Telkom Kenya Thrashes Competitors in Customer Experience

Over the years, the business environment has adopted various methods to drive growth. Technological advancements and exceptional innovations are but a few notable dynamics. However, one thing seems to perpetually hold, and that is continuously selling to retain customers and minimize churn.

A company has higher chances of surviving if it manages its customers well, and it is all about making them happy. This is why the customer satisfaction metric; Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one such important tool.

Kenyan companies have, for years now enjoyed the relevance of NPS. Gone are the days when metrics measuring customer loyalty were largely dependent on word of mouth, particularly in the telecommunications industry.

The Integrated Customer Experience company mSurvey uses NPS to measure customer experience in Kenya across various sectors.

Recently, mSurvey presented the results for the 2018 Customer Loyalty Benchmark Report. The report, which highlighted the state of customer experience in Kenya across 10 industries showed that delivery of customer experience remains inconsistent across all industries with the exception of the Energy and Health industries which maintained consistent performance throughout 2018.

In the telecommunications industry, Telkom Kenya beat the odds to emerge as the leaders in the 2018 quarterly report.

According to the report, Telkom Kenya closed 2018 with an average NPS of 22.5. The company’s success was largely owed to fast data and affordable data bundle offerings.

“Consistent network and data speeds; also, affordable rates,” said one Telkom Kenya promoter.

The results project that Telkom Kenya now leads in terms of appealing to various demographics across the country, especially those looking for affordable data plans.

It surpassed Safaricom’s NPS of 16.75 and Airtel’s, which dropped significantly as a result of poor connectivity in some regions.

Telkom’s triumph, if anything, clearly shows how the company continues to venture and explore myriad projects in a bid to expand and grow its network. Recent developments include Telkom Kenya’s partnership with Loon, where the two plans to launch several high-flying balloons in remote areas to expand the 4G network.

READ MORE: Loon and Telkom Given the Go-Ahead to Deploy Balloon-Powered Internet

What is NPS?

NPS is basically a relationship survey that allows a business to understand whether your customers would recommend you to others. It has been widely adopted across the globe to determine a company’s position in terms of its relationship with customers.

The tool is highly fundamental and one can trigger auto email alerts when an NPS drops below a certain level. NPS can also be used to optimize customer engagement plans.

As such, it marks a significant and pivotal shift in managerial thinking that has promoted industry leaders such as managers to examine and re-evaluate their perception of the growing role of customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty.

NPS Calculation

NPS categorizes customers into three groups – promoters, passives, and detractors to measure loyalty. Customers are asked how likely they are, on a scale of 1-10, to recommend your services to people they know. Answers of 8+ are considered promoters, 7-8 are passives and 6 and below are detractors.

Promoters contribute a lot to the growth of a company than detractors. They are less concerned with price and have a much higher retention rate which leads to greater margins for your business. And because NPS uses a standardized metric it allows businesses to compare their results with industry competitors.