Kinshasa, July 22nd, 2025 (CPA) . – Customer service training was presented on Tuesday by a business leader as a necessity for entrepreneurs, particularly in the hotel and tourism sectors in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), during a workshop held in the capital, Kinshasa. ‘Customer service is a necessity and one of the major challenges for entrepreneurs when providing services within companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Most employees, even those in the hotel and tourism industries, do not have the necessary skills to offer quality services,’ said Ms Linda Endundo, employment facilitator and managing director of Congo Business. According to her, the lack of adequate training for staff in this specific area is one of the main causes of problems related to companies’ inability to retain their customers, adding that it is common to find that even renowned hotels suffer from a lack of well-trained staff.
‘Most managers of these establishments lament the fact that foreign hotel chains often tend to recruit people from their countries of origin, who are less accustomed to the Congolese public, which is one of the causes of the problem,’ she noted.
Ms Endundo pointed out that it is difficult to train a Congolese person in customer service if they have never been served properly themselves, adding that each situation must always be contextualized so that they can understand what is being explained to them. ‘Foreign trainers often find this difficult to do, as they simply teach theory without taking local realities into account,’ she explained. She argued that customer service training in the DRC requires a specific approach that takes into account the local context and the needs of employees, concluding that foreign companies operating in the country must adapt their training strategy to help Congolese people develop the skills they need to provide quality service. CPA/