Zong and its “Dormant Subscribers Offer”

As I have discussed in my previous articles about the importance of customer retention, better, late than never, Zong has reacted intelligently and launched Dormant Subscribers promo couple of weeks back.

This promo comprises of recharge-based incentives, in which if dormant customer will recharge Rs.100 on its dormant connection since 1st September 2008 will get Rs.100 free minutes and 100 SMS and if subsequently continues to recharge, customer will get 15 free minutes and 15 free SMS.

let me remind all of you, about what I had discussed/predicted in my previous articles that Zong could lose its customer base, if they won’t invest invest in brand management, media promotion management and to revise their BYN service fake bookings. We also cannot ignore certain chances of other reasons like “Weak Customer Services, Network Coverage Areas and no customer loyalty development programmes .

As this promo is proof , that Zong has list of “Dormant” (inactive) subscribers and the chunk they selected is from September 1st , 2008 also shows that Zong has got very good response in start for new acquisitions. However, quickly, customers become inactive and main reasons are what I already discussed many times.

Now, let me point out some area for improvements in the promo designing and its execution:

• Never tell your customers What & Why you want them to follow a promotion? it is the main rule for promos but Zong has selected technical term for its promo called “Dormant Subscribers” and it will not only effect the root- cause but it will also not able to give understanding to most of the customers about promo. It is better if Zong will give promo a name that is more attracting to customers and does not show hidden tactic of promo.
• Subsequent recharge minutes and SMS are less and they need to be increased by 25-30 minutes and 30 SMS or it can be developed in slots of recharges like on Rs.50 recharge get 15 minutes and on Rs. 100 recharge get 30 minutes free and vice versa. Because the existing subsequent offer does not give competitive edge over other extra airtime promos offered by competitors.

Overall, I will commend the Zong efforts for its subscriber base and realization of market dynamics. This also shows that Zong strategy developers are in touch with dynamism of market instantaneously, but they also need to bring focus towards customer service innovations and network coverage, because it is the only key to open future success doors.