While most of the world is still looking for meaningful customer service solutions, and in an effort to improve its services, the UAE has set itself a unique independent line of action in this field, emerging from traditional thinking patterns and building a new form of this sector, a form which is based on achieving happiness rather than just providing services.

The UAE, through its wise leadership, has raised the challenge and adopted the motto of customer happiness. It has moved from simply providing services to drawing smiles on customer faces rendering the visit to service centers more like visiting recreational centers where visitors enjoy various amenities. Visitors to customer happiness centers in the UAE might doubt for a moment if they are in the right place. The elegant design, fragrances, classy furniture, Arabic coffee with dates, and the smiles make visitors think they are in one of the five star hotels, and this comes to achieve what our wise leadership desired by launching the star system.

In order to reach this high level of service delivery, it was imperative to have a system that governs and measures the way to deal with customers and best meet their requirements posthaste. Hence, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai has launched a global star rating system (previously known as the UAE Government Excellence Program).

The system evaluates and measures the performance of each service center on a "2-7 star" rating scale through an official evaluation conducted under the patronage of the PMO.

The instructions were clear, our goal is the happiness of customers and doing what’s best for them, so many brainstorming sessions, meetings and gatherings took place, and the minds of UAE people have always come up with new ideas serving this end.

Here the question may arise, why this interest, and what is the purpose of customer happiness? Is there any economic return from this policy?

And the answer is happiness is the goal, happiness at work, happiness at home, happiness on the street, happiness everywhere, the goal is to create all the conditions that make our society happier, and perhaps customer service centers are the first in this endeavor. They were often described as boring, requiring long waiting hours and having endless queues.

If we were to address the economic return, we should point out that optimal service provision by providing human resources trained to respond to customer inquiries and meet all their needs, and the provision of infrastructure devices, technologies and means of communication accelerating service provision, would contribute to faster processing of transactions and projects and will save time, which is the most valuable currency. This also includes reducing compulsory holidays taken by staff, and will serve investors, traders and entrepreneurs by accelerating the processing of transactions, which will help to get the economy moving and attract capital and investors.

In its turn, the TRA has endeavored to improve its service centers through adopting all initiatives and ideas that speed up the delivery of services and provide customers with a comfortable atmosphere that prevents them from waiting, queuing and boredom. It also saves their precious time and helps them to leave and as such, they have been severed as they desired and more.

The upgrade of TRA’s service centers from three-star to four-star service centers came to reflect the great efforts made by the TRA in order to delight its customers. The TRA has continuously developed customer happiness centers and adopted many initiatives such as the Customer Voice initiative and the Customer Board initiative.

As soon as customers enter one of TRA's customer happiness centers, they feel how keen the TRA is to meet their requirements, either through providing trained service employees, who have undergone a diploma in customer service, or through equipping the center with the latest technology that make customers feel comfortable, such as smart devices, free internet, and traditional UAE hospitality, reflecting the generosity of the UAE community and its continued welcoming of its guests.

While we are proud to achieve such feat, we are still working in earnest to follow development and upgrade customer centers to reach higher levels, and our next goal is to be within the five-star rating soon, and this goal can only be achieved by the integration of efforts between TRA’s management, employees and the customer base. I hereby invite our customer community to help us achieve our goal by giving their transparent and open feedback on our provided services, and making suggestions they find useful in taking us an additional step ahead in the quality ladder.

Our doors are open to customer feedback both through our electronic channels such as the website and social media, or through the direct visit to our customer happiness centers. We assure you that we are all ears and that your suggestions and opinions will receive our undivided attention and recognition.