Customer Outcomes Define Service Excellence, Says Remita MD

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Remita Payment Services Limited, ’DeRemi Atanda, has called on businesses and public institutions to measure digital transformation by the outcomes customers achieve, rather than the sophistication of deployed technology.

He made the call at the 2026 Service Excellence Conference held in Lagos recently, where business executives, regulators and public sector leaders discussed how technology and human interaction could improve service delivery.

Speaking on the conference theme, ‘Tech-Enabled. Human-Powered,’ Atanda said organisations often invest heavily in digital platforms and automation without addressing the delays, uncertainty and difficulties customers encounter when accessing services.

He urged service providers to understand customer expectations before adopting new technologies, noting that automation cannot compensate 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, Atanda said speed alone was insufficient to guarantee customer satisfaction, adding that a transaction could be completed quickly without meeting customer expectations.

“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,” he explained.

He also stressed the importance of retaining empathy and responsiveness in digital service delivery, saying technology should not prevent customers from receiving appropriate support when problems arise.

“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.

On accountability in financial services, Atanda said businesses must take responsibility for the promises they make to customers, even when transactions depend on multiple networks and service providers.

“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.

He recommended that business leaders understand customer expectations before choosing technology, map the customer journey, incorporate empathy into service processes, prepare for service failures and assess performance using actual customer experiences rather than system uptime alone.

The conference highlighted the need for organisations to evaluate digital investments based on their impact on customers.