After some moments of setback, one of Nigeria’s telecom giants, 9mobile, is on the path to rebound, believing that brands that consistently connect emotively with customers are better positioned to enjoy longer customer lifetime value and reduction in churn. CHUKA UROKO reviews the company’s moves in this direction, focusing on its fresh tap on customer-friendliness.
Changing marketplace dynamics requires that brands continuously innovate on how they build and nurture relationships with key stakeholders in order to remain top of the mind. In that case, promoting excellent relationship with existing and potential customers tops priority list. Reason is, the customer is not just king, but also firmly rooted on the driver’s seat.
Experts say organisations that put the customer at the heart of their brand DNA are better favourably disposed to enjoying increased customer-lifetime value and a reduction in churn than those that are not customer-centric. “Customers do not care how much you know unless they know how much you care”, Damon Richards, a customer service expert was quoted by Forbes as advising business owners and leaders.
9mobile, arguably, Nigeria’s customer-friendly telecom company, is repositioning to regain its share and category leadership after surmounting a major setback resulting from a loan facility it obtained from a banking consortium in 2003 to carry out network expansion and improve service quality.
Following the successful recapitalisation of the business in the last quarter of 2018 and the inauguration of a new board of directors and management, the telco is innovatively warming itself into the hearts of its customers with emotive brand building initiatives.
Over the past 10 years, it has consistently invested in excellent customer relations, and this has translated to unwavering brand loyalty displayed by its customers even in the face of challenges in the last two years.
9mobile recently launched a bespoke campaign tagged ‘9nniversary’ which, amongst others, comprises two reward schemes—‘Northern Promo’ and ‘Magic Hour Promo’ – aimed at celebrating and rewarding customers for their loyalty in the past one decade. In both promos, customers stand a chance to win mouth-watering prizes including airtime, smart-phones, cash prizes and brand-new cars with just a minimum of N100 recharge.
The Northern Promo is exclusive to customers in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Yobe and Taraba states while the Magic Hour promo targets customers in other states of Nigeria including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Both promos will run for 90 days.
To participate in the Northern Promo, prepaid customers on morecliq, moretalk, morecliq and talkzone need to recharge their lines to win free daily airtime by sending ‘WIN’ to 476 to qualify, while one smart-phone is up for grabs every week for 12 weeks. Three lucky customers will get N1 million and one customer will win the grand prize of a brand-new car.
In the case of Magic Hour promo, all new and existing customers of 9mobile stand a good chance to win amazing prizes starting from February 11 up till May 10, 2019. Millionaires will also emerge in the promo draws holding across key cities in Nigeria with N20 million grand prize for one winner at the end of the promo and N5 million cash each to be won by one lucky customer over three months, at the monthly draws.
One lucky customer each day wins N250,000 throughout the 90-day promo duration while 5 customers win N50,000 cash each daily for 90 days. Other prizes are 5 smart-phones per week to be won during the promo.
All that customers need to do is to recharge a minimum of N100 to keep winning while they can also text WIN to 88808 to increase their chances of winning.
Adebisi Idowu, Vice President, Marketing, 9mobile, says the promos are part of many innovative ways the telco demonstrates how much it appreciates its loyal customers for staying the course with the network since it commenced operations in Nigeria.
“At 9mobile, our customers are the cornerstone of all our operations; offering them value is a priority and these promos affirm that we are not just paying lip service to our mantra of enabling customers to do more. Apart from empowering customers by providing them superior quality data and voice services, we also want to change their lives for good with reward scheme like the Northern Promo and Magic Promo to reward their loyalty.
This is one of the ways 9mobile is saying thank you to its customers for trusting us to keep our brand promise to them. We care about our customers and are always on the lookout for ways to support and positively impact their lives”, he said.
Connecting with other key stakeholders is another area 9mobile has affirmed its commitment. This it did recently when the new board and management paid a courtesy visit to the executive management team of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in Abuja. On the visit were the chairman of the company, managers, executive and non-executive directors of the company.
Nasiru Ado Bayero, chairman of the company, assured that the new board would uphold excellence as the gold standard across all operations of 9mobile and that significant investments would be made to ensure that customers get value for choosing 9mobile.
Umar Danbatta, NCC’s executive vice chairman/CEO, commended the ongoing initiatives to reposition the telco, revealing that even during the trying times, 9mobile did not falter on excellent service delivery and other industry key performance indicators. “Every time we measure the KPIs for all the companies, 9mobile comes up top. And I am not stating this as a marketing stunt for 9mobile. I am saying this arising from the figures we have consistently recorded; 9mobile has one of the best networks in the country, that I can attest to, based on the result of the KPIs characterising Quality of Service”, he said.
In spite of its challenges, 9Mobile was recently recognised as the ‘Telecom Company of the Year 2018’. This was an an award conferred by Leadership Group Limited, publishers of Leadership Newspaper in recognition of the telco’s resilience and stability in the face of challenges from which it pulled through over the past two years.
Abdul Gombe group managing director of Leadership Group, commended 9mobile for emerging stronger from tests including the challenging operating environment, strict regulatory requirements, threat of take-over by a banking consortium and post-acquisition realities.
“In the face of all these, 9mobile has maintained its relevance and its 9ja brand heritage within the Nigerian telecommunication space. For your resilience, the selection board found you most suitable for this prestigious award”,he said.
Analysts said the positive developments should not be a surprise, citing Beuvelet’s New Year goodwill message that 2019 was a year of new grounds-breaking for the telco, its customers and key stakeholders. “As 2019 beckons, we can all look to the future with renewed hope, not just because we are a bold and optimistic brand, but because there are real opportunities to explore with you”, he said.
Continuing, he said, “From an aggressive enhancement of network capacity and innovative features to boost HD voice and video/data services, LTE network coverage expansion to 15 new cities, more innovative data offerings including triple play and streaming service, to digital services that support your everyday needs such as our 9Pay payment service, we are set to break fallow grounds in emerging areas like Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning capabilities to drive superior customer experience.
“We are not only ready, but better positioned, for good reason too, to kick-start a strategic new direction with bold initiatives that guarantee optimum value to you, our esteemed customers, as we recover previously ceded grounds.”
