Dodoma’s revamped flagship store is a masterclass in what happens when you design a retail space around every customer who might walk through the door.

Walk into our new flagship store in Dodoma, Tanzania, and you notice it immediately: space, calm, clarity. The ceiling carries a bold Vodacom brand statement. The floor plan makes sense at a glance. Agents are easy to spot, queues flow, and somewhere near the front, a dedicated service area sits ready for customers who need a little extra support. No confusion, no clutter, no hunting for help.

This didn’t happen by accident. It happened because the retail team kept asking a deceptively simple question: what does it feel like to be a customer walking through that door?

A mandate to do better

The push for change came from the top. Vodacom Tanzania’s Managing Director, Philip Besiimire, challenged Retail Operations to go beyond a cosmetic refresh and deliver something that truly reflected the company’s spirit. The brief was to make the store work better – for every single customer who walks in.

The team took that seriously. They looked at stores in other Vodacom markets, identified what worked, and adapted the best ideas to Dodoma’s specific context: a capital city with heavy daily foot traffic, a wide mix of customer types and a real diversity of needs.

Less noise, more service

The first thing the team tackled was clutter. “We did a lot of decluttering, then we minimised colours, going for more neutral colours, but obviously maintaining our brand presence and visibility,” says says Vanessa Mlawi, Regional Operations Manager for Vodacom Tanzania.

Physical signage gave way to digital screens. Visual noise was stripped back. Bold ceiling branding creates immediate brand impact without overwhelming the space below. And agent stations were repositioned so that customers can see exactly where to go the moment they step inside. The priority, as Vanessa puts it, was to show that “we are here to assist you and fix it for you”. When a customer walks in, understanding what they need comes first.

One store, every customer

Dodoma’s flagship caters to a broad mix of people: postpaid subscribers, M-PESA merchants, airtime agents, walk-in customers with device problems, first-time smartphone buyers. Managing all of that under one roof, without creating bottlenecks, required a rethink of how services are distributed across the floor.

The solution was decentralised hubs of expertise. Instead of funnelling everyone to a central counter, the team created dedicated service areas, including a purpose-built repair desk, so customers with specific needs can go directly to the right place. Traffic flows, wait times drop, and staff can focus on what they do best.

“Our stores are a one-stop shop for all products and services, all customers, regardless of postpaid, merchant or agent status,” says Vanessa. The redesign makes that promise real, not just aspirational.

M-PESA transactions got their own redesign too. The M-PESA counter was relocated to an enclosed area at the back, with agents working behind a wall and assisting customers through windows. For a service handling real money in high volumes, privacy and security are essential. This was the team’s way of treating them as such.

Leaving no one behind

Perhaps the most significant element of the revamp isn’t visible in a floor plan. It’s in the commitment to ensuring that the store works for every type of customer, including those who are most often underserved.

A dedicated area near the service agents is reserved for customers with special needs. Ramps are standard across all Vodacom Tanzania stores. The Dodoma flagship also provides support for elderly customers, pregnant customers, and those with visual or hearing impairments, with appropriate facilities and staff training in place.

The standout initiative is an ongoing rollout of service agents who are fluent in sign language. For Vodacom Tanzania, the goal is to always have a sign language-capable agent available. No appointment required, no awkward workaround. Just a colleague who can communicate.

Data from the Disability Data Initiative, drawing on Tanzania’s 2014 National Panel Survey, found that around 12% of people aged 15 and older in the country report some form of functional difficulty. That’s a significant portion of any customer base – and historically, a group whose needs retail spaces have been slow to address. Vodacom Tanzania is changing that, one store at a time.

At the launch, MD Philip Besiimire put it plainly: “This store will be a major relief for our customers in Dodoma and the wider Central Zone. We have invested in a modern space designed to serve customers better and faster, while also ensuring no one is left behind.”

The case for inclusive retail

Worldwide, over 1.3 billion people live with some form of disability – that’s 16% of the global population, according to the World Health Organization. Businesses that design inclusively don’t just do the right thing; they access a larger, more loyal customer base. Studies consistently show that customers with disabilities are highly brand loyal when a business meets their needs – and so are the friends and family members who accompany them.

What this looks like at scale

The Dodoma flagship is a model, not just a one-off project. The accessibility features, the layout logic, the service-first mindset – these are all being embedded into Vodacom Tanzania’s broader retail roll-out.

This connects directly to Vision 2030’s customer experience pillar: earning loyalty through simplified, exceptional service across every touchpoint. An “ask once” culture – where customers get what they need without being bounced around – starts in a space like this.

It also connects to something more fundamental. Vodacom’s purpose is to connect for a better future. That connection must mean something for the customer who can’t hear the service agent at the counter. For the elderly woman navigating a busy store on her own. For the merchant managing cash transactions who needs to know her money is safe.

Good retail design does all of this without drawing attention to itself. It just works. And when it works, people feel it – even if they can’t quite explain why.

Setting the standard

Vanessa and her team have set a new standard for what a Vodacom store can be: a space where the design itself communicates respect – for every customer’s time, every customer’s ability, every customer’s right to be served well.

What makes that standard meaningful is that it isn’t staying in Dodoma. The model is being rolled out. The intention is clear. And the work being done in Tanzania’s retail network is a tangible example of what Vision 2030 looks like when it moves from strategy to practice – not just bigger numbers, but better experiences, for every customer who walks through the door.

  • Want to know more? In a recent episode of our Tech Talk with Vodacom podcast, Sam Botha, Managing Executive of Retail Operations and Branded Channels at Vodacom South Africa, unpacks the tech revolutionising physical retail – and what it means for you. Listen here.