So one fine day, we decided to test Ufone’s brand promise and not surprisingly, Ufone fell way short of expectations, even more so than those telecoms who don’t claim to provide good service.

Here’s what happened:

The most basic package Ufone is offering is for Rs.150 with the option to add the bells and whistles later on. In addition to that, it had launched a subdued version of mobile+connection packages that are so common in the Western market. Currently it has discontinued that package but is still offering the mobile at only Rs.1200.

The only catch: you can’t run the mobile on any other service. So you have to invariably buy an Ufone connection.

Of course you can unlock the code from one of those mobile specialists in the mobile market akin to what people do with the ones brought from abroad, but the cost of this ‘bare-minimum’ mobile from Huawei doesn’t justify going to all this trouble.

Back to the story, I bought one of these Huawei Ufone sets along with a Ufone connection for Rs.1350 from their franchise in Dhoraji. Now this was my first interaction with the Ufone people, and I was met by two sullen fellows who looked even more crestfallen to see me approach them. After buying the package, I asked the guy who was tending to me to activate the sim for me, he curtly replied that I should do it myself by calling 789 from the cell. For some reason, I put off activating the SIM at the franchise and instead tried to do it later on at home. Little did I know that this small action would lead to tortuorous consequences later on.

Now their activation procedure requires you to confirm your CNIC number although you have already submitted a copy of the original CNIC as well as shown the original one to the customer rep.  Calling that 789 number is an ordeal in itself. I called five times the first time before I got through to a CSR.

When I gave my CNIC details, the guy at the other end told me that I need to take my original CNIC to one of their customer service centers for verification as my CNIC had insufficient details. As a consumer, this didn’t amuse at all as I had deliberately bought the connection from an obscure franchise to avoid the hassle of a company-owned customer service centre which is always flooded with people, especially that of Ufone.

So, I asked the guy who had dropped the bombshell on me that why should I again go and show my CNIC when I had already done that. If I hadn’t shown my original CNIC, how the heck did I get the connection in the first place?

The poor chap had no answer to my demands, he just kept repeating the same line which he had delivered previously parrot style albeit with rising crescendo, showing that he was getting angry himself. Seeing that I was getting nowhere, I hung up.

I then tried calling the number again in the hope that maybe that rep was a newbie and didn’t know what was wrong and maybe this time I would be able to get in touch with an experienced one. So I called after two hours.

This time I couldn’t get through even after five tries. Tried the next day at 7am in the morning, 12.30 pm, 2.15 pm, 4.30 pm and finally at 5.50 pm when I finally got through for the second time.

All in all it had taken a whopping 17 tries to get in touch with a rep. Then just as I was telling my CNIC no. to the guy, the line dropped.

Can you believe that? The line dropped when I had finally struck gold after 17 tries!

In utter dismay I tried one more time, and this time got through on the first try. Again I gave my CNIC number but unfortunately the response was the same. Insufficient details on the CNIC data gathered from NADRA and that I had to visit the customer service centre myself with the original CNIC.

The centre closes at 6pm and since I had spent the entire day trying to reach their rep on phone, it was closing time and I had to wait another day to activate the connection.

Next day I did visit the centre at 2.30pm. My turn came at 2.50pm, majority of which time was spent standing since there wasn’t sufficient seating arrangement.

This time around I came across a feisty lady for a service rep. She wasn’t impolite or anything, it’s just that her persona didn’t match that of a customer rep. You got the feeling that one false move you made and she would have devoured you right then and there. The way she was bossing around her male colleagues, she ought to have been their team leader instead of dealing with the customers.

But the bottom-line is I got out of there unscathed with the lady finally resolving my problem after getting me to sign some more signatures along with even more thumb impressions.

I asked her why did I have to go through all this trouble, and she explained that there was some ‘fire’ at one of their centres which curtailed their ability to extract complete data for the NIC. This she said was also the reason for lack of response at the UAN number.

Whether this is true or not is not clear, but in any case the customers should have been informed of this development. Good companies even when going for unscheduled maintenance let the customers know and apologize in advance. This is the bare minimum requirement to be deemed as a good customer service provider. And Ufone is proclaiming to be the ultimate in customer service.

