DHAKA: Norway’s Telenor (In Bangladesh known as Grameen Phone) will implement its India retail strategy in Thailand and Bangladesh which had helped the company double customer revenue and lower churn in the country, a senior executive said.

“The average revenue per user (Arpu) has doubled to Rs 200 (in India),” Rajeev Sethi, chief marketing officer of Telenor’s India unit, Uninor, told ET.

He also said, “The churn rate has come down to one-third of our overall average of 5.1%.”

Uninor implemented a retail strategy where customer relation executives stationed in retail stores close to a base station (BTS) or tower called Uninor subscribers within a radius of 3-5 kms, and asked about any service issues or information requirement about their mobile connection.

These customers could call the executives back for getting solutions to any problems they faced on the network or inquire about any tariff plans, a service not offered by any other mobile phone operator to pre-paid customers.

The strategy saw a rise in footfalls “which translated into 30-40% more earning for the franchisee,” while calls from these customers to the call centre fell sharply, Sethi said.

“In India, customer care and customer-centric initiatives are restricted to post-paid customers even when pre-paid subscribers make up 96% of the 900 million subscriber base,” he said. Uninor is the only company which serves only pre-paid customers.

The results are significant given the fickle nature of pre-paid customers who use multiple SIM cards, from different operators, to save costs and get more benefits. Further, the churn rate is much lower than the industry average of 5-6%.

Source: economictimes
BDST: 0800 HRS, SEP 03, 2013
SR/Jck