On the 1st of April when number portability became active I expected to see long lines at various providers customer service centres but shockingly there where none, at least not in the Nairobi CBD.
We expected that there would be huge full and double page advertisements in the newspapers and scantily dressed girls and over dressed boys shoving fliers down our throats, so why hasn't it happened?
Some of the offers made no sense and others might have had a negative effect, for example, Orange had a half page advertisement on a postpay offer yet when I called the listed number it went unanswered I then send an email to the address shown, it is 3 days later and I have had no response. The mistake Orange keep making is assuming that they are competing with the rest, they need to acknowledge that they are the underdog and behave accordingly. Safaricom can have a policy not to sell dual SIM phones but Orange do not have the luxury, they objective should be cannibalism.
On Sunday I passed by Orange's new customer service centre at the Sarit Centre and was received with the usual cold reception, after spending a minutes working round the very small shop I walked over to talk to a staff member who was seated at a desk "texting" away on a phone oblivious to her surrounding to ask about the new postpay advert that was in the paper. As expected she had absolutely no clue of the advert or even the offer. So why is it that organisations have e-mail and intranets if information from the ivory tower is sent to the branches and floors below using Postal Mail (postive for PMG)?
That is the problem with Orange and we do not really expect much better from them, but Safaricom needs to find its footing afresh as their product offerings and customer service is quickly becoming wanting. There reaction to the number portability issue seems to have missed the mark, they are concentrating on attracting new subscribers instead of trying to retain the existing ones.
An associate of mine saw the N8 on offer and dragged me along as he applied for the new service, he is an existing postpay customer but because the offer is not available to existing postpay customers he had to cancel his existing contract to take up a new one so as to enjoy the phone offer.. I hope the exception report will be tabled at their Monday management meeting so that they can rethink the strategy.
I was tempted to do the same but realised it was actually easier to just apply afresh which will resulting in Safaricom making the mistake of thinking that the offer had brought in a new subscriber yet it the the existing ones who are taking additional lines. Safcom will realise this when my bill next month for my main line drops by 90% and the difference in usage moves to the new number.
Well as is confirmed yet again, Kenyans are peculiar.
Regards
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696