Learn how survey data and results can help African MFIs to meet their clients’ needs

Understanding the needs of customers is a prerequisite for implementing a customer-centric approach which places customers at the heart of business strategy, decision making, organisational design and operations with the aim of designing tailored products and services.

Customer centricity as an organisational approach

CGAP defines Customer Centricity in inclusive finance as a business model that integrates the entire ecosystem of customers, employees, suppliers, partners, shareholders and communities that an organisation serves. The customer-centred approach applies good practices in social performance management as defined by the Social Performance Task Force.

Customer-centric organisations have a competitive advantage as they are flexible and can adapt their services to their customers' changing needs. In return, customers are loyal, actively use their products and services, and provide useful feedback which ensures the organisation stays in touch with market developments.

ADA supports microfinance institutions (MFIs) in their transition to a customer-centric organisational model with free online resources. As a first step, MFIs can test their level of maturity to assess what is needed to move their strategy, culture, structure and operations towards a customer-centric business model

Webinar on survey analytics for MFIs

MFIs are not the only institutions who struggle to understand their customers’ needs. The World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) found that a majority of financial service providers in its network of 20 countries indicated that one of the main challenges they face in serving low-income customers is understanding their needs.
 
WSBI collaborated with FinMark Trust (FMT) to address this lack of knowledge. FMT carries out studies on financial inclusion in African countries in cooperation with national statistical offices. These studies generate freely available data on the level of financial inclusion of the population as well as on their specific challenges and needs in terms of financial services. These studies can therefore serve as a valuable resource for African MFIs and other financial service providers to better understand the needs of their clients.

WSBI and FMT carried out case studies with several leading financial service providers who were able to translate data from external surveys into meaningful insights to support their product design and rollout, distribution strategies and more. Supported by the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) and ADA, WSBI and FMT will share their insights in an online webinar on ‘Data analytics for financial inclusion’ on 17 May at 15h00 CET.