We understand that it is rare that people write letters of commendation to a company on behalf of an employee who has shown outstanding service to a customer or business.
However National Bank Employee, Senior bank supervisor, Atupele Mwala deserves our commendation from services she has provided to our Business for over three years. In most cases she has helped us or pointed us to the right person in the Bank who has resolved our issues.
The latest such an issue happened today. National Bank updated their online banking software and website URL. Since that update which happened almost two weeks ago, we were unable to process online transactions such as payments to our reporters. We have been contacting them on the email made available on the website with no response.
We even asked our Manager in Lilongwe to visit the Bank and he was told that it was a known issue we needed to continue trying.
Today after so many frustrations I contacted Madam Atupele Mwala who within seconds directed me to a support technician who was able to resolve the issue with my user profile within minutes and I was able to process my Transactions.
I first encountered Atupele Mwala sometime in 2016 when a client in Malawi failed to make a deposit to our Business account. I contacted several people in the Bank to no avail until I finally by some chance ended up at the Desk of Atupele Mwala. Needless to say, I was hot under the collar by the time we exchanged emails. Making matters worse she told me both our Dollar accounts and Kwacha accounts were closed due to inactivity and non-response to bank inquiries.
Needless to say, I was so angry on the phone and started screaming at her about poor customer service in Malawi etc. etc., Atupele Mwala was silent until I finished my rant and simply said, I will help you resolve all your issues and I will be available to you until they are resolved. I did not believe her of course.
Within a week both our accounts were opened and fully functional. My clients were able to make deposits in the accounts.
The story however does not end there. Several times we had issues that we opened through the online support messaging form. No one responded. On those occasions we have reached out to Madam Atupele Mwala even though it was not her area of responsibility, she has guided us to the right department and person who have resolved our issues.
Once again, we hope this will be brought to the notice of people responsible for public relations in the Bank
Elwin Mandowa is The managing Editor of the Maravi Post