Barriers to effective service delivery in the telecommunication sector: a study of Kenya’s Safaricom M-pesa section

Abstract

The study investigated the problem of effective service delivery in the telecommunication sector with specific focus on Safaricom and its subsidiary service of M-Pesa. It examined the challenges faced by M-Pesa Section employees of Safaricom limited in their endeavor to effectively deliver services to their clients. It further assessed the effect of professional staff training at Safaricom, how Safaricom M-Pesa Section employees coped with the challenges that they faced and the impact of rapid customer growth and employee expectations. Although the literature review demonstrated that some research on the effectiveness of service delivery in the telecommunication sector had been undertaken by a number of scholars most of them had focused more on the customers and therefore there was little evidence to show that research on barriers to effective service delivery in Safaricom had been given scholarly attention. This hiatus made the proposed study abundantly significant and justified. Methodologically, the study employed an elaborate scheme of oral interviews, questionnaires and library research to collect data. The data collected was subjected to a number of theoretical perspectives. The study demonstrated that there were training programs available but the programs were unable to meet the customer challenges and neither did they improve the skills and abilities of the M-Pesa customer representatives. The lack of career growth, poor remuneration and job security followed in that order in terms of their hindrance to effectiveness of service delivery with many of the M-Pesa representatives claiming they were a major hindrance to service delivery. The study also argued that rapid customer growth had become a major barrier to effective service delivery since the M-Pesa representatives were overwhelmed thus compromising quality of service. Similarly, employee expectations had become a barrier to effective service delivery due to the fact that most of the expectations the M-Pesa representatives had regarding their employer had waned thus leading to an I don’t care attitude thus a major barrier to service delivery. The study thus concluded that lack of proper training programs, unfriendly job environment, rapid customer growth and thwarted employee expectations were major barriers to effective service delivery in the M-Pesa section of Safaricom. The study was useful since it helped gather insights on barriers to effective service delivery. However further studies should be carried out in order to gather more information about service delivery in different business setups.