Customers are nucleus of all our business decisions : Warid CCO
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
From page-9
Telecom companies are making concerted efforts to curtail this tax burden. In case the government does not consider withdrawing or reducing the tax, it will stifle and choke the growth and the investments made or to be made will tremendously suffer.
Talking on the impact on global slowdown in the telecom industry, the Warid CCO said there has been less impact of the economic turndown on telecom sector worldwide, rather the companies have reported gains in terms of revenue that reflects resilience of the telecom sector.
"This is also true in case of the local telecom industry whereby a couple of operators have reported making profits during the last quarter. However, the growth projections made in 2007 and 2008 are unlikely to be achieved set for the year 2009. Hence, we feel that recession is not the primary reason for such performance," the Warid executive said.
Commenting on the changes in consumer's behaviour in the last couple of years, the Warid CCO said the major change among consumers about mobile telephony is the attitude towards the service.
"When mobile phone was first launched in Bangladesh back in early 90s, carrying a mobile phone was symbol of prestige and status for its owner. But with the passage of time, this tendency has changed and today mobile phone has become a necessity because consistent communication has become a part and parcel of daily life,"
One notable change in behaviour is the way of using the mobile phones. Previously, people used to use mobile phones to address urgency or emergency today it is a channel of sharing feelings for all and sundry. Credit goes to the telecom companies for their customer-centric approach coupled with reduction in call rates. Frequency in usage of mobiles has increased tremendously in business and family relations. Increase in usage of mobile phones during holidays and on different occasions is vividly witnessed.
"Another change is the wide use of internet through mobile phones. Mobile phone users specially the businessmen and young segment are using mobile phone to surf the net. Businessmen are at ease to be in touch with activities round the clock whereas the young segment is busy visiting social networking sites to be in touch with friends, downloading content, listening songs and capturing pictures,".
Commenting on the biggest challenge in branding a Telecom Service Provider, the Warid boss said: Unlike other parts of the world, I have seen a different trend in advertisements in Bangladesh.
First of all, people's association with a certain telecom service what we call the "loyalty factor" is low. I would say it has been played wrong since the beginning of the industry. This allowed subscribers to hop around different operators rather than sticking to one. On the other hand, the advertisements are not consistent and so are the offers. Every now and then, irrelevant offers are placed in the market; money is thrown in the media without proper rationalism thus making the subscribers life more difficult.
Had there been consistency in branding and product offering, this type of price war would have been averted and challenge in branding would not have been so high. Similarly, improper planning in buying media resulted in escalation of media purchase price that made it difficult for the operators in managing their budgets.
Talking on the biggest challenge in delivering the company's brand promise, the Warid CCO said it is important to remember that a brand promise is much more than just a couple of words put together.
A brand promise encapsulates what the company delivers in the market that in turn needs to be unique and relevant for the consumers. The brand promise is thus a sort of "effect" which is backed up by a "cause" and it is a unique product benefit. The first challenge, therefore, is coming up with the "cause" which is unique, persuasive and relevant.
In a market like Bangladesh where there are already five other operators, coming up with a unique product offering is difficult. Our first challenge has, therefore, been to come up with solutions that are unique to our market. As mentioned previously, we have attempted this to do by offering our customers multiple options to choose from in their prepaid & postpaid packages. These packages have just been introduced in the market in August. Going forward, this is what our brand will stand for - delivering relevant solutions to different people who can help them communicate effectively and smartly.
Commenting on the company's service delivery across the country, he said: We have a professional, well trained and dedicated sales and customer care teams to serve the customers. We often conduct training for our sales and franchise staffs to improve and enhance their skills. Our customers, no doubt, are our first priority. Customer satisfaction is our prime objective.
Telling even more specifically, Warid is the only operator which has direct interface with customers through 11 Warid Care Centres, 124 franchises and more than 15,000 registered retail shops. From our own flagship stores which we call Warid Care and franchise shops, a customer can walk in and take every single service online. Additionally, we have a dedicated 24 hours Customer Contact Centre which is always ready to serve any customer over the phone round the clock.
Commenting on the untapped potential in rural areas over mobile service utilization and the key barriers, the Warid top executive said there is a lot of potential for mobile phone operators in rural areas, which is actually the next growth driver as almost 70 percent of the population lives in the villages.
