MTN wins highly contested Ask Afrika Orange Index awards

MTN's substantial investment in its network, customer service initiatives and its people training and development was vindicated when it took the number one spots in the Ask Afrika Orange Index survey in the Telecommunication Provider and Internet Service Provider categories.

Ask Afrika Orange is a South African customer satisfaction index that is researched and compiled annually by market research specialist Ask Afrika.

The winners of this year's survey were announced at the Orange Index 2011 conference, which took place at Melrose Arch, in Johannesburg.

Receiving the coveted award, Eddie Moyce, MTN South Africa Customer Services Executive, said the investments MTN has made in enhancing customer experience in the last few years is paying off.

“We are delighted to win this award, which goes to all our frontline and call centre personnel, who have gone out on a limb to provide our valuable customers with the service they deserve. The accolade also goes to our network team, who have ensured that MTN consistently provides its customers with a world-class network. At MTN, we strive to do things right the first time and value feedback from our customers. In cases where things go wrong, we analyse and take corrective action.

“We focus on recruiting the right people, and also invest substantially in ongoing training. We value people who have a 'can do' attitude and spirit, and know no bounds in servicing our customers. We continue to work tirelessly to inculcate a culture of service excellence,” says Moyce.

Moyce, who joined MTN in 2004, pioneered MTN's efforts to set up an internal service ombudsman to escalate customer queries.

This, Moyce explains, is informed by how key the customer is to MTN's business.

This service is offered as a neutral, unbiased, free and fair resource to manage all customers' unresolved complaints.

The dispute resolution process provided by the ombudsman aims to settle disputes quickly, in a fair, objective and non-bureaucratic way, having regard not only to the current laws and to good industry practice, but also to what is fair and reasonable in all circumstances.

“Our customers are at the very heart of our business - we exist because of them. And although this has been a very challenging year for MTN in terms of the current economic climate and the introduction of RICA and the CPA, our customer-facing employees have not let us down.

“The South African consumer is becoming more demanding from a service point of view, and rightly so. We remain committed to serving our customers, and will continue to enhance our value propositions and our processes in an effort to provide service that is world-class. We continue to invest in our service infrastructure, and have substantially increased our store footprint over the past 12 months. MTN has also made and continues to invest in its IT systems as well as its network, in an effort to further enhance its customer experience,” says Moyce.

This is not the first time Ask Afrika has given the thumbs-up to MTN's customer service excellence. In a survey Ask Afrika conducted on MTN's Directory Enquiries, the findings confirmed that Directory Enquiries is still the best performing call centre in the South African telecoms industry in terms of customer delight.

While overall satisfaction scores and delight scores in the market are 84% and 46%, respectively, the survey found that, for MTN, they are 84% for satisfaction and 54% for delight. Delight score is where customers rated service nine or 10 on a 10-point scale (one lowest and 10 highest).

Directory Enquiries scored 93% for satisfaction and 65% for delight. The delight score is the highest since the inception of the industry customer satisfaction index in 2007. Furthermore, 93% of customers stated they would recommend Directory Enquiries as a call centre to family and friends.

“While a survey such as the Orange Index validates and recognises the work we are doing in the area of customer service, we still have some way to go. These awards give us a useful barometer to measure how much we can still improve our service to our customers. MTN has put in place robust performance management linked to a solid reward and recognition strategy that contributes to a high standard of customer service being rendered,” concludes Moyce.

For more media information, please contact: Bridget Bhengu: Senior Manager - PR and Communications, MTN SA, Cell: 083 212 1964 / E-mail: [email protected]