By Tatenda Mujeyi
The City of Harare under partnership with community based organisation Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) will soon launch a mobile application Taura Harare to meet customer relationship management.
In a bid to meet the ever argued challenge of the city’s response to customer relationship management the city of Harare will launch the ‘Taura Harare’ mobile application in partnership with Combined Harare Residents Association.
“It is not like we have no means to achieve Customer Relationship Management, at times resource challenges are the biggest impediment. We have a Information and Publicity Committee and management team, physical customer complaints offices across districts, we are available on social networks 24/7 and we are adding the TAURA Harare Application to our many customer service platform’s in partnership with CHRA.” The City’s Public Relations Manager Michael Chideme said.
The Mobile Application’s adoption is pending approval by the Information and Publicity committee with formalities expected any time soon.
“The application has gone through trial runs and we are awaiting approval from the council’s committee on Information and Publicity we expect a resolution from the committee soon and we hope to thereafter stream it on line,” Chideme also said.
The proponents have sought to defy the growing assumptions that technology in the Covid-19 era could potentially widen the technology gap through offering residents universally applicable service.
According to a publication by United Cities and Local Governance titled, Digital Technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic “Despite the increased demand for digital technologies in response to the COVID-19 crisis, there is the risk that the rapid application of these technologies during the current emergency will broaden the digital divide. Although the existence of a digital divide is not new, the current crisis adds a new dimension of urgency to address its bridging.
In a bid to carter for the needs of the old folk and mitigate some of these challenges, ever increasing prices of data and smart phones the application will also work on conventional phones through the SMS platform.
“Yes we can confirm that the platform is text based and works on WhatsApp. To further cater for the old folk, the ‘TAURA Harare’ application shall be SMS compatible to allow for those who do not have smartphones.” Mr Akili, the Combined Harare Residents Programs Officer said in an interview.
The application is expected to increase accurate information transfare through the usage of photography and partial data collection as a communication tool.
“You will see that the application seeks to address the challenge of bureaucratic information flow through directing complaints to the relevant office. A sewer systems complaint will automatically notify the relevant management department and the plumber on duty thereby cutting the time and cost the City would have taken to communicate the complaint,” Mr Akili also said.
Optimism is high among project’s proponents in terms of continuity as the project is set to be a 24 hour complaints station that will be initially funded by CHRA and remains a cheap option for council’s adoption.
“We funded the project and we are going to see it’s coming to life financially but the important issue is it can be considered as part of council’s budget as it is a cheap option. With research carried out four to five years ago suggesting that close to 95% of the urban population owns mobile phones the success of the Application ‘Taura Harare’ can never be undermined,” Akili said.
The City of Harare deserves a lasting solution to customer services management, with critics arguing that it is not the submission of complaints that is challenging but council’s response to customer complaints.
Taura Harare app once approved will be available on Google Playstore.
About Author
