How These Ugandan Customers Are Bringing Energy Everywhere
After sale service is a crucial component of BioLite’s model in Emerging Markets, it helps us set each customer up for success and encourages long term HomeStove adoption. As part of this service, every HomeStove customer receives at home training from a local sales agent and access to support anytime they have a question. We’ve seen that customers who have great experiences are more likely to share that experience with friends and neighbors. As a growing brand, recommendations from a trusted source are a great way to help us build recognition and expand our customer base. A perfect example of how powerful word of mouth can be are our customers Goretti and Mary.
Goretti is a community leader living in a village near Kampala, Uganda. She purchased the HomeStove in 2014 and has used it every day since. Goretti’s so impressed with the HomeStove that she invites friends over to experience the benefits of a smokeless stove first hand. During these meetings she offers to connect anyone who’s interested directly with BioLite. Word of Goretti’s new stove made way it’s to Mary, a neighbor who jumped at the chance to explore an alternative cooking method. The smoke from her open fire had made cooking a painful task, it caused her eyes and nose to sting and she worried about her children’s health as they were constantly coughing and sneezing. As Mary watched Goretti cook a meal with no smoke and charge a phone through the HomeStove’s USB port, she asked to get in touch with BioLite.
One year later, Mary, now a HomeStove owner, finds cooking comfortable. She can boil water for morning tea without causing her children to wake up coughing. Her family even offers to help her cook meals and after eating, they enjoy plugging an LED light into the HomeStove and sharing stories from the day. Mary’s favorite part about becoming a HomeStove owner is the savings. Her old cooking fire required excessive amounts of firewood but her HomeStove is efficient and uses 50% less fuel. She purchases less wood and is saving 50,000 UGX (15,00 USD) each month. That extra money is going directly towards her children’s school fees. Following Goretti’s lead, Mary invites neighbors in to show off her HomeStove and explains how they can easily become a HomeStove owner.
