new products to handling loan collections
- mentoring programmes to help reinforce messages to staff.
Fonkoze's Social Impact Monitors help field staff become effective customer service agents. By acting as mentors, these internal consultants work side by side with loan officers to review customer feedback and advise the officers on how to be more effective in their interactions. Fonkoze also has a ‘model branch’ where field staff in need of intense training and support can be sent to work alongside loan officers who exemplify the organisation’s approach to client service.
Targeting tips for MFIs with poverty and gender goals
Targeting poor clients:
- research what aspects of poverty make it particularly difficult for poor clients to expand their livelihoods and adapt products accordingly (for example, poor clients can’t afford to leave their stands in the market place, even to collect loan funds, so provide a loan that allows direct payment to the inventory supplier)
- make the branch welcoming by offering refreshments, as many poor clients have had bad experiences visiting banks
- train staff to be equally friendly to all clients, regardless of how they dress.
Targeting women clients:
- employ women as loan officers so that they can target female clients with home-based businesses and make home visits to their home
- offer discreet ways for women clients to conduct their banking, such as by allowing drop offs of deposits by a third party
- craft marketing messages geared towards women clients, such as by acknowledging the many roles women are known to juggle, and how efficiently your MFI works.