A new rule under the recently published regulations from the government will now prompt Kenyan network operators to be more diligent on customer care service delivery. According to the draft, telcos such as Safaricom and Airtel face regulatory fines if they take more than 15 seconds to answer customer calls under the new draft regulations.

These new regulations that were made public last week for comment will allow the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to fine these telcos KES 300,000 for every breach and a jail term of up to three years.

“Any person who contravenes any regulation made under this section commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding KES 300,000, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or to both,” states the Act.

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In the proposed bill, the CA aims to protect consumers making inquiries and complaints from being put on the call queue for more than 15 seconds.

We all know how annoying waiting on a call to be answered from a company can be. A previous study from Business Daily actually found that calls to telecom customer service desks took an average of two minutes and 25 seconds forcing many to hang up in frustration.

Additionally, calls made to the firms’ call centres have been spiking with the increase in mobile phone and internet subscribers. The number of active mobile phone subscribers has nearly tripled from 19.4 million at the beginning of 2010 to 55.2 million at the end of March 2020, putting pressure on the telcos’ call centres.

So, it would be reasonable for these companies to just hire more staff in their respective customer service departments to avoid such fines.