Mystery Clients Consultancy- Ethiopia

Background

Tiko Africa is an organization that uses its digital platform called Tiko to motivate users – primarily young women and adolescent girls – to make positive choices. We use nudges like reminders, discounts, in person and digital follow-ups, and reward points to encourage our users to access and use healthy products and services. We also support them in becoming entrepreneurs and adding value to their economies. Tiko Africa’s reward points can be used to redeem products and services at local shops, or as subsidies to cover the cost of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, removing the cost to access for the users, who are primarily 15-24 year old adolescent girls and young women (AGYW).

Tiko Africa has operations in the following countries either by having offices or by working through local partners in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and South Africa.

Tiko Africa is looking to source a firm to conduct mystery clients at Tiko clinics and pharmacies in Addis Ababa. These exercises shall assist Tiko Africa to monitor and evaluate the quality of services provided at the clinics and pharmacies, monitor potential fraudulent and risky behaviour and ensure compliance with the service process for Tiko services.

The coverage of this exercise shall be in Addis Ababa.

Mystery clients services (MCS)

The firm will offer routine mystery client services (MCS) for girls between the ages of 15-24 years of age. The ideal MCS will provide the following services;

• Provide MCS visits within the countries and regions stated above.
• The MCS will provide verification of specific suspicious activities which will include assessment of general compliance to agreed terms in the Letter of Agreement (LOA) and/or Code of conduct (COC) with the actors. They will also check for exploitation of the system restrictions or gaming of the Tiko platform.
• Assess the experience and quality of the entire client user journey for the users to get learnings and identify potential areas of improvement. The assessment areas will be based on the below touch points along the client user journey:

Step 1: Enrollment

The MC will assess the assisted mobilization and self-enrollment pathways:

Assisted Mobilization

Self Enrollment

The MC will get linked to the mobilizer using mobile numbers or mobiliser locations which Tiko Africa will provide. The MC will assess the:

1. Ease of reaching a mobilizer, their level of cooperation and check if the mobilizer has a badge or any organization branding when they meet;
2. Enrollment process by the mobilizer through lo-tech and/or no-tech pathways;
3. Mobilizer knowledge of the offers/products/services;
4. Effectiveness of the age verification as done by the mobilizer;
5. Adherence to the code of conduct such coercion or misleading information on the offer;
6. Potential mobilizer malpractice such as collusion with providers or retailers, use of client miles through gaming of the system or misleading clients;
7. Youth friendliness of the mobilizer;
8. Information given on location of a provider or actual escort to a provider by the mobilizer.

The MC will attend Tiko Africa activation events or visit social media platforms and assess:

1. The ease of access to the self-enrollment instructions or information;
2. The actual self-enrollment experience and process including messages delivered to the girl;
3. The possibility of client gaming the system at self enrollment with checks for gender, age, multiple phone numbers;
4. The ease of finding exact provider location of service providers for services.

A schedule of the Tiko Africa activation events and the social media platforms will be provided by Tiko Africa during project set-up.

MC will also make observations on the entire enrollment experience including the effectiveness of various messages received from the platform.

Step 2: Use

The MCS will assess the experience and quality of services offered at providers i.e. a clinic or pharmacy. The MCS will assess:

1. Ease of finding a provider within the community through the mobilizer
2. The ease of identification of the provider through branding and signages
3. The youth friendliness of the clinic i.e. staff attitude at the clinic, promptness of service provision, privacy and promptness of services checked as time taken at the clinic
4. Quality (duration) of counseling services provided
5. Accuracy of the provider information on various contraceptive services
6. Advice by the provider on various contraceptive side effects
7. Age verification by the provider
8. Overall customer experience
9. Verification of service and product provided (clinic & pharmacy level) after provision and validation of services
10. Potential malpractice such coercion, misleading information, charging by the provider for services, collusion with mobilizer and/or retailer

The MCS will also make observations and document the experience and support of the system through SMS messages.

Step 3: Rating

The MCS will assess the ease of rating the provider on the system. They will also confirm the effectiveness of the messaging on the importance of rating along the entire user journey including reminder SMSs or mobilizer reminder or provider reminder

Step 4: Spend

The MCS will assess:

1. The ease of finding a retailer/trader/shop by either the use of the text code (to be provided) or provider advice or mobilizer advice on the location of the retailers
2. The ease of identification of the retailer through branding/signages
3. The proficiency of the trader in exchanging miles for products
4. The time taken to complete the transaction at the traders
5. The correct pricing of products exchanged for miles
6. Potential collusion between the trader and /or mobilizers and providers
7. The overall experience at the trader including the attitude of the trader, product variety

The MCS will assess the overall support of the system in improving spend of miles at the traders including SMS.

Step 5: Refer

The MCS will assess the ease of referring peers on the platform. This will include an assessment of the effectiveness of the awareness strategies such as SMS, mobilizer messaging and provider messaging.

• Reporting; gather all the data received by the mystery clients for quality control including checking for outliers, provide insights and conduct an integrity check.

Deliverables

1. Data collection (MCS), time frame – Monthly, deliverable – Compiled raw data for internal checks and validation
2. Monthly survey reports (MCS) – The reports must be insightful to assist in program improvements and risk management, time frame – Monthly (First week of subsequent month), deliverable – Detailed report with analysis supporting the findings and conclusions in the report.

Technical Requirements

The qualified firm should exhibit the following:

1. Demonstrate experience and expertise of similar assignments with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) including how the firm intends to manage interactions with users who are mostly young.
2. Provide an activity plan (project plan) of actions to achieve the objectives of the assignment, specifying budgeted hours, timelines and sequence for its consultancy procedure and level of staff to be assigned;
3. Incorporate CV’s of the proposed professional staff of the core management team proposed for the engagement and the authorized representative submitting the proposal. CVs should demonstrate relevant experience of dealing with similar surveys within organizations similar to Tiko Africa.
4. List of current and past clients where the bidder has conducted mystery client/shopper along with the name of the organization, contact person, designation, and a contact number, nature of services and length of the appointment for at least three (3) International non-governmental organizations.

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated in two parts. The experience, technical proposal and financial quotation shall bear 70% of the total marks while the references and financial capacity shall bear 30% of the total marks.

• Proposals should make clear about the relevant skills, experience and capacity of the participant, in respect of this particular TOR.
• Proposals must contain the details of the proposed approach to be adopted in order to deliver the service in accordance with the TOR.
• Proposals should clearly indicate whether or not bid participants have the capacity to meet the requirements of the TOR.
• Proposal should clearly indicate compliance with the appropriate data protection, privacy, legal, social, tax and ethical issues applicable to the country

1.Experience, Skills and Ability

• Past experience in similar work of this nature.
• Team member experience (accompanied by brief CV’s).
• Ability of the bidder to fulfil Tiko Africa’s requirements

Weight: 30

2. Technical Approach and Execution Plan

• Proposals must contain the details of the proposed approach to be adopted in order to deliver the service in accordance with the TOR.

Weight: 30

3. Financial quotation

• Proposals should clearly indicate whether or not bid participants have the financial capacity to meet the requirements of the TOR based on the previous value of similar works done e.g. by sharing copies of recent audited financial statements.

Weight: 10

4. References

• Did the bidder submit at least three relevant and contactable clients that were serviced in the past 36 months.

Weight: 10

5. Capacity

• Proposals should clearly indicate whether or not bid participants have the capacity to meet the requirements of the TOR.

Weight: 20

Totals weight: 100