Telecom companies lure Ahmedabad customers with ‘cheap’ schemes

Hitesh Dholakia, a professional from Rajkot, unhappy with his service provider had decided to switch to Vodafone from Airtel using the newly introduced mobile portability feature. 

He sent text messages to 1900 requesting mobile portability and as a result he received a call from Airtel’s customer care. After listening to Dholakia’s problems, the company offered him cheap schemes for two months - with 10 paisa Airtel to Airtel calls — and cashed in on an opportunity to extend his stay with the company.

After witnessing major reshuffling of consumers, telecom companies have started opting for smoother ways of tackling consumer problems. Now they provide value-added services and also convince the customers to continue with the same company and not switch to other service providers.

Earlier, consumers used to complain of companies not giving them a unique porting code thus preventing them from switching to other companies. Now service providers have started providing personalised services to retain customers. 

Take Dhara Vijapur’s case. A teacher in Gandhidham, she was fed up with the high rates in Vodafone and wanted to switch to some other service provider. But when she sent the request, a customer care employee called her up.

“They offered me 10 paise per minute scheme in V2V scheme for six months without any top up recharge. It is good that they called me up and understood what my problem was.  I have been using the same provider since many years, but this was for the first time that I received a call from them regarding a matter,” said Vijapur.

Telecom operators feel that consumers want to switch companies primarily for two reasons — poor network and higher tariffs.

“It is mainly because of communication problems that customers choose to switch. When we receive requests from customers, we approach them. Every company likes to retain their customers. So we try and understand their problems and provide them solutions. In this way, Idea Cellular has succeeded in retaining a good number of clients,” said spokesperson for Idea Cellular in Ahmedabad.

Spokesperson of Tata Docomo, Nipun Sharma said they too have begun putting in efforts to retain their customers by counselling and educating them about different schemes of the company.

“Many a times, consumers are not aware of the economical and cheap schemes and various features available to them. So we try to explain things to them but never offer any special schemes in order to retain them with the company,” he said.