2013...

         Lessons for Equity Bank from the Matatu Industry

The 'matatu' industry has for long been tainted with words such as 'disorderly' and 'poorly managed'. But one thing that is clear from the operations of Makangas and drivers in this industry is communication. They will always tell you when to expect a traffic snarl up. If you hail a 'matatu' and it is filled to capacity, the tout always tells you that 'iko crome" (slang for 'the bus is full and there is no space for you')

If by any chance there is a passenger in the bus who is alighting  at the next stage, rather than the tout leave you behind and risk losing out on potential business, he asks you to get in and bear with having to be on your feet for a few yards till that passenger alights, then you will enjoy the comfort of your own seat.

When a tout does not have loose change, he goes to the extend of asking you to help solve the problem, "Since your fare is 60/- and you gave me 100/- could you have 10/- somewhere so I give you 50/- please?"

Most businesses today fail a lot by assuming that their clientele will 'understand' and 'accept' apologies; which is not so. We do not understand when your 'matatu' is dirty and stuffy, you had the whole night to clean it up dude!

Communication plays a key role in mitigating trouble, covering shame and celebrating achievements that public s outside your organisation would otherwise never have heard of.

It helps you as a business to say, "I am sorry", before you actually step on your customers' toe! It helps you to say "I am sorry" while you are in the process of stepping on that toe and as you must have rightly predicted, communication helps you to say "I am sorry'' when all the toe-hurting is done.

That is the reason why I am very upset that one week down the line, Equity Bank has issues with its systems or whatever fancy name their IT guys call it, and have not, NEVER, given a single word to its poor customers regarding this. In fact, I tried tweeting at them and their twitter handle is inactive!! You might be surprised, I am not.

Equity bank is now running an old 'matatu' on the road; They have filled a 14 seater-mini with 30 people, charged all of them the same amount for fare and are seated on the driver's seat,as though all is OK. In fact they have placed very huge earphones on their heads and are dancing to music that none of their passengers can hear.

When we get to the next stage, the Kenyan passenger will be as peculiar as expected....

@jmmwanthi