The Hargeisa Water Agency- Customer Care Unit

The Customer Care Unit was established as a result of the ongoing collaboration between the Hargeisa Water Agency and the National Water and Sewerage Corporation of Uganda (NWSC). The National Water and Sewerage Corporation of Uganda (NWSC) is currently mentoring the Hargeisa Water Agency as part of an ongoing EU Water Operators’ Partnership Alliance program, which is funded by the European Union and managed by the Global Water Operators’s Partnership Alliance/UN Habitat (GWOPA). This program aims to enhance institutional capacity and facilitate knowledge exchange.

In May 2024, a team from the Hargeisa Water Agency visited Kampala to observe Uganda’s water infrastructure management practices. The opportunity to visit the National Water and Sewerage Corporation of Uganda has allowed them to benchmark the services provided by the agency. Subsequently, a team from Uganda visited Hargeisa to provide technical support and facilitate knowledge transfer to the Hargeisa Water Agency. This technical support and knowledge transfer were essential for the establishment of the Customer Care Unit.

Inaugurated in April 2022 under the leadership of Mohamed Ali Darood, the general manager of the Hargeysa Water Agency, the customer care unit was established to create an open communication channel between the agency and the public. The vision for this unit was to fix recurring issues of technical employees who either fix broken pipes or record meter readings often clashing with clients. Since the customer care unit was established, the clients of the agency can simply dial the call center if an issue rises between them and the employees sent by the agency. This unit is also monumental in collecting recommendations on how the agency can improve its service. 

Positioned right at the entrance of the agency, the customer care unit of the Hargeysa Water Agency works around the clock for twenty four hours a day seven days a week to ensure smooth service delivery to its customers. Operating in three shifts, the team is dedicated to ensuring the agency’s clients get all of their complaints well attended to. 

The customer care unit functions as the link between the public and the rest of the departments in Hargeysa’s Water Agency. They take complaints from the clients and pass them on to the department which the complaint concerns. For instance, if a leakage is reported at the call center, the technical department is notified quickly. Such swift communication between departments spearheaded by the customer care unit ensures that water loss is minimized as urgently as possible. Once such a report reaches the unit, an emergency team is sent to the site. Their task is to seal the pipe and ensure that water is not spilling. Once again, clients contact the customer care unit wondering what happened to their running water and technicians are sent. 

Such vital work the center is carrying out with the utmost professionalism is assisted by enterprise resource planning software, Odoo, also known as CCTs (Customer Complaints Tracking system). The CCTs is monumental in monitoring who handles the complaints and tracking if the complaints are responded to in a timely manner. Moreover, this enterprise resource planning software, used by a number of departments at the agency, has a lot of functionality such as customer support, billings system, E-payments and accounting system. The customer care unit handles the customer support functionality of the software. 

Apart from the technology utilized by the unit, the customer care unit at Hargeysa Water Agency has employed capable individuals with formidable soft skills. They ensure that clients are addressed and communicated to both kindly and professionally. Such kindness and care shown by the employees of the unit has gone a long way in fostering a strong relationship with the public. Moreover, the employees of this center carry out routine calls to customers who are yet to pay their bills in full. Customers are only called if their stacked-up bills exceed a certain amount.

Furthermore, the unit also conducts a monthly satisfaction survey on the phone with the agency’s clients, as well as a yearly survey of one thousand samples from households around the city for the purposes of evaluating the agency’s performance. It is through this mechanism that the agency ensures that its services are continually improved and that it maintains a high quality of service for its customers. 

Dear Customer, Please contact the Customer Care Unit from the following contact information 

Phone Number: 9222

WhatsApp: +252 63 7784688