Businesses must move beyond treating customer service as a routine transaction and deliberately design experiences that encourage customers to return, Mbabane Municipal Council Chief Executive Officer Gciniwe Fakudze has said.
Fakudze made the call at the LaunchPad Business Conference 2026, held from October 2-3 at the TLC Events Centre in Sidvokodvo, where entrepreneurs, business leaders and aspiring business owners were exposed to practical tools aimed at strengthening their businesses and improving their chances of long-term success.
She said businesses needed to understand the entire customer journey, rather than focusing only on the final transaction. This, she said, required entrepreneurs to examine every point of contact between their businesses and customers and identify areas where the customer experience could be improved. 
“I was specifically talking about customer journey mapping and customer experience, and transcending from service to experience,” Fakudze said.
Fakudze said customer journey mapping could help entrepreneurs identify gaps in their service delivery and understand how customers experience their businesses from the first point of contact to the completion of a transaction and beyond.
She challenged small businesses to embrace the same principles of customer experience used by larger companies, arguing that limited size or resources should not prevent entrepreneurs from creating professional and memorable experiences for their customers.
“Even as a small business, how can you conceptualise it and give it an experience and a service like a big business would? Because there’s a science to it,” she said.
Beyond customer service, Fakudze urged entrepreneurs to equip themselves with practical business skills and tools, saying ambition and faith needed to be supported by deliberate action.
She said business owners should not rely on prayer alone while neglecting the systems and knowledge required to operate successful enterprises.
“There are literal tools that business people employ that we now need to give to our business owners,” she said.
Fakudze encouraged entrepreneurs to combine their faith with the practical application of business tools, saying the two should work together in the pursuit of sustainable success.
Even as you trust God for your success, even as you pray for your success, then apply the tools, because it’s the tools that will make you successful in what you are doing,” she said.
She also stressed the importance of hard work, warning entrepreneurs against expecting success without putting in the required effort.
According to Fakudze, business owners must be prepared to invest time and energy into their ventures if they are to build enterprises that can withstand challenges.
“I am yet to meet a successful person that doesn’t work hard. I am yet to meet one,” she said.
Fakudze further urged entrepreneurs to develop resilience and avoid viewing failure as the end of their businesses.
She said business owners should be prepared to consider alternative approaches when their initial plans do not succeed and should have the determination to start again after setbacks.
“If this fails, there is another option; even if there is failure, you dust yourself off and keep on running,” she said.
She said sustainable success was built through persistence, hard work and the willingness to learn from challenges, rather than through quick or easy gains.
“Nothing will come free and easy. If it does, it will go away as fast and easy as it came,” Fakudze said.
The LaunchPad Business Conference brought together entrepreneurs, established business leaders and aspiring business owners for discussions and practical learning on business development and community initiatives.
Fakudze’s message placed customer experience at the centre of business sustainability, urging entrepreneurs to move away from simply completing transactions and instead build deliberate systems that understand customers, improve service delivery and create relationships strong enough to keep them coming back.