So what does this story tell us? Simply that the brand essence of any brand is determined by the perception in the mind of the consumer and not necessarily by what the custodians of that brand are projecting it to be. Sure that projection can become the brand essence if it is consistently effective over a long period of time. Think BMW. Think Caterpillar.  Think Dalda  Think Hamdard. It took ages for these brands to create a desired essence in the consumer’s mind.

So what’s the brand essence of Ufone? Definitely not customer service, they fail at this brand promise of theirs miserably. Only Zong fares worse at this.

The real brand essence of Ufone as perceived by the consumer is that of a youth-oriented brand that comes up with the most cost-effective and unique packages and conveys them in a humorous undertone.

You can argue that Zong has the cheapest offerings but it doesn’t. The connection fee for Ufone is Rs.150 while for Zong it is Rs.300. On top of that, Ufone is the only provider that is offering service cum mobiles in the Pakistani market and that also dirt cheap. That’s the bottom line and the consumer knows it well, hence the brand essence.

So what can Ufone do about this yawning gap? Stop projecting itself as a custodian of the perfect customer service by scrapping the ten commandments. (The funny thing is, these service commandments are not even on their website. They can only be seen at their outlets in the form of a huge poster hugging one of the walls.)

Yes it can continue to use these mantras internally to ensure that its employees don’t wander too far away from providing good service, but don’t advertise this fact.

Then raise the level of its customer service just a few notches up. It doesn’t need to compete with the likes of Telenor and Mobilink on this parameter because it’s definitely not Ufone’s forte. The thing is Ufone can get away with average customer service if it continues to hammer on its current positioning of unique and cost-effective packages. Instead of offering Blackberry packages to no use, it ought to upgrade its basic connection+mobile packages on the Western market model.

Right now it’s offering the most basic cellphone at Rs.1200. It should introduce better models, maybe even have a brand alliance with Nokia to give those mobiles along with the connection and of course free airtime.

How about a Nokia 5230 customized for Ufone and 150 free minutes for let’s say Rs.14,000?

Or how about a Samsung Corby Pro for approximately Rs. 13,000?

Consumers are increasingly being wooed by the cellphone manufacturers to embrace the touch-screen category and Ufone ought to jump on this bandwagon right away.

Throw in mobile insurance as well for good measure and you’ve set the ball rolling for a paradigm shift in the way  consumers in this part of the world buy cellphones and telecom services. And right now, Ufone is in the best position to induce this behavioral change.

No related posts.

Now only if the service worked as it was communicated to the entire nation by a very expensive branding campaign.

There’s no doubt that the local branding endeavors have become quite refined in the last decade. Pakistanis are fast catching up with the Indians in communicating the brand promise. Trouble is, the promise is broken more frequently than the frequency of the loadshedding.

The same is the case with Easypaisa. It’s launch on the 15^th of October was unprecedented in the history of branding in Pakistan. Full front and back-cover print ads in all the major dailies except Dawn. Even in Dawn, a full page ad was present, only that it wasn’t on the front page. That’s impact for you.

And the cost? A full page ad in one of the inside pages of Jang costs a staggering Rs.1.3 million. Now if you want to take the entire front page, which isn’t offered as an option, it must have cost twice that amount. Multiply that by the number of major dailies, both English and Urdu, and you get a staggering Rs.100 million plus thrown away on a single day, and that’s only the print medium. You can safely add another 100 million for the TVC and then you get an idea of how much Telenor is spewing out on this campaign.

Of course it’s their money and they can dish out as much as they want, there’s no law against it. But when the moolah changing hands is in the scale of millions, it does make you wonder why a fraction of this dough couldn’t be spent on streamlining the service before going for an all-out launch?

The reason this thought is probably crossing the mind of any marketer observing telenor’s easypaisa launch is because it has begun to take stingy hits from the consumer almost as soon as the launch. Since the launch was aimed at pretty much the entire nation, the masses influenced by the campaign reacted favorably by opting for the service right away.

Maybe Telenor was not expecting a response of this magnitude or it wasn’t ready at all. In any case, the blogosphere is buzzing with mostly negative to lukewarm reviews of the service. But the most damning verdict has come in the form a letter to the editor in which the irate customer narrates his ordeal that in spite of paying his electricity bill through easypaisa, his electricity connection was disconnected by LESCO.

Although Mr. Sikander Ali, Director of Tameer Bank, tried to control the situation by replying to the letter in the same section right away, the damage had been done.

This was a one-off case. The most common complaint doing the rounds in the blogosphere is that it’s way too expensive. One blogger on Karachi metro blogs narrates he was charged Rs.10 on a mere bill of Rs.140. He says if he has to pay that much, he might as well do so through online means rather than going to all the trouble of physically visiting the easypaisa shop.

So there are basically three issues at work here. One, easypaisa is expensive, two, it is not that convenient, and three, it is not 100% reliable.

No service, no matter how sleek, is 100% fool-proof. There are bound to be problems, some that you cannot even anticipate beforehand. The trick, however, is to find out as many of them as possible by launching a stealth mode instead of coming out with the all-out launch right away.

There’s no evidence that Telenor did take easypaisa for a net practice. That seems to be hurting it badly now.  The fact that a company of this caliber will be able to weather this storm is secondary. The primary consideration ought to be preemptive measures to save the brand not only from the competitor onslaught but the more deadly consumer onslaught as well.

And in this day and age of social media, it is surprisingly easy. All Telenor needed to do was create a Facebook profile for easypaisa augmented by a Twitter account (which it has done now). It should have notified its customers (which is the 2^nd largest customer base after Mobilink) through SMS of its new service, and then just waited to see what happens. No ad. No TVC. No nothing.

Telenor’s investment in this strategy? Zero.  Was this so hard to do? Or because it entailed no money that the brand manager thought it won’t work?

Of course, even then there would have been some negative reviews, but only confined to the blogosphere. And it would definitely have created a buzz in the real world that Telenor was doing something radical in the online world. It would have gone viral and although it wouldn’t have reached the 170 millions souls Telenor claims to have reached with this extravagant campaign, it would have given Telenor enough customers to take its easypaisa for a proper test drive.

Then when it had identified and rectified sufficient bugs in the system, it could have gone for the extravagant campaign which it did. There’s just no way this test-driving strategy would have fared worse than the present one.

So why did Telenor failed to apply such a common sense strategy? Herd mentality. Every brand worth its salt in Pakistan has not dared to come up with a launch strategy that kickstarts from cyberspace and then makes it’s appearance in the physical realm.  There have been  online campaigns, alright, by some of the well-known brands, but they have been far and few in between. And no exclusive product launch.

The best that has been done is what is fashionably referred to as the 360º launch strategy which entails making use of all medium to create both hype and awareness about the brand.

But what’s so bad about creating hype first and then not living upto that hype?

 You break the immutable law of marketing, ‘ Underpromise but over-deliver’. By doing what Telenor has done with Easypaisa, you over-promise but under-deliver.

The best way a business can flourish is to exceed customer expectations. Not many businesses are able to do that, but then not many businesses are successful. And marketing is just a tool to deliver this positioning. The real value addition has to be imbibed into the core of the business, not embedded merely in the branding strategy.

The fledgling Wimax industry in Pakistan is a classic example of these blunders. First to commit the original sin was Wateen which offered the moon to its customers but failed to satisfy them because of technical glitches and constraints which it didn’t address before the formal launch. Then came Infinity whose story was just a tad better than Wateen. Then came Witribe all guns blazing with its launch, its most glaring blunder being, its inability to offer the services in many parts of the city it advertised to be operating. On top of that, potential customers who expressed their interest in the service by registering online as well as at the sales outlets were never contacted to let them know when the service would be available in their area, or even a courteous response.

This pretty much sums up the appalling state of branded service not just in the telecom sector but across different industries in Pakistan. Qubee, the new player in the Wimax domain looks to be the only one with a shrewd strategy, that strategy being to remain low-key until it has streamlined its network substantially. It is aiming to promote its brand only through shopping mall kiosks and its own service outlets spread throughout the city. And of course it has its website to spread the word. In addition to that, it has dedicated one of its reps to surf the online lounges and counter jibes taken at Qubee, an extremely cunning tactic if there ever was one. No other brand has had the common sense to make use of this virtually free tool.

Does this mean Qubee will have no customer problems? Hardly. But at least, they won’t spread like wildfire like the rest of the brands, because Qubee hasn’t as yet come out in the open with clear-cut brand positioning and promise, so what will the customers complain against?

A few problems have already arisen and are well-documented in the blogosphere but if Qubee plays its cards right, it ought to be able to deal with them without them being known too much. That’s the beauty of keeping a low-profile until you get a grip over the simmering issues.

So what’s the verdict? Easypaisa could have been a better launch if it was beta-tested akin to what has been done with Windows 7. And even then, it should have been confined to a few niches rather than going for the masses. To Telenor’s credit, it invited some bloggers to the launch ceremony held on the 16^th of October at PC Karachi, but for some inexplicable reason, it has failed to garner the support of bloggers which it probably expected with the invitation. At best there have just been a few posts mentioning the event not the rave reviews Telenor would have wanted. At worst, well, here’s a trailer of that.

The other thing not in favor of easypaisa that it’s not entirely unique. Settlement of utility bills through mobile banking and the likes already exist. It’s only they are not that well-known and thus confined to a few niches. In fact Nadra’s E-Sahulat fulfills the same purpose for almost free.

Easypaisa on the other hand is geared towards the masses and yet requires a somewhat hefty charge.

Whether Telenor will be able to weather the storm and make its branded service relevant to the masses only time will tell.

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1. Jaane Tu…. Ya Jaane Na – An exercise in shrewd branding The movie sky-rocketed to the top of the charts. Why?...

Wi-Tribe print ad

THE POTENTIAL LOOPHOLE:

WiMax may have become the new buzzword amongst the net-savvy niche of Pakistan, but for some inexplicable reason, Wi-Tribe has decided not to use the word Wi-Max to define its service. This could prove to be either a very shrewd strategy, or a self-destructive strategy.

The major reason for this is that WorldCall is offering wireless broadband service based on CDMA technology, and the service has been lambasted by most of the consumers. The website Bolta Consumer is brimming with vile for WorldCall. Now if Wi-Tribe is also going to brand itself as the wireless broadband with no mention of WiMax, the consumers are going to associate Wi-Tribe with WorldCall (whose reputation is already in tatters) instead of the WiMax players Wateen and Infinity.

Result? Those looking for a good WiMax experience are not going to touch Wi-Tribe with a 10-foot pole even with the 7 days money-back guarantee.

But why is WiTribe refraining from using the word WiMax? There can be two reasons. Either Wi-Tribe is not using WiMax technology altogether, or it wants to be associated more with the wired broadbrand service providers like PTCL, LinkDotNet and MaxCom because of their higher speeds instead of the WiMax providers Wateen and Infinity which lag far behind.

The third and less plausible reason is that consumers don’t know much about WiMax. They either know wireless or broadband, and based on the results of their consumer survey, they may have unearthed some insight that ‘wireless broadband’ will sell more than ‘WiMax’. My contention is that only those consumers are going to be hitching on this bandwagon who already know something about technology and stuff, so WiMax should have been used definitely. A totally layman consumer is going to opt for the wired broadband because of the far higher value for money when you take into account the unlimited downloads feature in the wired services.

THE PERSUASION:

Wi-Tribe’s communication strategy is pretty simple. Their TVC as well as their print ad is remarkably austere sans any animate characters or curvaceous vixens. It seems to be directed at people who already know what they’re going to get out of this service as opposed to creating awareness about the benefits that can be gleaned. The latter model was followed by the other major broadband service providers.

The best campaign was surprisingly that of the PTCL that really went full throttle in explaining what enormous advantage could be had at your fingertips by upgrading to broadband from dial-up. The runner-up campaign was that of Mobilink Infinity which again focused on the benefits part especially on the gaming segment. The worst had to be Wateen which showcased minimal benefits with no explanation. What’s worse, it showed a damsel just fooling around with a purse in hand, as if that it would help the consumer get a clearer picture. Later on they took Shehzad Roy as their brand ambassador, but that was a bit too late and definitely not the best of decisions.

Wi-Tribe’s radio ad, however, is a different story altogether. It depicts a guy hanging out with a laptop on his rooftop gazing at the stars (and into the neighboring houses probably). This communicates not only a benefit but a clear-cut lifestyle positioning. Who knows, maybe this would spawn into a fad where everyone cat and dog is perched on the rooftop with a laptop.

In addition to all this, it is following the hackneyed strategy of sponsoring shows, both on television and radio.

BRAND CONTACT POINT:

 

If a particular area didn’t have sufficient strong signals of Wi-Tribe, the company would refrain from providing the connection lest the service quality and hence the image of the company suffers. For instance when asked if SITE area was covered by Wi-Tribe, he immediately replied in the negative without beating about the bush.

When asked why the company had avoided using the word WiMax in its communication strategy, he replied they had decided to focus on the broadband aspect rather than the WiMax aspect. Other than that, he didn’t exactly know the underlying reason.

 

Wi-Tribe Sales Outlet

 

Wi-Tribe Sales Centre

 

 

One other thing he revealed when asked about how their service compared to the existing WiMax players is that although Wi-Tribe has one-third the capacity of Wateen, their coverage was comparable to it. While Wateen was using 168 towers to provide coverage, Wi-Tribe was using 172 to cover the same area. This was to ensure that the signal strength didn’t drop so much that the users had to suffer.

Wi-Tribe Centre

One striking thing was that the rep was friendly in addition to being professional, willing to discuss things other than business. His sales team had a night match scheduled for that night which the sales manager had proposed and would include all the sales reps. A happy Tribe? Seems that way.

 

 

 

Wi-Tribe WiMax Outlet

What’s in it For Me?

Right now it looks Wi-Tribe is the cheapest kid on the WiMax block in addition to being the new one. What’s more, it’s not offering the moon to the consumers contrary to the other WiMax players. Its unique USP is that in addition to positioning itself as the cheapest, it is offering 7 days money-back guarantee to back up its claim of being a reliable connection. It’s not asking even for the security deposit which both Wateen and Infinity are demanding.

Wi-Tribe: Is it THE WiMax we’ve been waiting for?

Another differentiation, however minor it may be, is that Mobilink Infinity and Warid Wateen are forcing you (there’s no other way to put it) to make use of their voice capabilities. Although it includes a number of free minutes, you have to pay the line rent for that whether you like it or not.

According to Fahad, Wi-Tribe is not offering the voice facility currently, and when it will, it wouldn’t make it mandatory on the consumer to buy it. Remains to be seen.

Wi-tribe office space

 

 

 

 

 

Wi-Tribe: Inside the Office

The Verdict?

Wi-Tribe is all set to rock the WiMax boat, offering great speeds at the lowest possible price and then backing the claim with money-back guarantee.

The only thing left to seal Wi-Tribe as the undisputed champion of the wireless world is go ahead and take it for a spin.

A friend of mine did try to take it for a spin. He called their number and verbally applied for the connection. Their tech guy who happened to be sitting in Islamabad informed my friend that his area didn’t have proper coverage of Wi-Tribe as yet, and since Wi-Tribe signals weren’t strong enough in his area, the techie guy refrained from offering the normal service, saying this would result in a poor connection that would reflect badly on the image of the company. He in turn offered the solution of installing an external antenna which would require a Rs. 2,500 security deposit. Furthermore, my friend would have to buy the 1Mbps package. He refused this solution and instead went for Mobilink Infinity which would have cost him almost the same but since it has been in the market for some time now, its performance is proven and verified by the consumers.

Unfortunate for Wi-Tribe to lose a customer like that to Infinity. Still, it has got all the time in the world to dominate this market, which remains largely untapped.

So Wi-Tribe has taken over the position of the lowest-cost wireless service provider. What other USP is left for a new competitor or even one of the existing ones to use?

Unlimited download solution at less than Rs.1000 a month. That is something which any WiMax player worth its weight in gold should be looking forward to exploit. Let the game begin……

 

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