Customer Service Optimisation and Corporate Performance at Mobile Telecommunication Network: the Context of Cameroon and Nigeria

Customer service is inevitable in every organisation, though the practice and scope is not standardised. Henceforth, this study seeks to analyse the extent to which customer service optimisation affects key business performance metrics at Mobile Telecommunication Network. The study was equally aimed at determining the collective predictive effect of customer service perceptions on customer satisfaction/revenue performance. To achieve these objectives, the study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. Data was collected with the use of a questionnaire administered to a sample size of 384 respondents from Cameroon and 384 in Nigeria. The instrument was structured on a 5-point Likert scale with a pilot study of 40 copies. Structural equation modelling was constructed with multivariate relationships between service quality elements and key performance indicators. An online survey was used to reach out to the vast and geographically dispersed respondents. Quantitative data analysis applied descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate techniques leveraging the SPSS version 19 statistical package. A correlation and regression analysis was done. A duration of six months was used to collect and retain 720 treated copies of the questionnaire. Findings revealed that customer support, offering appeal, service interaction and personalised advice all displayed positive statistically significant correlation with satisfaction and revenue measure with offering appeal perfection ranging from 37.1% to 61.4%. Further, analysis proved a 51.3% of performance explained by customer service optimisation. To conclude, the support services provided to customer, the appeal offered, the personalised services provided and the service interactions all contributes to MTN’s performance. The researcher thus recommends that the management of MTN should invest more resources (technological, financial, human capital) into the training of customer service team to ensure they are empowered, skilful and knowledgeable to continually buttress their competencies in providing outstanding customer services. Customer service optimisation should also be embedded into MTN’s core values. Keywords: customer service optimisation; customer service perception; business performance metrics; MTN Nigeria and Cameroon.