Matthew Willsher is the acting chief executive officer of Etisalat Nigeria. He recently took over the responsibility of managing the business from Steve Evan, and seeks to build on the success of his predecessor. Willsher, in this interview with BEN UZOR JR, talked about the newly launched GEM by the telecommunications company, which looks to boost customers’ confidence and other industry related issues. Excerpts
What does GEM offer your customer on roaming?
They can roam for free when they are overseas, particularly at the top destinations, six top destinations for roamers. UK, US, South Africa, UAE and obviously Saudi Arabia has a seasonal orientation, particularly around Hajj. Netherlands would probably surprise you; I think it is due to the flight patterns as some of the airlines fly into Amsterdam, that means quite a lot of people go through Schiphol. So that is why it is a top destination for us. If you’ve got a 5,000-naira balance on your top-up when you’re in these destinations, the inbound calls that you receive are free, rather than charging you for these inbound calls. So that helps people keep in touch, feel more comfortable and having their phones on rather than switching off and worrying so much about roaming charges.
You are offering free medical checkup abroad as well as VIP ticket to watch FC Barcelona’s matches live at the Nou Camp for subscribers. How do these work? In which country is the medical check-up tenable?
It is tenable in Germany. We noticed that medical tourism is becoming increasingly popular among Nigerians so we decided that we should go the extra mile and give value to people who spend on the Etisalat network by offering the opportunity of free medical check-up when they are in Germany.
Yes, we have a relationship with FC Barcelona. We are the official telecommunications partner of FC Barcelona. We also get seats in the Nou Camp and so for our highest spending customers, if they are in Barcelona, we are going to let them have access to VIP seats, as well. That is another asset that we’ve got and part of the strengths of being with a company like Etisalat. In fact, this is an arrangement with FC Barcelona that extends to the whole of the Etisalat Group. And if you spend thirty to fifty thousand naira, you also get access to seats in Barcelona, we make sure you are invited to events, you also get a MiFi and free data 500MB for 12 months.
For the free medical check-up and Barcelona benefits, how do you get to inform the High Value customers?
When people are overseas, often SMS is a good way to communicate with them. Because with time zone differences, people’s kind of work and sleeping patterns, from my experience it is often good to SMS rather than call them. The plan is to contact them and let them know about the opportunities beforehand. So that is why we are publicising, so then they can say, ‘Oh, I am going to Barcelona, let me see if there is a match; let me see if I can get a ticket.’ They phone our customer service and we organise it for them.
Also for High Value customers, we will be organising shopping vouchers. Again, this is an opportunity that we got by working with other big brands. We can provide discounted vouchers.
What extra mile are you going for your customers on their birthdays?
This is an offer to everyone who spends over ten thousand naira monthly on the network, some free calls and texts on their birthdays. We just think that we should recognise a day that is important for them and we are the kind of company that cares for customers and the things that happen in their lives. 10 minutes of free calls and 50 free texts to say ‘happy birthday’.
Again, this, of course, is dependent on the amount that you are spending, if you are in the spend-bracket of ten thousand naira and above, you get free calls while you are roaming. Actually, it is any customer who has a balance of about five thousand naira who gets these benefits. If you are spending in this level consistently, you get not just roaming benefits but also free calls and free data dongle that fits into your laptop. You also get free 500MB for six months.
In which other areas would Etisalat be going the extra mile?
We will also be rolling out, in a few months, the identity cards as well. You can imagine you get a little card, like with an airline or something, just to symbolise that you are recognised. And I think over time, we would be using those cards so that people can access events, as well. It’s the start of the program. And then of course, there will be a richer array of benefits for highest spending customers. We will also be here offering Smartphone’s, as well. To say exactly which Smartphone is quite difficult as this would start for people who spend over 12 months, so we don’t know exactly which smart phones would be in the market then and that would be much more tailored to the individual.
How did you arrive at the codename ‘GEM?’
We called it GEM. We had gone through a lot of names here. GEM is like a stone like a ruby or sapphire or diamond. Also GEM resonates with us because of the idea of Going the Extra Mile, GEM. It just kind of symbolizes what we stand for. I feel also it is important internally to continue to reinforce how we should be thinking about our customers. It is not just about doing the normal; it is about trying to do the extraordinary with customers. This idea of going the extra mile also resonates with the team internally, to kind of say do not just treat them as another number; really customers matter to us. The GEM program also links with the array of awards that would be associated with it, so you can execute it quite nicely.
The company has been going for five years. And in the scheme of global telecoms, when you look at the success of Etisalat in Nigeria, it is truly phenomenal to come in as the fourth player, five years after the other players were here and establish yourself in such a significant way on the landscape.
We are now at 14 per cent share, we have got 16 million customers, and it is a truly remarkable success. And getting there, I do not take credit for this but this is thanks to the team that has been here the whole 5 years.
They have really built a culture that is very focused on customers from the start. The brand has a reputation of being the best at customer service, best retail experience and we have the strongest customer satisfaction. So, the company is really being built on a success with customers and that success is tremendous. And so, as I look forward to the next 5 or 10 years, it is so important that we continue to take steps to reinforce that, both internally and externally.
Our success really started out in the youth market, because we kind of a bit like the outsider coming in late. The youth market was the fastest-growing market at the time and the most underdeveloped at the time, so the team made the right choice in targeting the youth market. It has been a huge part of the heritage. Things like Nigerian Idol and other sponsorships make sense. Now we have grown to 16 million, so we have to look at where we can extend our reach. In which other segments can we be competitive? And given our strong customer focus, there are a couple of other areas in which Etisalat can be successful. I think in the business market, corporate and with small medium businesses, we have a real opportunity. There has not been frankly too much choice for these customers in the past. Our approach is to be truly responsive to customer needs, knowing that customer needs either change or can be difficult, particularly the corporate customer who need network running in their offices. We respond and get those kinds of things fixed, so business market is important.
Then the higher-spending consumer market, that is why this GEM program for me kind of symbolizes a move to not just be strong with youths but also be stronger with customers who spend more. We know, from our analytics, that there are a lot of customers who are already in our base spend money.
But because of the multi-SIMing going on in the market space, they do not spend all their naira with us; they split it on all their different operators. So, they need reasons to know why they would spend more with us versus spending it with other operators. Of course, great data service, great network and great customer service are some of the reasons that put us, I think, a little bit more top of mind for them in saying that Etisalat should be your choice and should be your main choice. So, going forward, our kind of positioning as an operator who gives great value is very important. Great value is not just about great pricing; it is about quality that matches the price that we are asking. We are very well positioned in offering great value, as our customer tell us. We need to make that real for customers in these new segments. So, it is not just about the program, it is about our future as a company in terms of moving growth forward.
Why are you unfolding GEM at this time?
Business is fast moving these days, and so, almost everything you do is very quickly followed or copied. So, whilst you see that as innovative what we are doing with the GEM program, in a competitive market, people are going to copy this thing. At its core, it is just about saying that we appreciate customers and we are going to continue doing the right things for customers which is service marketing, part of what we need to do. Building awareness of a specific program, offering shopping vouchers, health checks, and VIP tickets in Barcelona and so on, is not really going to be so important. The fact that customers see us overall as the most customer-focused company is important.
So what happens to customers who exceed fifty thousand naira monthly?
For customers’ right at the top end, there will dongles, MiFi and Smartphone’s. Exactly which Smartphone would be dependent on how much they spend and what the latest handsets are. We will have to also tailor it to the individual.
By: BEN UZOR JR
