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Mobile consumers select savings over loyalty

Paula Gilbert
By Paula Gilbert, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 21 Apr 2016
MTN and Vodacom remain dominant in the mobile market, with over 80% of Tariffic users looking for contract options from the two big networks.
MTN and Vodacom remain dominant in the mobile market, with over 80% of Tariffic users looking for contract options from the two big networks.

Most consumers are more interested in getting a good deal than staying loyal to a particular mobile operator. This is according to new statistics from cellphone bill-optimisation company, Tariffic.

The company's cellphone bill comparison Web site for consumers launched last month. Results from the first 7 000 users show 53% of consumers searched for deals across all four of SA's mobile networks rather than picking just one operator, or excluding certain telcos from the search.

The statistics show people seem to have the strongest feelings about Vodacom - either strongly for or against. When consumers selected which networks to include or exclude from their results, 17% were only interested in Vodacom, while 21% didn't want to see results from Vodacom at all.

"The relatively high price of Vodacom contracts may be one of the reasons Vodacom has a reasonably high exclude percentage," according to Tariffic.

The results for the other mobile operators were less polarised. When looking at MTN, 8% of Tariffic users only wanted to see MTN contracts, while 12% were not interested in the operator at all. Meanwhile, only 3% of South Africans were interested in Cell C only, while 9% were not interested at all.

"This may indicate the Cell C branding campaign has a long way to go in building consumer loyalty," says Tariffic.

Results for Telkom Mobile were even lower, with only 2% of users interested in Telkom-only deals, and 8% didn't want to ever see a Telkom Mobile result in their deal offers.

"Although Telkom is the newbie on the block, this indicates they are yet to find a place in the hearts and minds of SA."

Tariffic says the stats show the total market still largely belongs to Vodacom and MTN. Of all users, 82% were happy to view contracts from the two big networks combined, while only 9% specifically didn't want a contract from either or both.

Tarrific recently moved into the consumer market but its principal business is still aimed at corporate clients.

"We find most companies are interested in staying with their current networks, or in moving to one of the two big players, namely Vodacom and MTN, with Vodacom taking the majority of interest," according to Tariffic CEO Antony Seeff.

Tariffic mobile operator search results
Tariffic mobile operator search results
Search results per operator
Search results per operator

Below expectations

Meanwhile, South Africans are not generally satisfied with mobile operators as wireless Internet service providers. This is according to new findings from the South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi).

Over 1 400 customers of Telkom, Vodacom, Cell C and MTN gave wireless Internet providers (excluding any voice services) an overall satisfaction score of 68.2 out of 100.

SAcsi founder Adr`e Schreuder says a score of lower than 70 out of 100 generally indicates poor customer satisfaction.

"Even as Internet usage grows, customers are frustrated with unreliable service and slow broadband Internet speeds. They resent not being able to modify products once they've made their purchases. Customers have high expectations and we see that when brands do not live up to those expectations, customer satisfaction drops," he explains.

While average customer satisfaction scores in the sector increased slightly from last year's score, as a whole, the industry is among the five lowest industries measured across 21 different sectors.

Telkom and Vodacom both took leadership positions, with scores of 69.7 and 69.4 out of 100 respectively. Cell C scored 66.8 out of 100 and MTN scored below par for the second year running at 66.3 out of 100.

However, one area in which wireless Internet providers performed well is value for money ? with Telkom customers giving it the highest score for perceived value, followed closely by Cell C. Vodacom's perceived value score is on par with the industry average and MTN recorded the lowest value score this year.

"This means Telkom and Cell C customers are happy with the quality of service they receive relative to the price they pay. We see that companies with the highest customer satisfaction are generally those that find the right balance between quality and value," says Schreuder.

Telkom and Vodacom lead the loyalty rankings, while MTN customers say they are less likely to purchase more products from MTN.

"While the survey results do not specify a reason for this, it may be related to price increases implemented by MTN over the past year," suggests Schreuder.

All the mobile providers experienced high levels of complaints, with 36% of customers surveyed reporting they had experienced a problem with their provider in the preceding six months. The complaints incidence in the wireless Internet industry is also one of the highest among all the industries measured in the SAcsi.

"Complaints handling was rated at 50.9%, pointing to room for improvement by providers in the area of better addressing customer complaints. Specific complaints centred on the networks: data, speed, coverage and quality," says SAcsi.

SAcsi measures the customer's cumulative satisfaction in terms of overall satisfaction, expectations versus actual experiences and comparison to the ideal wireless provider. The data was collected between November 2015 and January 2016.

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