WATCH | Turn service into strategy: use client experience to set your business apart

For businesses looking to stand out in an increasingly competitive market, service can no longer be treated as an afterthought.

A strong client experience can become a strategic differentiator, shaping client loyalty, strengthening reputation and ultimately influencing whether a business grows.

How can entrepreneurs move beyond simply delivering good service to intentionally building client experience into the way they operate, compete and create lasting value?

This question was at the heart of the latest instalment of Capitec BizTalk, a series of expert-led business masterclasses hosted in partnership with Business Day and Arena Events.

Following successful editions in Cape Town and Gqeberha, the third event brought entrepreneurs and business leaders together in Sandton, Johannesburg, to explore how client experience can help businesses build lasting relationships and achieve sustainable growth.

Emceed by broadcast journalist Refiloe Mpakanyane, the masterclass opened by placing client experience within the broader business journey.

Mpakanyane encouraged attendees to consider not only the environment in which clients interact with a business, but also the systems and user experience shaping that journey and, ultimately, how the experience feels from the client’s perspective.

From there, the conversation moved into the strategic decisions businesses must make to understand, serve and retain their clients.

For Capitec’s Basani Maluleke, group executive for Personal Banking, and Riaan Klopper, executive head of Business Banking and the bank’s Business Support Centre, client-centricity begins with getting close to the people a business serves.

Maluleke spoke about the importance of leaders moving beyond the office and engaging directly with clients, using their experiences, feedback and data to understand changing needs.

For businesses, this means client insight cannot simply sit in reports or research documents. It needs to inform decisions.

Klopper similarly highlighted the importance of listening, measuring and identifying areas where clients experience friction. Understanding where a journey breaks down gives businesses an opportunity to rethink processes and improve the experience before dissatisfaction becomes a reason for clients to leave.

The underlying message was clear: businesses cannot create meaningful client experiences if they are designing primarily from their own perspective.

The distinction between delivering a service and deliberately designing an experience became an important part of the conversation.

Good service may resolve an immediate need. A strong client experience can influence how a client thinks about the business long after the interaction has ended.

Businesses may have similar products, services or pricing, but the way they make it easier for clients to engage, solve problems and access what they need can become a point of differentiation.

For smaller businesses, this can be powerful. They may not have the resources of larger competitors, but they can compete through responsiveness, understanding and the quality of their relationships with clients.

The conversation also explored the role of internal processes and technology in shaping the external experience.

Businesses often have complex systems operating behind the scenes. The challenge is ensuring that this complexity does not become the client’s burden.

Technology can help businesses achieve this, but only when it is deployed with a clear understanding of the problem it is intended to solve.

From left: Emcee Refiloe Mpakanyane with Capitec’s Basani Maluleke and Riaan Klopper at the Capitec BizTalk event in Sandton, Johannesburg, on October 1 2026. (Arena Events) (Arena Events) As artificial intelligence, automation and digital platforms become increasingly integrated into business, the focus should remain on whether these tools make the client journey simpler, faster and more useful.

The technology itself is not the differentiator. The experience it enables can be.

This also puts pressure on businesses to examine how efficiently they respond to clients. Speed is not simply about convenience. In a business environment, time can affect transactions, opportunities and trust.

Next the conversation brought the strategic discussion into the world of entrepreneurship, with hospitality and events entrepreneurs Zavion and John Kotze-Brereton sharing their experiences of building businesses across events, weddings, hospitality and design.

Their ventures include the Zavion Kotze Events Company and Inimitable, a luxury wedding venue in Muldersdrift.

The pair’s story offered a practical example of how relationships can become part of a company’s value proposition.

The Kotze-Breretons also reflected on their relationship with Capitec as business clients and what differentiated the experience for them.

For John, one of the defining moments was meeting their banker, who visited their business and took the time to understand what they were building. The interaction went beyond the mechanics of a business account and created a relationship around the entrepreneurs and their ambitions.

Zavion spoke about a similar experience, noting that conversations with their banking team often begin by asking how they and their families are doing before turning to business.

Those interactions demonstrate how something that may seem small can influence the overall perception of a brand. The client is not simply being served. They are being recognised.

For entrepreneurs, that human connection can be a powerful differentiator, particularly in markets where clients have multiple options.

But maintaining that level of connection becomes more challenging as a business grows.

The Kotze-Breretons spoke about the realities of scaling their businesses while remaining connected to the foundations on which they were built.

Growth requires entrepreneurs to delegate, build teams and introduce systems, but it can also create distance between the business and its clients.

The challenge is to scale the operation without diluting the experience.

That requires leaders to remain connected to both their employees and clients, while creating a culture in which client experience is understood as everyone’s responsibility.

From left: Emcee Refiloe Mpakanyane with entrepreneurs Zavion and John Kotze-Brereton at the Capitec BizTalk event in Sandton, Johannesburg, on October 1 2026. (Arena Events) The discussion also touched on mentorship and funding as important elements of entrepreneurial growth.

Maluleke highlighted the value of both, while Klopper emphasised the importance of leaders remaining close enough to their businesses to retain credibility with employees and an understanding of their clients.

Across the two conversations, the message was not that businesses need to provide perfect service at every interaction.

It was that client experience needs to be considered deliberately, from the way a business gathers client insight and designs its processes to how its people respond and how technology is used.

Emcee Refiloe Mpakanyane leads a business masterclass at the Capitec BizTalk event in Sandton, Johannesburg, on October 1 2026. (Arena Events) When service is treated as a strategic asset rather than simply an operational function, it can influence much more than client satisfaction. It can strengthen loyalty, generate referrals, build reputation and give a business a meaningful point of difference.

For entrepreneurs, that may ultimately be the opportunity: not simply asking how to serve clients better but asking how the experience itself can become one of the strongest reasons clients choose to stay.

Capitec BizTalk is a business-focused platform bringing financial expertise and entrepreneurial insights to a series of events designed to help South Africa’s small businesses thrive.

At each event, one business owner stands a chance to win a R50,000* advertising package that can be used across leading Arena Holdings titles, including Business Day, Sunday Times and TimesLIVE.

As part of the prize, the winner is also profiled in Business Day’s ‘Entrepreneurs with an Edge’ series, giving their business additional exposure to a wider audience.

Visit the Capitec BizTalk hub to stay updated on upcoming events and catch up on highlights and key takeaways from previous events.