On more than one occasion, shoppers have inquired on how to proceed when a delivery from Jumia Kenya does not meet their expectations.
With this in mind Business Today reporter Samuel Gitonga sat down with Calvin Ayugi, the Head of Internal & Seller Operations at Jumia Kenya to have a better understanding of the company’s Customer Service policy.
Business Today: There are instances when customers receive a product that they had not ordered,how does the company handle such cases?
Ayugi: We have a 7 day return policy for common goods like flour, lipstick and a 7 day return policy for goods such as television sets and mobile phones, if a customer feels that they are not satisfied by a product that we have delivered, they can always reject or return it. The company will then review the request if its genuine the request is honoured.
Business Today: You have mentioned reject or return, what is the difference?
Ayugi: Return is when a customer returns an item due to various reasons within 7 days for instance in electronics it might be because of manufacturing defect, for fashion it might be because of wrong size.
Reject is when a customer is not pleased with our product immediately it is delivered to them and as a result want it reverted back to us as soon as possible.
Business Today: In the event that a package leaves the warehouse intact but by the time it reaches the customer it is not in one piece, who bears the responsibility?
Ayugi: In that scenario, Jumia bears the liability. We are committed to ensure that our customers get our best services and their orders reach them intact.
{Read: Meet logistics guru behind every package you order from Jumia}
Business Today: When a customer receives an item they had ordered, the contents and the phone number of the customer are not labelled and more often than not, this leads to confusion especially if a customer had more than one order, why?
Ayugi: That is a security measure, when we were starting out we used to list all relevant details on a package but with time, we made modifications based on our observations.
For instance when our rider is delivering a phone to a customer with the package labelled that they are delivering an expensive brand of phone then they instantly become walking targets.
We also ceased indicating customer phone numbers on a package because we felt that we need to protect our customers’ data. At the moment, the delivery app is what shows all a customer’s details as opposed to the package.
{See also: Why Jumia chose to list on the NYSE}
Business Today: How fast is a customer’s request for a return/rejection honoured?
The first thing we do when we get to work in the morning is to review the previous day’s work. We prefer to work with a 98% customer satisfaction rate, in the event we notice that we haven’t met that, we interrogate possible reasons that might have led to the shortcoming.
We have a Customer Dispatch team which deals with ensuring that customer requests are honoured as soon as possible. To answer your question we identify the problem then call the customer and explain to them exactly what happened and send them the new package immediately after that.
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