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Telkom marks big improvement in independent survey of service

Telkom has marked significant improvement in service levels of key business units this year, as measured by the annual independent Orange Index survey of consumer experience.

Manelisa Mavuso, managing director of consumer services and retail at Telkom, says the improved scores for customer service are important markers of the company’s progress. “We are busy with very powerful thrusts across Telkom to improve customer service, so the results of the Orange Index survey are encouraging.

“However, our latest service ratings not only show that we have made progress, but also that we have much further still to go. Our goal is to make fundamental changes that ensure our service is the best, and the customer ratings will then take care of themselves,” says Mavuso.

In the highly competitive sector for internet service providers, Telkom Internet’s overall ranking improved from 84th position in 2012 to 58th position in 2013 with an index score of 47.78% versus the 39.94% in 2012.

In the mobile category, Telkom Mobile was in 12th position overall, improving from 46th position in 2012. Telkom Mobile’s index score increased from 50.76% to 61.15% in 2013. MTN (62.30%) was the winner in the Mobile category with Vodacom (61.73%) in second place and Telkom Mobile (61.15%) in 3rd place. There was only a 1.15% difference between the winner and Telkom Mobile.

“It is heartening that Telkom Mobile performed better on the aspects relating to the customer interaction, but we still need to improve on the meaningfulness of engagements with the customer by building stronger relationships. This will require an even greater focus on developing empathy and trust among customers, corporate social responsibility and first call resolution. We must continue to focus on the positive elements to close the gap on the industry leaders even further and to ensure that positive growth is maintained,” says Farhad Essop, Executive: Telkom Mobile Customer Services.

Telkom Fixed line’s index score improved from 26.7% in 2012 to 50.06% in 2013.  Telkom Fixed line’s ranking improved from 105th position last year to 48th position in 2013.

The Orange Index survey conducted by Ask Afrika has been benchmarking service levels in South Africa since 2001. The customer service of companies across different industries is compared by making use of an index score. This year, 109 navbar-brands across 22 industries were analysed along a typical value chain to ascertain the drivers of service in each industry. A total of 9 620 customers were interviewed between February and July 2013 and are demographically representative of the South African population.

Overall service levels across navbar-brands increased in 2013 with a 4% reduction in dissatisfaction across the board.

The overall Telkom Mobile service level rating showed continued growth, closing in on established competitors that have been in the market for 20 years.

The Orange Index results also showed that Telkom Mobile remains the industry leader with respect to the store experience and is also now the industry best performer with respect to channels (Retail partner), value chain (Account statement, returned a product, signing up) and interaction (Contact centre, the store and self service).

“We want consumers to know that Telkom has already made big changes and more can be expected. The goal is to transform the company so that it excels in all the dimensions that are important to business and retail customers,” says Mavuso.

“Service is a major part of this drive, but we have also a number of other initiatives underway that will deliver products that will improve the lives of our customers.”

For further enquiries, please contact:

Telkom Park, The Apex 92 Oak Avenue Technopark Highveld Centurion

As of 30 September 2015, we had approximately 3.3 million telephone access lines in service and 1,030,441 ports connected via MSAN access. We offer business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:

• fixed-line retail voice services using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of subscription based value-added voice services and calling plans;
• fixed-line customer premises equipment rental and sales services both voice and data needs and these include PABX, Computers, Routers, Modems, Telephone handsets and other ancillary equipment;
• interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;
• fixed-line data services, including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and internet access and related information technology services;
• Data Centre Operations includes e-commerce, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;
• W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;
• mobile communication services, including voice services, data services and handset sales through our mobile navbar-brand called Telkom Mobile;
•  information and communication services including cloud services, infrastructure services, workspace services, global service integration management and hardware and network equipment sales locally, in seven African countries, the UK and Dubai through Business Connexion Group; and
• other services including directory services, through Trudon (Pty) Ltd, wireless data services, through Swiftnet (Pty) Ltd.

Convergence is one of our key strategic initiatives in building a sustainable future for Telkom.  We will lead the provision of converged services in South Africa in support of our mission statement: Seamlessly connecting people to a better life.