Two years down the line sinceĀ Bharti Airtel acquired Zain and Re-branded it to Airtel and the company is still struggling to find its footing in Kenya. In that periodĀ they have tried everything to gain significant following in Kenya but things are simply not working. Airtel fought hard for Number Portability when it came, nobody cared…Airtel reduced its prices to the bare minimum but Kenyans stuck with Safaricom which most of them consider expensive ..Airtel parted ways with Rene Meza to get a new person to be in charge but that too hasĀ not worked so far..
Now there is a new CEO in Town.Ā Last week Airtel announced the appointment of Shivan Bhargava as Managing Director for its Kenyan operation. Shivan was earlier the Chief Operating Officer and in his new role he will be responsible for leading Airtelās growth plans in Kenya.
Announcing the appointment, Mr.Ā Jayant Khosla, CEO (Airtel Africa Anglophone Region), said: āKenya has always been a key market with great potential for growth within the region. Our leadership and management team in Kenya is made up of exceptionally talented, experienced, passionate and committed individuals. Shivanās experience and qualifications will add value to the team and Airtelās future plans to deliver innovative and best-in-class mobile services. I wish him success in his new assignment.ā
Please let us all welcome Mr. Shivan to the hot seat. Unfortunately he comes in at a time when Airtel is gaining subscribers at a lower rate than the other network operators in Kenya
According to the latest stats by Communication Commission of Kenya ,by the end of the Quarter 2 of 2011/12 i.e. the period from 1st October to 31st December 2011, the four mobile operators experienced gains in subscriptions. In particular, Safaricom Ltd recorded the highest gains with 741,560 new subscriptions from 593,177 recorded in the previous period. Essar Telecom (yuMobile) followed with 600,285 new subscriptions up from 46,742 recorded during the previous period. Orange gained 144,208 new subscriptions from 16,686 from the previous period while Airtel Networks Ltd had 100,778 new subscriptions from 557,567 in the previous period.
So why is Airtel strategy not working? From where I sit, there are a number of reasons:
1. Crappy Customers Service. You can promise Kenyans the whole world, you can give them the cheapest rate possible but if crappy customer service then forget about them flocking to your network. Safaricom realized that andĀ now most people are happy with how they handle the customers. The same can’t be said of Airtel….
2. Lousy Social Media strategy: Social Media has become the central point where the young Kenyans express their views, satisfaction and disgust at everything under the sun. That include bashing companies like Airtel which simply don’t care about the Social Media. Yes I know Airtel has Facebook page and may be twitter account but that is not enough. Social media requires more than just creating an account and once in a while passing by to praise your product or service. Again they need to learn from Safaricom or Batakenya.
3. Ignoring Locals for the top positions. This a controversial topic to talk about, but the reality is , Kenyans understand their country better than any foreigner will.Ā But if you must bring someone from somewhere to run the company then he or she should not be an elitist that does not want to mingle and learn from Kenyans. Sorry we have to bring Safaricom here again..but look at Mr. Bob Collymore. He came, found a way to connect with people and settled in perfectly.Ā He once went to Dandora riding on a matatu to visit his clients accompanied by his rap fellow Juliani…that is learning
4. Not Getting involved with local initiatives: Apart from the BillBoards, I simply can’t feel Airtel presence on the ground..
5. Top down Approach as opposed to Bottom Up. Airtel has never found a way to get their customers to be their advocates. And yes, this is connected to the first point, customers do not feel cared for..
Note
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This is a really good article, Kach. I do hope they get their act together cos this is their last bet.
@Kach,as a person who is mad about tech, I expected you to point to the fact that Kencell/Celtel/Zain/Airtel/etc have largely not been innovative technologically. It took them years to launch their 3G (3.75G?) connection after Safaricom had done it. They depend too much on voice while communication is shifting to data/internet. Safaricom has tried to create new markets while Airtel have remained fixed on the old market. The other thing is that Safaricom sells its products as a package i.e one stop shop while Airtel appears to sell its products seperately. I once tried to move to Airtel to take advantage of the low calling rates but I got frustrated by their poor internet…..and then airtime shops are so few. In addition, Airtel and Telkom/Orange have got it all wrong when it comes to market niche. They simply havent defined their market, like, say Safaricom and Yu. Anyone amazed by the growth of Yu? Am not. Their strategy is clear – target the low income group/students and grow with them. Airtel just reminds me of Uchumi before they went down. They simply didnt have a strategy.
Ā Thanks, Sheila, good to see you here…
Ā @33447f98a246a6f51fd7ee80619a4e40:disqus Now if had said everything, you would have not got a point to present eloquently like you have done hehehe… Just Kidding, but you are right. Thanks for bringing out the technology issue so well. I gave up on Airtel because of the 3G thing, even now they are still lagging behind in terms of 3G coverage. I know they have cheaper prices but their 3G network does no cover many places in Nairobi
Makes alot of sense bwana Kachwanya!nice one..
This is a great piece. I have never understood Airtel. I don’t see them. I dont hear about them. I only hear Safaricom Center and the great twitter guy. Oh my. Ask him anything, anything and in less than five minutes, you are sorted. Even Bob Collimore answers questions.
Safaricom will continue to roll amazing services and they shall grip the market. I still use safcom modem coz you can count on it anywhere in the country. I have Orange modem which is forever on 3G and yet an 500 meters to the base station.
Kach, I need you to investigate this. An engineer I talked with at length last week said that it’s possible to hit 21mps leave aloneĀ 42 mbps Safaricom is floating.
This piece was written to lick the ass of Safaricom which is sponsoring the fake blog awards or something. Safaricom is far from being perfect. It just does not have competition and the mistake is neither Airtel’s, Yu’s or Orange’s. Look at the competition field. Look at MJ’s relationship with the powers that be and how Safaricom still get direct access to state house whenever they have a market issue.
Let us be real and write well informed blog posts. There are issues which you can’t understand when you roam about town looking for handouts.
I hear that Airtel kenya refused to sponsor BAKE blog awards hence the stupid article
There are many blog posts here pointing the flaws of Safaricom, I wish you had read them and commented with the same vigor.. But what i can see, you have a problem with awards..but it has nothing to do with this blog or this post. The other great thing is that you have the freedom to do the so called the informed blog post, actually you can do it here. Send it to me and I will publish it.
That a side, in your argument about the relationship between Government and Safaricom, do you mean that the Government tells people to stick with Safaricom instead of moving to the cheaper options? If it is about relationship with the Government then why is Orange not gaining, Government own more share on Orange than Safaricom..why are they not using the same trick?? Ok, let me just say that, your statement does not make sense at all…
I agree with your sentiments. In addition to the points raised above, Airtel ignored the use of Swahili in their advert and products for a long time untill just the other day. Walk outside any shop selling airtime and see “Safaricom: Bamba hapa” and “Airtel: Top up here. Product names also, M-Pesa vs Airtel money, Sambaza vs Me2U etc.
On point number 3. I once did brief work for Airtel on consultancy basis and for sure many senior positions are held by foreigners unlike Safaricom, their contribution and participation in matters local is wanting and they do not understand this market, they underestimate and under rate it.
Niko Diaspora, my line is disconnected trying to get thru to CC via email..zero response…calling to get to an agent…10+min on hold was enough for me. Pull u r socks up Aritel?@!$*