To satisfy, retain, and win customers, telecom companies must embark more than before on a complex journey away from the business-driven campaigns they traditionally embraced and towards customer-centric, data-driven, highly personalised campaigns that are always evolving.
This is the view of Lars Engel Nielsen, a partner at McKinsey, in his paper “Unlocking the Value of Personalisation at Scale for Operators.
Nielsen’s assertions came into sharp focus earlier this week when my son asked if I think Telkom is aware of his needs. While I am happy with Telkom as my internet service provider, the same cannot be said of my son and the rest of my family.
As Nielsen notes, it is no longer enough for telecom companies to deliver what they promise in their campaigns without being flexible enough to meet individual client needs.
Looking back over the years, I cannot positively state that I have had any distinctive customer experience that Telkom promises to customers. The only thing that kept me loyal to Telkom was a quality fibre network that is reliable and always works.
Not surprisingly, my son suggested we dump Telkom for a better service provider — one that caters to all our individual needs as a family. Telkom offers uniform packages and services and is still involved in an internal war over its disputed billing.
However, Telkom has the necessary infrastructure — a reliable quality fibre network — which could persuade my son and the rest of my family to remain loyal. To do better, Telkom simply has to use its huge fibre infrastructure, large data centres, and retail arm to offer personalised solutions and products.
Closer look
While Telkom does not yet offer it, its network quality is excellent. Even in my hometown of Bethal, Mpumalanga, where there are regular power outages, Telkom’s network remains reliable. Vodacom’s network competes well with that of Telkom in Bethal and the rest of SA.
Spurred on by my son we took a closer look at personalised packages and services offered by competing companies.
What differentiates Vodacom from rivals is its investment in world-class, flexible big data and analytics technologies that enable a deeper, more structured understanding of its customers — including their daily behaviour, motivations and desires.
Vodacom is thus racing ahead in the area of personalised products and services.
The investment has given Vodacom a 360-degree customer view that puts it ahead of its competitors.
In the digital world, Vodacom seems to be responding well to customers’ expectations by providing relevant packages and services.
The entity is placing the customer at the centre of everything it does. Perhaps this is why Vodacom remains number one in SA for personalised services including mobile, fixed lines, cloud hosting, data security, internet of things, and digital and financial services.
Personalised experiences
What also makes Vodacom a pioneer is its loyalty programme, Vodabucks, which has met more than 84.2-million personalised customer behavioural goals in 2023.
Through its financial services business, Vodacom aims to deliver personalised experiences across entertainment, e-commerce, payments, savings, investments, lending, and insurance services.
In addition, Vodacom’s flagship personalised offering, Just4U, continues to be a key differentiator as its customers benefit from unique airtime, data, and SMS offers. According to Vodacom, discounts on the Just4U platform are based on location, income level, and available network capacity of a given customer base.
In that regard, Vodacom is ahead of its competitors by cross-selling and upselling its packages and products tailored to individual needs.
Meanwhile, MTN, SA’s second-largest mobile operator, is focusing on improving network quality to catch up with its rivals. It is behind Vodacom’s efforts in customer value management initiatives and price optimisation.
MTN SA has so far failed to topple Vodacom as number one in SA with its personalised data offerings.
Our deep dive into packages on offer suggests Vodacom is ahead of MTN and Telkom regarding individual needs.
Perfectly connected
The question thus was, should we keep Telkom as our fibre provider?
Choosing Telkom would mean staying perfectly connected to the digital world — but without having precisely what we all need.
Surprisingly, my son opted for connectivity, in which Telkom is tops. He, however, suggested we abandon MTN as our mobile provider.
I was shocked, but I agreed with him that despite Telkom’s poor customer service, their network remains reliable, and we should keep them.
While MTN is not as advanced as Vodacom regarding network infrastructure, I refused to leave them because I have been their customer for decades.
Is it possible to please all clients all the time? Do clients really know what they want? Without answering these questions, perhaps telecom companies are best served by Nielsen’s advice on how to satisfy, retain, and win customers, by always evolving.
• Lourie is the founder and editor of TechFinancials.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.