Customer Experience at Smile Communications

Vital to marketing a product or service is sharing (from a customer's point of view) what is in it for customer when he/she buys a product or service i.e. value for money. Every marketing material should clearly communicate a value proposition that is compiling enough to convert a customer from a prospect to an active customer.

There is however a very thin line between sugar coating your value proposition to attract a sale and when a customer buys your product or service, he/she realizes the actual experience is below standard, it is highly likely your customer will never buy your product/service again and will tell others not to buy as well.

In this experience shared, customer complains that;
As a heavy data user, I prefer to subscribe to an unlimited data plan and currently, I use SMILE. Apart from the fact that I cannot access the App store on my iphone or seamlessly log on to my apple TV through my icloud account when using SMILE, the so-called unlimited plan is not unlimited! At some point of my usage (80GB I am told), my internet barely comes on and then the annoying part is you now get a text message asking you to increase your speed from 2,500 still within your validity period so in essence; I spend N19,800 on a monthly plan and another N2,500 to increase speed after I hit 80GB. Bear in mind that the amount to increase speed could be higher! This is a total rip off! Looking for something cheaper and when I find one, its good bye to SMILE communications  

In investigating this service experience, I visited the company's website and it does read UNLIMITED. This means that if I buy this plan as a heavy data user (referring to customer's persona), I will expect to have uninterrupted access to the internet for the period of my subscription be it weekly, monthly, etc

https://smile.com.ng/product/unlimited/

Marketing communication in itself is a very vital part of a customer's experience. In fact, it is what kicks off your customer's journey i.e. AWARENESS.  Customers start to build an expectation of your brand and of the product/service you are advertising from i.e. what and how you communicate the value of your product/service.

Every business has to make a profit to sustain itself but at the same time businesses have to retain and acquire new customers to make a profit. In this case, if this customer sees another internet service provider that communicates and truly delivers on an unlimited plan, it is highly likely that SMILE Communications will record a high customer churn rate.

Fixing this problem is not complex i.e.

• If indeed there is the 80GB cap on the plan, then it is not unlimited. Consider communicating the real value 
• If SMILE desires to give customers unlimited access, then its up to the company to run the numbers and figure out how much it would cost customers to truly get an unlimited plan. It may cost more than N19,800.00 but its safer for true value of a product or service to be communicated upfront so your customers make an informed decision than over promising and under delivering
• SMILE should consider referring to its customer experience and/or customer facing teams before sending out messages to customers or putting up customer information across all its touch points just to gauge likely reaction from customers. The truth is, the frontline is at the receiving end here (i.e. when cases like this complaint come up and customer calls or visits a shop to complain/rant) so its important to get their perspective on customer communication/education because they interact with customers every time and from my experience, they can predict customer reactions accurately!
• SMILE to design a customer communication process and make sure its adhered to. This is more long term however and will strategically address issues like this at source. This process/policy will provide guidance for anyone in your company that sends out information to customers 

Generally, it is important to pay attention to what you communicate to your customers because if its done right, you get to keep the customers you have acquired and they will tell others to come buy from you. On the other hand if its done wrongly, customers will buy, never return and tell others not to buy from you.
Need help designing a customer communication process for your company? Send an email to talktodebbie6@gmail.com
My 2 cents and please forgive the typos (if any).

Have a good one!