Tech alone can’t deliver service excellence, experts warn

Experts have called for a shift in how businesses and public institutions approach digital transformation, saying the true measure of service excellence lies in the outcomes customers experience rather than the sophistication of the technology deployed.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Remita Payment Services Limited, ’DeRemi Atanda, among other economic experts made the call at the 2026 Service Excellence Conference held in Lagos, where business executives, regulators, and public sector leaders examined how technology and human interaction can work together to improve service delivery.

Speaking on the conference theme, “Tech-Enabled. Human-Powered,” De’Remi’s address focused on a familiar problem: organisations spend heavily on digital platforms, automation and new features, yet customers still face delays, uncertainty and avoidable difficulties when trying to access services.

He urged that service providers must begin by understanding what customers expect from them, rather than assuming that deploying more technology will improve the experience. Automated systems, he noted, cannot make up for poorly designed processes or unclear service standards.

“Technology has been, and will continue to be, a means to an end, not the end itself. Customers are not looking for technology; they are looking for outcomes. Technology cannot deliver service excellence if it is optimising for the wrong expectations. The journey begins with how we understand what customers want, which ultimately comes down to less effort and greater certainty,” he said.

During a panel discussion, he explained that speed, while important, is only one measure of good service, saying “Customers may complete a transaction quickly and still leave dissatisfied if the process is confusing or the service fails when they need it most”. He warned that digitising a poorly designed process simply reproduces its shortcomings in a new format.

“Speed is just one attribute of service delivery. Fast service is not always pleasant, nor does it always meet customer expectations. To deliver true service excellence, you must combine speed with smart solutions and human connection. That is what builds consistency and trust,” De’Remi explained.

He also spoke about the role of human interaction in digital service delivery, noting that technology should not come at the expense of empathy, responsiveness or the willingness to take responsibility when something goes wrong. For him, retaining the human element does not mean returning to manual processes. It means ensuring that customers feel understood and receive appropriate support when they interact with a brand.

“When we speak of human connection in technology, ‘human’ does not mean manual processes. It is about the emotional component of service delivery and how people relate to your brand. As we deploy technology as an invisible layer, we must ensure that it does not remove the human touch, because technology that remembers is technology that feels human,” he added.

He further addressed the question of accountability in financial services, where a single transaction may depend on several networks, service providers and other intermediaries. Although these parties share responsibility for the technical processes involved, he maintained that the brand dealing directly with the customer must remain accountable for the promise it makes. He called on business leaders and policymakers to enforce service standards and ensure that failures meet consequences.

“You don’t prepare for war in the time of war; you prepare for war in the time of peace. Service providers must design for failure as seriously as they design for success. In a complex financial ecosystem, reliability is shared across multiple partners, but accountability is never shared. It is entirely yours to deliver on your promise to the customer,” he emphasised.

De’Remi closed his contributions with five practical recommendations for business leaders: understand customer expectations before selecting technology; map the customer experience from beginning to end; build empathy and responsiveness into service processes; prepare for failures before they occur; and assess performance using actual customer experiences rather than system uptime alone.

Held during the 2026 Customer Service Week, his remarks reinforced the need for organisations to judge digital investment by what customers can achieve with it. For Remita, the priority remains providing reliable and secure payment infrastructure that supports individuals, businesses and public institutions, with the customer experience at the centre of service delivery.

The post Tech alone can’t deliver service excellence, experts warn appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.