Telecom companies are making concerted efforts to curtail this tax burden. In case the government does not consider withdrawing or reducing the tax, it will stifle and choke the growth and the investments made or to be made will tremendously suffer.
Talking on the impact on global slowdown in the telecom industry, the Warid CCO said there has been less impact of the economic turndown on telecom sector worldwide, rather the companies have reported gains in terms of revenue that reflects resilience of the telecom sector.
"This is also true in case of the local telecom industry whereby a couple of operators have reported making profits during the last quarter. However, the growth projections made in 2007 and 2008 are unlikely to be achieved set for the year 2009. Hence, we feel that recession is not the primary reason for such performance," the Warid executive said.
Commenting on the changes in consumer's behaviour in the last couple of years, the Warid CCO said the major change among consumers about mobile telephony is the attitude towards the service.
"When mobile phone was first launched in Bangladesh back in early 90s, carrying a mobile phone was symbol of prestige and status for its owner. But with the passage of time, this tendency has changed and today mobile phone has become a necessity because consistent communication has become a part and parcel of daily life,"
One notable change in behaviour is the way of using the mobile phones. Previously, people used to use mobile phones to address urgency or emergency today it is a channel of sharing feelings for all and sundry. Credit goes to the telecom companies for their customer-centric approach coupled with reduction in call rates. Frequency in usage of mobiles has increased tremendously in business and family relations. Increase in usage of mobile phones during holidays and on different occasions is vividly witnessed.
"Another change is the wide use of internet through mobile phones. Mobile phone users specially the businessmen and young segment are using mobile phone to surf the net. Businessmen are at ease to be in touch with activities round the clock whereas the young segment is busy visiting social networking sites to be in touch with friends, downloading content, listening songs and capturing pictures,".
Commenting on the biggest challenge in branding a Telecom Service Provider, the Warid boss said: Unlike other parts of the world, I have seen a different trend in advertisements in Bangladesh.
First of all, people's association with a certain telecom service what we call the "loyalty factor" is low. I would say it has been played wrong since the beginning of the industry. This allowed subscribers to hop around different operators rather than sticking to one. On the other hand, the advertisements are not consistent and so are the offers. Every now and then, irrelevant offers are placed in the market; money is thrown in the media without proper rationalism thus making the subscribers life more difficult.
Had there been consistency in branding and product offering, this type of price war would have been averted and challenge in branding would not have been so high. Similarly, improper planning in buying media resulted in escalation of media purchase price that made it difficult for the operators in managing their budgets.
Talking on the biggest challenge in delivering the company's brand promise, the Warid CCO said it is important to remember that a brand promise is much more than just a couple of words put together.
A brand promise encapsulates what the company delivers in the market that in turn needs to be unique and relevant for the consumers. The brand promise is thus a sort of "effect" which is backed up by a "cause" and it is a unique product benefit. The first challenge, therefore, is coming up with the "cause" which is unique, persuasive and relevant.
In a market like Bangladesh where there are already five other operators, coming up with a unique product offering is difficult. Our first challenge has, therefore, been to come up with solutions that are unique to our market. As mentioned previously, we have attempted this to do by offering our customers multiple options to choose from in their prepaid & postpaid packages. These packages have just been introduced in the market in August. Going forward, this is what our brand will stand for - delivering relevant solutions to different people who can help them communicate effectively and smartly.
Commenting on the company's service delivery across the country, he said: We have a professional, well trained and dedicated sales and customer care teams to serve the customers. We often conduct training for our sales and franchise staffs to improve and enhance their skills. Our customers, no doubt, are our first priority. Customer satisfaction is our prime objective.
Telling even more specifically, Warid is the only operator which has direct interface with customers through 11 Warid Care Centres, 124 franchises and more than 15,000 registered retail shops. From our own flagship stores which we call Warid Care and franchise shops, a customer can walk in and take every single service online. Additionally, we have a dedicated 24 hours Customer Contact Centre which is always ready to serve any customer over the phone round the clock.
Commenting on the untapped potential in rural areas over mobile service utilization and the key barriers, the Warid top executive said there is a lot of potential for mobile phone operators in rural areas, which is actually the next growth driver as almost 70 percent of the population lives in the villages.