When it comes to creating customer relationships in any organisation, nothing beats corporate social responsibility(CSR) in my opinion. It is one way a company or organisation can give back to their community or market. CSR is a way of getting more customers to believe in the cores of your company and if done right, the results can be both personal fulfillment and indirectly promotion of a company brand.
My focus today is on what MTN Uganda is doing across the country via 21 Days of care, am going to give you some of the reasons I think this form of CSR is a better compared to other forms like the MTN Marathon, but first let me take you through what the 21 Days of care campaign is all about. MTN’s 21 Days of care is an initiative where MTN employees go out to communities mainly, schools and try to better the lives of students by teaching them a few computing skills and helping improve their study environment by renovating classrooms, and my favorite which is the building of regional ICT hubs. Now that you have an idea what am talking about, here is why I think this form of CSR is the best.
1. Humility:
I don’t know about you, but am humbled when I see the CEO or CTO of MTN Uganda teaching a group of high school students basic skills be it in Information technology or career guidance. I put myself in the shoes of these students and how lucky they are to learn from the people with all these experience in industry. This says so much about the MTN brand and the humility of it’s leadership.
2. Target:
The program mainly targets high school students in rural areas. This not only bridges the rural-urban education gap but also gives a fair advantage to the students in rural areas. For an ICT company outreach can be a great way of showing your relevance in the market and I bet all these students will want to be part of the MTN world because when they needed a few skills, guess who showed up to their schools.
3.Impact:
Education in an economy like Uganda has a huge impact in the society we live in, and because most rural families are struggling to educate their kids, these families usually settle for the upcountry schools which they can afford. Therefore, I believe that MTN making this their problem and reaching out to these students and building regional hubs, causes a big impact to our economy.
Anyway, I will end with that for now, but before you stop reading this, the main reason I think this is the best form of CSR is the way the MTN staff is coming together and pulling this off. Sometimes it’s not about how much money you can raise for a given cause, but how you put some time off your busy schedules and teach a few skills to a few people who need them. This way you will be building a relationship with your customer or future customer that will last. Let me know what you think in the comments section and catch you in the next one.
