Businesses and customer rights

A woman shops for shoes at a Nairobi stall. Today’s businesses cannot afford to treat customers lightly, especially with the enactment of the Consumer law. Photo/FILE 

By CATHY MPUTHIA

Customer care is very important for your business. However, not many businesses have a good customer care policy.

Your business should ensure it has a sound customer care policy and a designated official to handle complaints. Some of the questions you should ask yourself are: What are the goals, mission and vision of my business?

 

What is my competitor’s customer care policy? What kind of procedures and systems must I put in place to address customer complaints?

Who are my designate customer care officials? What are their training needs? Who is my customer?

I recommend that you come up with a customer care policy because today’s businesses cannot afford to treat customers lightly, especially with the enactment of the Consumer law. I recommend that you get a copy of the law and train your customer care officials on its provisions.

Businesses should also appreciate that consumer rights are constitutional. Article 46 of the Constitution sets out various consumer rights. Your business will be held liable in the event any of the rights is breached.

The Constitution always takes precedence in the event of a conflict. The Consumer Act also takes precedence over any other internal regulations that your business may have.

The Constitution says that consumers have the right to access goods and services of a reasonable quality. As a business owner, ensure that your manufacturing department is aware of the need for quality.

Also ensure that quality control mechanisms are put in place because days of producing low quality goods and services are long gone.

The Constitution also states that consumers must have all information about goods and services they consume. This relates to issues such as pricing and ingredients. However, the law limits this to necessary information.

Read together with Article 35 on the right to information, your business must try as much as possible to make full disclosure of the end product.

The Constitution finally states that an aggrieved consumer is entitled to compensation for defects in goods and services. This means that in the event your product or service is found to be defective, the consumer can recover against your business.

The Consumer Act, on the other hand, is more detailed and was enacted pursuant to Article 46 of the Constitution. Despite provisions in the Competition Act and the Sale of Goods Act, among others, the Consumer Act remains the largest guarantor of consumer welfare in Kenya.

The Act proposes a lot of regulations for certain types of agreements between a supplier and consumer. Some include internet gaming agreements which have been criminalised.

Time share agreements in real estate and other assets must also be in writing. Internet, credit card and lease agreements are also provided for under the Act.