BY GCWALISILE MHLABANE
SIDVOKODVO– Businesses must stop treating customer service as a routine transaction and start deliberately designing experiences that keep customers coming back, Mbabane Municipal Council Chief Executive Officer Gciniwe Fakudze has said.
Fakudze made the call at the LaunchPad Business Conference 2026, running from October 2-3 at the TLC Events Centre in Sidvokodvo, where entrepreneurs, business leaders and aspiring business owners are being exposed to practical tools for building stronger businesses.
She said entrepreneurs must map the customer journey and scrutinise every point of contact between the business and its customers.
“I was specifically talking about customer journey mapping and customer experience, and transcending from service to experience,” Fakudze said.
She said the approach could help businesses identify gaps in their service and improve the way customers interact with them.
Fakudze said small businesses should not assume that delivering a high-quality customer experience was the preserve of large companies.
“Even as a small business, how can you conceptualise it and give it an experience and a service like a big business would? Because there’s a science to it,” she said.
The CEO also challenged entrepreneurs to back their faith and ambition with practical business skills, saying prayer alone could not substitute for proper business tools.
“There are literal tools that business people employ that we now need to give to our business owners,” she said.
Fakudze said entrepreneurs should use those tools while maintaining faith in their business goals.
“Even as you trust God for your success, even as you pray for your success, then apply the tools, because it’s the tools that will make you successful in what you are doing,” she said.
She also warned entrepreneurs against expecting success without hard work.
“I am yet to meet a successful person that doesn’t work hard. I am yet to meet one,” Fakudze said.
She urged business owners to remain resilient when they encounter setbacks and to keep alternative options open.
“If this fails, there is another option; even if there is failure, you dusting yourself off and keeping on running,” she said.
Fakudze said entrepreneurs should understand that sustainable success requires persistence and effort.
“Nothing will come free and easy. If it does, it will go away as fast and easy as it came,” she said.
The LaunchPad Business Conference brings together entrepreneurs, business leaders and aspiring business owners for discussions and practical learning focused on business development and community initiatives.
Fakudze’s message was clear: businesses need to stop leaving customer experience to chance and use deliberate systems to understand customers, improve service delivery and build lasting relationships.
(Courtesy Pic)
