Customer Voice · CX Voices

“Customer experience is not a department. It is a culture.”

We often measure what we sell. Far less often do we measure what customers actually experience. Yet this is precisely where the difference is being made today between companies that build lasting loyalty and those that struggle to keep pace with the competition.

To launch our Customer Voice series, we spoke with Cherif Ahmedou Mbaye, Head of Customer Experience & Merchandising at Sonatel, the leading telecommunications operator in Senegal and part of the Orange Group.

In a market where offers are increasingly similar, he stands by a clear conviction: it is no longer the product that drives loyalty, but the experience customers have at every touchpoint — in stores, online, and over the phone.

In this interview, he reflects on the turning point that made customer experience a strategic priority, the most common mistake companies make — confusing a transaction with a relationship — and how Sonatel is now managing customer satisfaction with the same level of discipline as commercial performance.

An open conversation about what it really means to embed a customer-centric culture throughout an organization, from headquarters to the frontline.

How do you define customer experience within your organization?

In the context of my work at Sonatel, I define customer experience as the combination of perceptions, emotions, and impressions that a customer builds through every interaction with Sonatel — whether in a store, online, by phone through our telemarketing contact center, or across our digital channels, from discovering an offer to receiving after-sales support.

Customer experience is shaped by every interaction: the quality of the welcome in-store, the smoothness of the purchasing journey, the clarity of information, the speed at which a request is handled, and the consistency of the experience regardless of the channel used.

For us, managing customer experience means ensuring that every advisor, every touchpoint, and every interaction reflects the quality standards we have established, contributes to measured customer satisfaction through SLAs and surveys, and strengthens customer loyalty and long-term value.

What was the turning point that made customer experience a strategic priority?

The turning point was twofold.

First, there was a clear reality on the ground: customers were waiting, advisors were under pressure, and commercial performance indicators were looking good — yet customer satisfaction was not following the same trajectory. We were measuring what we sold, not what customers were actually experiencing. There was a blind spot.

Second, a conviction gradually became clear: in an increasingly competitive telecommunications market, where offers are becoming more and more alike, the experience itself is what makes the difference.

It is no longer the product that creates loyalty, but the feeling customers have at every touchpoint — in-store, online, and over the phone.

From there, we wanted to turn that conviction into something measurable and actionable: structure our processes, train our teams, track the right indicators, and, above all, make customer experience manageable and measurable — not simply observable.

This is precisely where solutions such as those offered by RightCom become particularly relevant.

What is the most common mistake you see in customer relationships in your market?

“The most common mistake is confusing a transaction with a relationship.”

We optimize handling times, train advisors to close sales, and monitor queues — and all of that is necessary. But we sometimes forget that customers do not evaluate a transaction. They evaluate an overall experience, which is often emotional and subjective.

Were they listened to?
Was their life made easier?
Did they leave feeling that they had been treated well?

In our market, I see three concrete manifestations of this mistake.

First, channel fragmentation. A customer may call, then visit a store, and later return online — and still have to explain their situation from the beginning each time. The experience effectively starts over at every touchpoint.

Second, responsiveness without proactivity. We handle complaints, but we do not always anticipate the underlying pain points. The customer ends up reporting an issue that we could potentially have identified before they did.

Third, a lack of visibility into the customer’s actual experience. We measure response times, volumes, and resolution rates — but not necessarily what the customer truly experienced. And what we do not measure, we cannot improve.

This is precisely why a solution such as RightCom is strategic: it enables organizations to move from intuition to data and manage customer experience with the same level of rigor applied to commercial performance.

How do you concretely measure customer satisfaction?

We measure customer satisfaction across several complementary levels.

The first is structured post-interaction measurement. After a visit to one of our stores or an interaction with our telemarketing contact center, we collect customer feedback through satisfaction surveys. This is where RightCom plays an important role, enabling us to centralize feedback collection, monitor scores in real time, and quickly identify friction points.

The second level is operational performance monitoring: waiting times, handling times, and first-contact resolution rates. We have defined SLAs — for example, a maximum waiting time of 15 minutes and a 10-minute handling target — and we track compliance store by store and regional directorate by regional directorate.

The third level is qualitative field analysis: mystery shopping, feedback from store managers, and direct observation during field visits. What the numbers do not always capture, the field reveals.

What matters to us is connecting these three levels.

A high satisfaction score combined with excessive waiting times is not sustainable. Conversely, meeting SLAs while a customer leaves without feeling genuinely understood represents a missed opportunity.

The challenge today is to make all of this more transparent and actionable for our frontline teams — and that is exactly what RightCom helps us achieve.

What advice would you give a director who wants to transform their customer culture?

I would give them three pieces of advice, in the order in which they matter.

First: start with yourself.

Customer culture cannot simply be declared; it has to be demonstrated. If a director only talks about customer experience during performance review meetings, their teams will quickly understand that it is not truly a priority.

By contrast, when a leader asks about the customer’s experience before asking about sales figures, when they personally go into the field to listen to what advisors and customers are experiencing, the message gets through without the need for a memo.

Second: do not start with the tools.

The classic mistake is to invest in a solution, deploy it, and expect the culture to follow. It does not work that way.

You first need to work on perceptions and mindsets: Do my teams truly understand what a satisfied customer looks like? Do they understand how their role contributes to that experience?

An advisor who sees their role as “selling a package” and an advisor who sees it as “solving a problem and creating a positive experience” are not the same employee — even when they use the same tools.

Third: measure, share, and celebrate.

What is not measured does not exist. But what is measured without being discussed does not either.

Customer satisfaction scores need to be as visible as sales figures — in meetings, dashboards, and individual feedback sessions.

And when a store improves, or when an advisor makes a real difference, that achievement should be recognized and celebrated.

Culture is built through daily rituals, not grand declarations.

In short: embody it, convince people, then equip and measure.

How does RightCom support you in this journey?

RightCom supports us in what I would call the missing link: turning customer feedback and sentiment into actionable data.

Previously, we had impressions. Store managers would share qualitative feedback, we could sense that certain pain points existed, but we could not objectively assess them, prioritize them, or track how they evolved over time. On the satisfaction side, we were operating somewhat blindly.

What RightCom brings us is the ability to measure continuously across our different customer touchpoints, with a level of granularity that allows us to act at the right level — by store, by regional directorate, and by type of interaction.

But what matters most to me is not the collection of data. It is what happens afterward.

RightCom helps us make that data meaningful and accessible to frontline teams — not just management.

When a store manager can see in real time how customers are evaluating the welcome, waiting time, or quality of advice, they no longer need to be told what to improve. They can see it themselves and take action.

That, to me, is the real value of the solution.

It does not replace customer experience management; it democratizes it.

It brings the customer culture down from headquarters to the frontline, from dashboards to the daily reality of advisors.

Conclusion

Listening to Cherif Ahmedou Mbaye, it quickly becomes clear that transforming customer experience does not begin with a tool, or even with a dashboard.

It begins with a shift in perspective: an organization deciding to measure not only what it sells, but what its customers actually experience.

That is the shift he advocates — from intuition to data, from reaction to anticipation, and from transaction to relationship.

His approach can be summed up in four movements, in the order in which they matter:

Embody. Convince. Equip. Measure.

This sequence is a powerful reminder that technology is never the starting point. It is the accelerator of a conviction that has already taken root within the organization.

This is precisely where solutions such as RightCom create value: not by replacing customer experience management, but by democratizing it — bringing customer culture from headquarters all the way to the frontline and giving every advisor the means to see, understand, and act.

And ultimately, everything comes back to one sentence — one that deserves to be read slowly:

“Customer experience is not a department. It is a culture.”

It is also, implicitly, an invitation.

Because culture cannot simply be declared. It has to be built, interaction by interaction, through everyday behaviors and rituals.

Perhaps that is the most important message from this conversation: customer satisfaction is not a destination to be reached, but a standard to be continuously cultivated.

What if customer experience became your next competitive advantage?

Like Sonatel and many other organizations, turn customer sentiment into actionable data and manage satisfaction with the same rigor you apply to commercial performance.

Discover RightCom’s solutions or speak with our team to build a genuine customer-centric culture within your organization.