Earlier this year, I wrote an article listing the top 20 brands in Cameroon. Meanwhile the article was seasoned with my usual mix of light sarcasm and satire, the rankings were based on my personal (weighted) rankings of how the featured brands fared in brand evaluation criteria like; brand recognition, brand reputation, customer satisfaction, quality of products or services, financial performance, and innovation. MTN was second on my list and I wrote this about them:-
“Everywhere you go, you will find MTN. MTN evokes the feeling of having a close friend. A friend that can be sometimes annoying, but never leaves you. Its bright yellow colors represent some sort of much-needed sunshine. Its poor customer service has become synonymous with the sun setting to rise again another day. ”
Yesterday, as customers reacted to the gifts they got from the company, I couldn’t help but gloat over how accurate my description of MTN’s brand was. Some got free 5GB of data, while others got communication credit. There were two major complaints:
The network was slower
Some questioned why they got communication credit (aluminum) while others got data (gold).
It is obvious that MTN is aware of its shortcomings when it comes to customer service and is taking measures to improve. This can be seen in the fact that the company’s CEO (Mitwa Ng’ambi) and its general manager for regulatory and corporate affairs (Jean Melvin Akam) appeared in a video on the company’s social media pages to apologize for service interruptions that had occurred in the days prior. In that video, they asked customers to check their messages for a token from the company.
What would have otherwise been a very positive customer service action basically backfired. It did not serve its purpose. It elicited more complaints from customers who now had data they could barely use or communication credit they did not need. Even customers who did not need the free data were affected. Those who got communication credit instead of data are left to think they are less valuable customers.
As a student public policy analyst, I am reminded of how well-intended policies can backfire when proper problem analysis is lacking. It is hard to imagine how the company did not see this move backfiring. I want to believe it was a decision that was taken hastily without proper consultation with every internal stakeholder.
MTN infrastructure is a combination of Fibre optic and Fixed Wireless; delivering internet services primarily through the use of cell towers. The use of wireless cell towers means bandwidth congestion is inevitable when too many users are accessing the internet simultaneously. Certain activities like streaming high-definition video, large file downloads, or online gaming can use a lot of bandwidth.
Before gifting data bundles, MTN had to do an analysis of its bandwidth capacity by looking at the history of data subscriptions and usage. Free data is bound to increase usage. Free data also means that people are more likely to perform activities that require more bandwidth, like video streaming. More analysis of network usage data (which should be carried out frequently) could have helped the company identify low usage periods so they can give free data that can be used when the network is less loaded. MTN does this when they offer cheaper data bundles that can only be used at night when the network is generally less congested.
Alternatively, they could have gifted the data bundles in batches over a period of say one month so that everyone does not get it at the same time. The CEO’s announcement makes me believe all the customers who got free data, received it at the same time. If that was the case, it was not a well-thought-out decision.
MTN could also give different volumes of data to each customer based on the history of their usage so customers who usually buy more data get a little bit more than those who don’t. I am not sure of the technical feasibility of this option but I believe with a little more planning, it should be achievable.
As regards some people getting data while others got communication credit, analyzing customer habits would have helped them make better decisions on who gets data and who gets communication credit. Better still, every customer should have been given a combination of both; allowing for more equity.
There must have been thoughts about what will happen when some people receive data and others don’t which might have informed the decision to offload all these free data bundles at the same time. That could be managed with better communication of the plan. In the spirit of localizing its communication language, an SMS saying “All dog get yi day” would have sufficed to keep those who did not receive their gifts on the first day calm; waiting for their turn. I can’t help but think of how this could be extended to a full campaign where every customer will be eager to announce when their dog day finally arrives. I always say I love a dissatisfied customer because they provide you an opportunity to show that you care.
Any-ha
I had fun reading all the funny comparisons of customer relationships with MTN to toxic personal relationships. I have always prayed for the days when MTN will give free data to compensate for times when they experience severe network interruptions. This time they did. It was a good move that could use better planning.
