Startup Story
Every business knows that getting feedback about customer service and measuring customer satisfaction is key to success. In Senegal, Rokhaya Diop and her co-founder of NoterKo, have launched a platform where users can rate the quality of customer service for public and private companies.
LoA catted to Rokhaya Diop about this new platform and its ambitions to help businesses really track and measure their customer satisfaction levels.
Tell us about yourself
My name is Rokhaya Diop and I am the co-founder of NoterKo in Senegal. I have a Master's degree in Business Administration from ESP Dakar and thanks to my 15 years’ experience have developed strong knowledge in the areas of project management, business development and corporate management. Having spent 90% of my career working with startups specializing in IT, I won the Seedstars Dakar 2015 competition with the VTIP Santé application. In 2018, I co-founded NoterKo with Nancy Camara Ndiaye, a company which specializes in customer service evaluation, data collection and capacity development.
“Our platform is the first online platform to rate customer service in west Africa. For the first time, users can easily evaluate companies and give comments.”
What does your company do?
NoterKo specializes in customer service quality evaluation, data collection and capacity building. In 2018, we launched a platform where users can rate the quality of the customer service for private and public companies. The objective is to allow the clients to give feedback and see what other users think about the customer service of a company. It will help the company to collect data to measure their customer's satisfaction.
What inspired you to start your company?
My partner Nancy and I really wanted to make a difference in the population’s well-being. We both had a lot of bad experiences regarding customer service here in Senegal. In 2009, I got sick and bad customer service almost killed me when I had to go to the hospital. The customer service was just terrible. I was lucky because there are many stories of patients who died because they were poorly managed by the doctors or the health agents. The poor customer service is spread in all the fields: banks, restaurants, health, insurance, transportation, etc. So we wanted to tackle this problem by allowing clients to rate and give comments. That way the companies will see their ratings and improve the quality of their customer service to have a better reputation from the customers.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
Our platform is the first online platform to rate customer service in west Africa. For the first time, users can easily evaluate companies and give comments.
Tell us a little about your team
We have a wonderful team made up of people who are very talented. Our common goal is our desire to make our contribution to the development of our country and improve people's lives by using technology.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
We started working on the NoterKo idea in 2017. We submitted our project to a national agency specializing in funding women and young people to help them create their company. We were selected and obtained a fund which helped us to create the company NoterKo and started our activities. The journey was not easy due to the challenging business environment and also because our product is quite new in the market.
Poor customer service is spread in all the fields: banks, restaurants, health, insurance, transportation, etc. So we wanted to tackle this problem by allowing clients to rate and give comments.
Our plans are to be the point of reference in the field of customer service evaluation and data collection in Africa.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
Our plans are to be the point of reference in the field of customer service evaluation and data collection in Africa.
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
The most satisfaction being an entrepreneur is to see how your idea comes to life thanks to hard work.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
It's very challenging to be an entrepreneur especially when being a woman. There are a lot of constraints. It requires you to be passionate about your idea, to persevere, and to believe in yourself. When I’m discouraged, I think back to all the things I’ve done that I didn't think I could do. Afterwards I tell myself, Rokhaya, it's too easy to give up, and I have to show my daughters what a girl is capable of!
Contact or follow NoterKo
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | EMAIL notemesng@gmail.com
Why LoA loves it….
Every woman entrepreneur knows that, in business, great customer service is key if you want to keep customers coming back time and again to your brand. It is not just a nice to have, it is a must have, for any business that wants to grow. But knowing how to effectively track what customers think about the service they receive can be challenging. Rokhaya and her team at NoterKo are providing a solution with their highly specialized business, helping companies and brands to really get to grips with monitoring customer feedback. As business becomes more and more competitive in the marketplace, and data insights are increasingly more important, Rokhaya’s business is poised to make that process easier. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa