|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Ken Ogujiofor is the Vice President, consumer, sales and services, Etisalat Nigeria. In this interview with Jumoke Akiyode, he reassures Nigerians of Etisalat’s plans to leverage digitisation to drive innovation in the telecoms market and speaks on how the telecommunications company optimises its retail channel to entrench superior customer experience. Excerpt.
Can you please review Etisalat’s business year from 2016 up until now? How did the economic situation in Nigeria affect your operations?
Well, 2016 was actually a challenging year for almost all businesses in Nigeria, so Etisalat will not be an exception. When you look back at 2016, despite the difficulties and the challenges that we all encountered, particularly with respect to financial situations, economic indices and the regulatory environment, Etisalat still delivered on target for expectations in 2016 and achieved milestone successes. It is a mark of efficiency drive which is ongoing in the company. So in terms of business revenue, we still surpassed expectations given the difficult environment in which we operated.
What are the growth areas you have identified for 2017 and what are your goals for the year?
Growth areas for 2017 will still be in the areas of e-commerce, digital input into the marketing environment and touch point expansion; because we want as much as possible to be very close to the customer. So to achieve this, we will launch more franchise outlets and create more touch points to facilitate better and easier access for our consumers. The economic environment is also taking its toll on consumers and their earning power so we will continue to explore options that improve access to our services, add value, and empower our subscribers to do more. You can expect to see an expanded footprint and more digitisation. Data will also drive a lot of growth; when you look at the music industry you’ll see that data has the potential to drive a lot of content, which the customers enjoy. Data is going to grow exponentially compared to what obtains now.
How does your role as Vice President, Consumer Sales and Services help to balance customer experience with Etisalat’s commercial drive?
As Vice President, Consumer Sales and Services, my objective is to align sales with services. You find that the objective of Etisalat as a company is to wow the customer. At Etisalat, customer experience is important and it is one of key drivers of product development. We need to find out what the customer wants and needs even at our product development stage, before we start talking about getting it to the market, drive sales and thereafter, the after sales services. This alignment enables us achieve the same high level of customer experience across all touch points. Whether it is sales or customer care call centre, we want to make sure that the services offered to the customer at the end of the day meets the expectation of the customer primarily before exploring how else we can improve on those expectations. So, that alignment between sales and services is what inspired the creation of a Consumer Sales and Services unit.
Why does Etisalat have channel partners and how have these partners contributed to Etisalat’s business so far?
Etisalat channel partners are those partners that are involved in our distribution platform; by that I mean the end to end distribution of products to the end users. They come in different categories; you have the Distribution Partners, the Value Added Electronic Distributors, the Trade Key Accounts (TKA) and other smaller distributors in the distribution chain. In a nutshell, they are partners that help us take the products to the end users. Our channel partners actually influenced the delivery of about 85 percent to 90 percent of our total business revenue in 2016. Currently we are running with roughly about 50 channel partners in the distribution arm and we have got another 150-180 that are classified as the TKAs. The reason for having such partners is to ensure that the touch point is brought closer to our subscribers so they don’t have to go long distances to access our services.
What do you think can be done to make the sales channel segment of Nigeria’s telecommunication industry more visible so that people can be more aware of the sector’s contribution to the nation’s GDP and its role in providing employment?
To a large extent we will still rely on the media because if you want to talk about visibility, it is the information that the readers or the people that consume news receive from the media that sets the agenda in the society. So I think the media has to pay more attention to what is happening in the sales segment to see how these channels are driving GDP growth in Nigeria. When you look at the distribution chain down to the last man, you will find that both the categorized and uncategorized players probably contribute 18 percent-20 percent of telecom contribution to GDP. I think the media needs to cover that segment more; they need to talk about what is happening in that space and even businesses need to consciously organise and structure the channels that drive distribution and sales. I think that is one major area that the media can support to enhance visibility of the significant contribution of this key segment.
How has digital revolution affected operations in sales and distribution in the telecoms insustry?
The industry has evolved over time and digitization is now driving innovation in the telecoms market and of course, this is impacting positively on sales and how we do business. The distribution chain looks at the multi-channel approach of getting products to the end users; e-commerce is coming into play and those are the things that will further drive growth. Digitization has really influenced growth in sales projection for different companies and there are different things we can talk about. Social media is also fast becoming a different platform for sales; different e-commerce companies are coming up; and now people can actually access products from the confine of their homes these days.
How is Etisalat helping distribution partners address the challenges in marketing and SIM registration faced in 2016?
At the recent Channel Partners’ Conference, some of the partners raised issues with respect to the marketing environment particularly regulatory requirements; such as SIM registration and the current challenges faced by our partners due to the requirement of controlled environment for SIM registration. This poses a big challenge for them in terms of capital investment because these partners now need to specially set up an environment that qualifies as “controlled environment” for them to be able to carry out basic services such as registration of SIM cards and they need support to enable them put this in place to drive activations. We are already working on most of the identified challenges; we are working with them and supporting them to get places that are pre-qualified as controlled environments to enable them do their activation and SIM registration. In addition to that, we regularly assess their financial capabilities and where required, we extend some level of credit to enable them grow their businesses. For us, when we engage with our partners, the main objective is to feel their pulse and provide the necessary support to enable them do their businesses the best way they can.
