Effectiveness of Strategic Communication Tools in Enhancing Local Authorities Operations, the Zimbabwean Experiences
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Date
2022-03-31
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Indiana Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences
Abstract
The study sought to evaluate strategic communication tools in Zimbabwe with the City of Bulawayo as a case study. Bulawayo City Council was the first local authority to set up a service call centre in 2012 to cover all municipal service faults and queries. The focus of the call centre was to ensure efficient service delivery and also customer relationship management. The study sought to examine the role of the strategic communication tools to a municipal‟s overall strategy. It also aimed at assessing the role of the call centre since its formation as well as evaluate the importance of the call centre in enhancing service delivery. As the first local authority to set up a call centre there has been increased interest from other local authorities in learning from Bulawayo‟s experiences. In conducting the study, 100 questionnaires were sent to internal respondents who were members of staff for the City of Bulawayo and 290 questionnaires were distributed to all the 29 wards in the city. Purposive sampling was used in the distribution of questionnaires for internal respondents and non - probability convenience sampling used for the external respondents. The study established that the call centre has been an influential strategic communication tool contributing towards the enhancement of service quality and delivery. The study further revealed that there is need for the local authority to match services provided at the call centre to the services provided by other service departments. The study indicated that the call centre as a strategic communication tool could be successfully implemented by other Zimbabwean local authorities although it was noted that this should be after careful research and analysis. The study recommended that organisations wishing to set up call centres should be able to match customer service demand with the actual delivery of services.
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Citation
Ngwenya, B., Ndlovu, M.J., Shava, G., Zulu, E. and Shonhiwa, S., 2022. Effectiveness of Strategic Communication Tools in Enhancing Local Authorities Operations, the Zimbabwean Experiences. Indiana Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(3), pp.13-27.