Wi-Tribe puts a premium on customer retention

Given that the number of broadband users crossed the 3.35 million mark in 2014 (Source: ProPakistani), broadband vending services are competing aggressively to attract and retain customers. Wi-Tribe, which has approximately five percent share in the broadband market, recently launched three TVCs, with the tagline ‘Experience the internet like never before’, aimed at communicating three distinct features: improved video streaming, seamless internet browsing and enhanced customer service.

According to Imran Mahmud, Director, Account Management, Synergy Advertising (Wi-Tribe’s creative agency), the idea of having three TVCs instead of one was to break the monotony and avoid cramming too many messages into a single communication.

The feel of the TVCs is young and fresh. In one, three young men are attempting to barbecue lunch, while a woman (presumably the wife or friend of one of them) is on a video call telling them what to do. The other two TVCs are also in storytelling rather than purely functional mode and highlight the benefits of faster internet browsing and customer friendly service. To avoid repetition, only one TVC is run during a specific programme.

Fahd Ali, CMO, Wi-Tribe, says there were two reasons behind the launch. Firstly, with the launch of 3G and 4G services, not only has awareness of data services increased among the public, but PTCL (a main competitor) has started advertising aggressively. Secondly, Wi-Tribe has introduced technology advancements, which include compressing videos – whether on a specific site (Vimeo, Dailymotion, etc.) or relayed via services such as Skype. The new technology evaluates a video’s size, the load on the site or service and accordingly changes the compression level (consequently decreasing the size), before serving it to the customer. This results in a noticeable increase in the quality of video streaming and internet browsing. Ali says no other broadband service in Pakistan focuses this heavily on video compression, although he anticipates that others will soon follow.

Customer service, Ali says is an area “that we pride ourselves in,” adding that their customer services team often go out of the way to solve problems that are not only confined to the Wi-Tribe connection, but will also assist in generic internet or computer-related problems of their customers.

“In fact, about 40% of the complaints we receive are related to problems customers have with their own equipment.”

Improved customer service is part of a broader business strategy. According to Ali, the company’s focus is not to increase the subscriber base, but to increase the services they provide to their existing subscribers. He says that until even two years ago, on average two to three people in a household used their internet connection and consumed two to three GB of data. Today at least four to five people in the household use the internet and consumption has increased to 12 to 13GB per household.

For Wi-Tribe, as is the case for other broadband service providers, the challenge is the fickle nature of customers. As there is minimum to no cost involved in trying out a new service and no exit clause which would discourage users from switching services whenever they please, customers often “rotate services; using one service for six months, then another, and then come back to the first one.” The only way to deal with this is to minimise service outages and invest in improved technology and customer services.

The introduction of 3G and 4G services is not a source of concern for Wi-Tribe. In Ali’s opinion, although this introduction has increased overall internet usage, it is not direct competition.

“I don’t see a major decline in our subscribers. People do not use 3G or 4G as their sole internet service because it is very expensive and cannot match a home connection in terms of price.”

Wi-Tribe’s focus is on households which have multiple internet-enabled devices, rather than single user connections that telecom providers focus on. Looking to the future, Ali says that as WOM plays a huge role in making or breaking a brand, Wi-Tribe’s strategy is to invest in customer service rather than on ad spend.

“We have our priorities sorted and the plan is to focus on the quality of the service rather than on bringing in more users whom we may not be able to handle later.”