If the promotions coming out of Telecel are anything to go by, the Red mobile network is literally scrambling to regain solid footing as the lead competitor in Zimbabwean telecoms.
First there was the number matching service, meant to make the process of crossing over to Telecel a lot easier. This less than lukewarm offer was hardly impressive because the specials that Telecel was putting on the table to entice lost subscribers back into its arms were hardly special.
Now Telecel is back again with an offer for 2 bonus points for every $1 that prepaid subscribers top up in their account. This carrot ought to smell familiar to subscribers because Econet once extended the same “amazing rewards” to its subscribers. I still don’t remember anyone enthused by that offer back then.
The point is (no pun intended) to reward you for every dollar you spend on the network with points that can be aggregated and redeemed for different services that include on-net bonus minutes, SMSes and bundles of data.
The lowest redemption point is at 10 points or $5 spent on airtime. This gets you a measly 5 SMSes. Bonus data kicks in when you spend $15. You’ll get 1MB of data, 5 minutes of Telecel to Telecel talk time and 15 SMSes. The best you can expect to get from this whole bonus points offer is 50 SMSes, 5 MB of data and 20 free minutes.
Ok, we get it. Times are tough and freebies can’t be as generous as they used to be, especially from Telecel. But is this the best these guys can come up with to boost their Average Revenue per User (ARPU)? If telecoms is more aggressive this year and Telecel has lost subscribers shouldn’t it be making it more attractive to cross over and tell someone?
As far as promotions go it sounds a lot like these offers weren’t thought through thoroughly. They might be extensions of goodwill and viewed just as customer rewards, but surely isn’t there more you can offer someone who has spent $50 on your network?
Is this all a feeling of defeat and resignation from the Telecel team? Now that telecoms licence and ownership challenges are hanging over the mobile network’s head and it has lost second place to NetOne perhaps this has trickled down to the whole team? It’s a tough business terrain so ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
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7 comments
This article is on the spot 🙂
Reminds me of a discussion we left hanging on the group… Well that’s for later. The rewards strategy by Telecel is now getting a bit stale, though they shouldn’t eliminate it completely… it surely can be better as you said. But I think telcos will be in a much better position if they competed on a unique value proposition, say quality, and establish a niche like what Umax, AfricaOnline did. Competing on price (as I said back in 2010) is unsustainable particularly if the infrastructure has not paid off what investors put in. Looking into the crystal ball (2019?) I am sure price will ultimately matter, but with the converged licenses coming up, can service pricing be really different? Differentiation will be on QUALITY. And the right niche will pay handsomely for it… brings me to another point…
The secret, unspoken mission and vision statement of Econet’s competitors “when we grow up we want to be Econet…”
The author of this article is biased against Telecel. Firstly who else is giving you rewards. Econet is looting our money you recharge and the next hour your airtime is wiped out without doing anything. What do you call that??? Please commend Telecel. Your problem is you are so used to freebies & anything Telecel is not good enough. What’s wrong with number matching again less freebies? That’s all you want. Go to hell
You work for Telecel don’t you? And this number matching non-sense was your brain dead initiative wasn’t it?
We could assume you work for Econet too, but I’d rather rely on facts. You have failed to put up a valid argument using facts to dispute the issues raised hence the only nonsense seems to be coming from your end
its bn 6 months since the last comment, wen the year started I would’ve said this post was on point, to sm extent it still is, the bonus promotion by telecel is lame, its jus measly tu really b a real promotion. But that said let so go service wise. Econet shud stop brainwashing ppl that their services are as gud as they claim them tu b. I live in Southerton, I use a samsung phone my wife uses Huawei, i recently switched tu Telecel frm Econet cz I dnt tolerate crap service for my hard earned money, ecocash service ever down, internet services ever down, reception in southerton is crap, i work at harare hospital taking phone calls there with my econet line is a hustle, they usually are recorded as missed calls or if ever they come thru I neva get to finish conversation before call cuts…Each mobile network is gud fo specific things nw in Zim, Econet is cheap on direct calls, that and its ecocash facility are pretty much y we have stuck with them, its good they have made themselves indispensable that way…Telecel is better on internet services as i mentioned my wife has trouble with her econet line in a Huawei smartphone using econet internet service, its slow and unpredictable and for whatsapp is even worse yet Econet pretty much knows subscribers heavily rely on whatsapp for comms…I noticed they have even blocked whatsapp calls on their network.tats jus plain lame, instead pof being innovative and coming up with ways to benefit from whatsapp use, econet wants to muscle subscribers away from whatsapp, first it was the whatsapp Light and Extra crap, now blocking whatsapp call, whats next, banning whatsapp on econet? That said now I’m with Telecel, I’m not much of a sucker for promotions, so gud service for me is all it takes and so far tats wat Telecel is giving me for good value too