Interoperability: The Needed Catalyst for a Fair Playing Ground in the Telecoms Sector, Affirms Telkom Kenya

Consumer-Centric Approach

Betsy Sanders defines Service as something… ‘In short, is not what you do, but who you are. It is a way of living that you need to bring to everything you do if you are to bring it to your customer interactions.” This description is the denominator when it comes to consumer centricity.

Customer-centric is a way of doing business with your customer in a way that provides a positive customer experience before and after the sale in order to drive repeat business, customer loyalty and profits and a customer-centric company is more than a company that offers good service.

A recent Customers 2020 Report predicts that by 2020, customer experience will overtake both price and product as the key brand differentiator. Many say that it already has. Forrester Research has also been consistently driving the message that we are now living in the Age of the Customer, where the customer determines his or her experience with the brand, not the other way around.

READ: More Goodies for Telkom Kenya Customers as 4G-Network is Expanded in Nairobi

So, while more and more brands begin to talk the customer-centric, customer-service-focused talk, the difficult part is standing up the culture to walk the walk.

Telkom Kenya, however, seems to be walking the talk as they embark on a series of changes that are aimed at creating the perfect ecosystem for the consumer to have a perfect customer experience with the brand as competition in the sector tightens and the consumer becomes choosier and convenience-oriented.

Telkom is owned by Helios, whose shareholding is at 60 percent and the other 40 percent is owned by the people of Kenya through the government. The brand has been going through a systematic rebrand focusing on the consumer.

BIG 4

The brand has broken down four key pillars that are the foundation of the rebrand and consumer centrism and these are:

1. The Mobile division
2. The Mobile Money aspect or T-Kash
3. The Wholesale Carrier division and
4. The Enterprise division.

The 4^th agenda is of keen interest to me because it’s where I am affected as a consumer and analyst because it’s a B2B module with consumer centrism to it. It’s what the SME world has been waiting for in the telecom industry.

As the brand positions itself to ensure that it has a better return for its shareholders, its priority is the consumer because without the consumer, then the shareholder has nothing to look forward to and this means that the brand must focus and win over as many customers in the Enterprise division as possible. The reason why the shareholding aspect is key is that the brand is 40 percent owned by the public of Kenya and that means, success is the only way forward.

Talking to the MD of the Enterprise Division, Mr. Kris Senanu, he affirmed that the brand is committed to the consumer and that they are doing everything, in terms of products, services, and policy to push for an eco-system of environment that is appealing, enchanting and pocket-friendly to the consumer.

As the brand focuses on its journey to reclaim its birthright as the leading telecom in the region, its duty to the country is not lost in the sense that, its strategy is also plugged in to the BIG 4 agenda by the government in a move that is aimed at ensuring that they get the best out of the government policy for the benefit of the consumer.

READ: Blessings to Businesses as Telkom Repositions Enterprise Solutions

Interoperability:

Mr. Kris was keen on the issue of interoperability. He said that if fully implemented, it would be a game changer in the industry and that it would level the playing field for all the players involved and the winner would be the one who focused on a beautiful user experience moment.

This was in regards to a move that marked the culmination of efforts by the ICT Ministry, the Communications Authority of Kenya and the various industry players where wallet to wallet interoperability went live on April 10, 2018, making Kenya the second African country, after Tanzania, to effectively roll-out W-W interoperability.

The Enterprise MD said this was the catalyst for a level field in the sector that they were keen on it.

B2B:

The key focus in the push to ensure that the consumer is the first priority, the brand is looking at ensuring the best of services and products through its Enterprise division by focusing on B2B in areas such as public sector, health sector, Agri biz and tech, housing, manufacturing, and service industries.

The essence is to create products and services that will enable the ecosystem to ensure the convenience of consumers accessing markets and vice versa.

All energies are on us being the leading Telco in data provision, Mr. Kris emphasized. This will be followed by the voice, mobile money and any other innovation we will bring along. Our focus is to create hybrid solutions for our diverse clientele in such a way that it’s fun, convenient and affordable.

Richard Branson once stated that to achieve consistently terrific customer service, one must hire wonderful people who believe in the company’s goals, habitually do better than the norm and who will love their jobs; make sure that their ideas and opinions are heard and respected. Once this is achieved, then give them the freedom to help and solve problems for the customers.

Rather than providing rules or scripts, one should ask them to treat the customer as they themselves would like to be treated — which is surely the highest standard, the standard that Telkom Kenya is keen to achieve as competition in the sector becomes critical.

READ: Central Bank of Kenya Endorses the Mobile Interoperability