DIGICEL, the aggressive mobile telephone service provider, claims that a phenomenal 98 per cent of Jamaicans think of Digicel first when asked about a Jamaican brand.

The five-year-old company also claims approximately 70 per cent of the Jamaican market share in telecommunications, suggesting that all other cellular companies, including Cable & Wireless, have only 30 per cent to share among them.

“This is an incredible achievement by any standard,” remarked head of customer care for Digicel Jamaica, Lesline Chisholm. “It is the fastest growing telecommunications company in Jamaica and the (Caribbean) region,” Chisholm boasted.

Chisholm held the attention of the nearly full room at the Montego Suite, Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston Tuesday, as she related how the Irish-owned Digicel managed to pull off such a feat in so little time.

She was delivering the keynote address to the annually held awards ceremony for the Public Sector Customer Service Competition 2005/6, which is aimed at nudging government-run entities to strive for higher levels of customer service.

“The Jamaican consumer has ranked Digicel as the number one customer service provider in Jamaica for the last six quarters, as revealed by independent surveys,” Chisholm said, without revealing the source of the survey.

She said the company’s achievements did not just happen, but had been driven by attention and focus on superior customer care.

“Each customer is treated as the most important person by our customer-care team. In our customer-centric focus. our over 400 customer-care team members are trained and coached to be polite, responsive and accommodating to customers,” she said.

Chisholm mentioned sweeteners such as the $140 million spent every month giving back to subscribers through free credit when they topped-up.

Digicel recently announced plans to build a US$10-million, state-of-the-art edifice in Kingston, which will house its Caribbean headquarters and a staff complement of 1,000.

The company began operations in Jamaica five years ago, noting that within just three months of its launch, it had signed up 100,000 new customers, and now had 1.5 million subscribers.

Today, Digicel also operates in 16 Caribbean countries, covering a total population of 14 million people and employing over 1,500 people across the region.

The company’s entry into the Jamaican market has triggered a mobile phone rates war which has driven down prices to customers.

Underscoring the importance of high quality customer service as the basis for growth in companies like Digicel, Chisholm commended the over 80,000 public sector workers in Jamaica for the work they were doing, saying they had too often been taken for granted.

She pointed to significant developments in the public sector and added that “it is certainly a relief that the renewal of a driver’s licence is taking some 15 minutes now, down from the long hours of waiting that obtained some years ago at the Inland Revenue Department.”

“It is also a joy to know that you can file for your NHT (National Housing Trust) refunds from the comfort of your home or office, instead of taking time off from work to join a queue at your nearest NHT office,” she said to applause.

Both the NHT and the Inland Revenue Department were among the state entities which took home awards for outstanding performance in the area of customer service.

NHT and the Administrator-General’s Department were the biggest winners, with both getting the Prime Minister’s Trophy for the Best Customer Care Service Agency. The Constant Spring Tax office was awarded for being the best tax office in Jamaica; Yvonne Haynes of the National Insurance Service (NIS) Office in Mandeville took the Jamaica National Building Society award for the Best Customer Care Service Officer; the Percy Junor Hospital was honoured with the Cabinet Secretary’s Trophy for the Most Creative/Innovative Agency and the Jamalco Award for the Best Hospital, and the Passport Office won the Jamaica Civil Service Association Trophy for the Most Improved Agency.