OPINION: When service provision excludes PWDs, it fails the 'customer is king' test

Every year, the South Korean consumer protection agency conducts a nationwide poll, inviting consumers to recommend popular products they wish to be tested against their marketed qualities

The brands with the most votes, be it bicycles, confectionery, television sets, or health supplements, are rigorously tested in one of the agency’s 47 laboratories and ranked based on how well they match promises with delivery.

The Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) publishes its results, enabling consumers to make informed and rational purchasing decisions and avoid one of the most harmful practices by businesses against consumers – misrepresentation of facts regarding various elements of a good or service. The “shame or praise” list also induces businesses to improve product quality.

During a study visit to the KCA’s High-Performance Textile Evaluation Lab, my colleagues and I saw firsthand how running apparel was being analysed to verify their sweat-wicking, water-proof and stretching quality claims.

The laboratory mimicked the weather settings the sweatpants would be exposed to, including wet, windy, and hot conditions.

I distilled this immersive experience into one thought: stakeholders with a consumer welfare responsibility or mandate, be they regulators, businesses, or consumer bodies, must proactively empower consumers to make informed purchasing decisions.

“The Customer is King” is a highly flogged quote, but one whose weight is perdurable.

The painful truth is that in Kenya, consumers in the marketplace are being disenfranchised through illegal practices like false and misleading marketing tactics regarding price, quality, composition, availability of spare parts and repair facilities, place of origin, among others.

In addition, regulators with a consumer protection mandate should prioritise and ramp up their efforts to educate the public regarding their rights and responsibilities.

More importantly, let’s develop and expose stakeholders to user-friendly complaint handling mechanisms, enabling Kenyans to hold businesses accountable.

I base my assessment on my experience working at the Competition Authority of Kenya, which receives and handles about 1,000 consumer-related complaints every year from across various sectors of the economy. Seven years ago, this number stood at 150 annually.

While notable efforts have been made in awareness creation and stakeholder sensitisation, these numbers still fall short of reality, particularly when weighed against the avalanche of similar complaints posted on popular social media groups, where consumers gather to vent and call out errant traders.

However, in our collective efforts to promote awareness about consumers’ rights and responsibilities, one critical subset of stakeholders should not be overlooked – Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).

PWDs are consumers, with Constitutionally-guaranteed rights touching on the quality of goods and services, access to clear and complete information, protection of economic rights, and compensation.

Unfortunately, PWDs face systemic barriers to accessing their rights. They often lack the necessary information and support to make informed decisions in the marketplace, including access to adapted complaint channels to report violations. These gaps manifest at the end of the value chain.

In product and service design, manufacturers should consider PWDs. Producers should, as practically as possible, involve this key stakeholder in the R&D stage, gathering first-hand proposals from prospective consumers, thereby avoiding the trap of prescriptive designs that fail the utility test.

During the aforementioned trip to South Korea, I saw retailers place bright braille tags made from silicon on specific items on shelves, helping persons with visual impairments decipher the key qualities of an item they pick off the shelf.

The tags, which are removed and reused at the till, are mostly placed on corrosive products like bleach. Food for thought, retailers.

For the business community and consumer protection bodies, let’s also prioritise PWDs in this collective equity journey. Be it through involving them in your activities, including in your advocacy initiatives.

For regulators, we must remember the critical role we play in facilitating consumers’ well-being. Let’s all do more for our fellow citizens who are not asking for favours, just deserving of what’s theirs.

Let’s focus on educating PWDs about their consumer rights, including empowering your staff members to take up special skills such as sign language.

Deliberately channel resources toward awareness creation aimed at empowering PWDs about their consumer rights, and when PWDs report matters, prioritise their resolution within the legal frameworks. Empowerment of PWDs is more than Braille service charters.

Mr Mutegi is Manager – Communications & External Relations, CAK