Telkom, the beast with two faces

IRATE complainants about Telkom’s service receive a diabolical recorded message if they annoy call centre staff:

“If you did not call Telkom to do business,” the canned voice says, “take the time out to speak to a family member or a friend. You are denying someone else the opportunity to do so [deal with Telkom]. Please remember that these calls are recorded and can be traced.”

No problem resolution. No apology.

Fear not we are told, Telkom CEO Papi Molotsane is on a mission: to delight customers. Speaking on Moneyweb Radio after the release of the company’s results on Monday, Molotsane drove home the point.

He used the phrase “delight our customers” twice in the same answer. Later he even said that he was “delighted to be at the helm” of the company.

This is not the first time, however, that Molotsane has tried to explain his desire to delight customers.

In numerous interviews published by various media outlets in November last year, the use of the word delight was persistent. From: “We’ll have to delight our customers through impeccable service levels”, to: “We’ll have to come with innovative products that will delight our customers”.

His intentions are good, admirable even. Molotsane and his executive management team talk at length about their “five-pronged strategy”.

But, Molotsane also says “our customers can only be delighted if our employees are delighted … Focusing on employees is also in line with the company’s vision.” Herein lies the problem. The message from the man in charge is not filtering through.

Does Molotsane know that some line manager has instituted the outrageous insult to customers described above?

The insult could go to people trying their damnedest to find out why their phone was cut off for a debt of less that 10c – you’re “politely” disconnected and transferred to the recording.

In addition, some Telkom workers have told Moneyweb confidentially that employees were recently made to feel special with a bizarre internal marketing exercise. We have heard that certain “experts” found that employees seem to associate “Telkom blue” with unhappiness.

It seems that lobbies and office blocks are now filled with banners proclaiming boldly that Telkom cares about its employees, that it is employee-centric. The banners, you guessed it, are in Telkom blue – a move that seems to suggest that the experts want to sub-consciously associate the company’s corporate colours with warm and fuzzy feelings. Do you think this would make you feel better?

At the recent public Icasa hearings into ADSL pricing, Team Telkom used ten representatives to argue its case. Customers were there, watching as Telkom defiantly tried to stall the process using an advocate with, by his own admission, very little telecoms knowledge. Those that weren’t there read about these shenanigans and one can only imagine what they thought about our incumbent operator.

Among the arguments we heard for the high prices was that “copper is expensive”. I kid you not. IP resets for “billing reasons” every 24 hours was also absolutely “necessary” Telkom argued – the technology doesn’t exist “to allow us to bill without the reset”. No real explanation was given, in spite of evidence that overseas operators don’t reset users’ connections.

Why did Telkom pursue these seemingly stubborn arguments? It knew it was reducing prices barely two weeks later.

In order to share the company’s profits, employees participate in a scheme called gain sharing. Trade union Solidarity says that workers received between “3,39% and 9,89% of their salaries in the form of gain sharing in 2005”. There are reported rumblings among staff that the current system is unfair. Would fixing this bonus system help improve staff morale?

Admittedly, it is a tall order to preach the gospel of customer service to over 25 000 employees, but surely lower-level managers should realise that every time a consumer is burnt by someone in a call centre, they’ll be less likely to remain a Telkom customer.

But, for all the faults within Telkom, its leader Molotsane is commended for going on record last year admitting these difficulties.

“I think the problem that we have as an organisation is perhaps we’re not reaching out. We’re not talking to our clients. We’re not explaining to them what problems we have in our business … we need to just go and talk to our clients,” he’s said.

He’s hit the nail squarely on the head hasn’t he?

Now with talk of expansion into other African markets (Kenya, Nigeria and the like), we hope that the monopoly with two-faces continues its “drive” to delight us all.

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Speaking of Nigeria, we stand by what we said a fortnight ago. It is easy to make money in Nigeria; however, what we failed to emphasise is that you need to take a few “shortcuts” here and there. There are companies from this country that are making cash in that market, but they may not be doing so legally.

It’s this that iTouch CEO Greg Brophy says is “tarnishing South Africa’s image abroad”. He is “absolutely annoyed” by the actions of players who take shortcuts and run “fly-by-night” Wasp (wireless application service provider) operations. iTouch, he says, plays by the book and there is of course no reason to dispute that. The company has a global presence and contractual partnerships with content providers worldwide.

Brophy says iTouch was “very, very careful” going in to Nigeria. He says the company worked closely with the South African embassy in Lagos to get the necessary advice and guidance management needed. Over and above the trickiness actually launching in Nigeria, Brophy is “very optimistic” about iTouch’s prospects.

The company has spent R4m on platforms up front and has a staff complement of 14 in Nigeria. Brophy intends setting up a formal association of Wasps in that country, similar to the one he helped set up in SA. He says this will protect the industry and the consumer.

With cellphone users in Nigeria set to double from last year’s figure of 18m to 36m in 2007, iTouch is well poised to grow its business there. Beyond Nigeria, he says, management is looking at entering markets in other African countries (iTouch SA also has the rights to Turkey).

This story first appeared in Moneyweb Business in the Citizen