The Maxis PR issue and what car companies can learn from it

Yesterday at 8:30pm, Maxis’s official Facebook page admins posted this update:-

You may have read of an exaggerated Maxis save offer in the lowyat.net forum that has been circulating recently when it was first posted on 9 March 2016. We just want to say that this save offer does not exist in the way it was described.

As with any company that has good data on customers, we often design and run targeted campaigns based on factors such as tenure, types of services used, payment history and many more. These targeted campaigns are to ensure that customers get to try out the varied services and plans that Maxis offers.

God knows why Maxis decided to post this status on a Sunday night when no staff is working to monitor it’s effect. 12-hours later, it went viral and not in a good way.

Presumably, the posting is in reference to how one person found out about a friend who wanted to port out of the service and was offered a special package of RM68 with unlimited talk time & SMS with 5GB. This package costs regular Maxis subscribers RM158.

In not so many words, Maxis is saying:-

1. They deny having this “secret plan” saying this promo is only for those who port in their family members (read: new subscribers) or extending a contract (read: subscribers who wants to port out).
2. They want to capture East Malaysia markets (you can read about it in soyacincau’s article) without due consideration of loyal customers who a) Pay full monthly fee b) Pays on time with direct debit and c) Been with the service for a decade or more.

However, with so many (perhaps due to Celcom’s recent move to introduce the 10GB plan at a very attractive price) opting to port over to Celcom and got offered the RM68/month plan, there were just too many people (on Peninsular Malaysia) who knew about the deal and like all good deals, must be shared among family and friends.

Denial was the worse possible thing for Maxis to do, with the customer service team claiming ignorance of such a plan when asked by loyal customers about it, more so when these individuals decided to port out themselves – AND GOT OFFERED THE VERY SAME PLAN THAT THE CS TEAM INITIALLY DENIED!

So they lied (or a more appropriate word would be misrepresented their offerings) and the amount of hate being directed at the company within 24 hours is nothing short of spectacular.

Considering the intensity, whatever Volkswagen had on their social media channels is just an ant bite.

Which brings us to the topic – what on earth has Maxis got anything to do with cars?!

Simple – any company that sells you a product or service has an obligation to fulfill the implied benefits of using that service.

For a telco, the payment is monthly, with no limitation to how long the payment should be so long as you continue to subscribe to their service. And in exchange for this monthly payment, you’d expect value in terms of coverage, strength of signal, data packet, etc.

For a car company, you take a loan or pay cash; either way, it’s a one-time-full-payment to the dealership in exchange for a vehicle.

From then on, the dealership needs to ensure only one thing; service the car, to the best of their ability, within the stipulated time or mileage frame.

Think about it, a telco has got to:-

1. fight with other telcos on a monthly basis to try to lock down subscribers to a 12-month/24-month package so that they get a steady stream of income during that period
2. invest in building new telecommunication infrastructure to ensure their network remains good
3. recruit, train and develop front line staffs (over the counter, tele-sales) to ensure customers are handled properly
4. maintain a team of engineers and technicians to ensure infrastructure is operating optimally (which also involves keeping inventory of parts)

This happens on a daily basis and it’s really a dog-eat-dog world out there.

A service centre?

1. Wait for the customer to make appointment to service their vehicle (failure to do so which resulst warranty being void is not their problem)
2. Ensure that their staffs are adequately trained and the facilities are up to date and in accordance to the Company’s corporate image
3. Ensure that parts are available on a timely fashion and (if applicable) sufficient courtesy cars are available for any repairs that takes a longer time.

Both telcos and service centres should be aiming for one thing; providing a great Ownership Experience.

In the case of the telco, the lifetime of that ownership is one month. For a car, it’s measured in years.

In the case of the telco, exposure to the service is far more frequent in a day and evaluation of a telco’s effectiveness is done every moment you pick up your phone.

In the car – well, you don’t drive it every minute, everyday. Neither does it break down all the time. Therefore, to have greater expectation of “service” where the owner visits the service centre once every, what? 3-months? 6-months? 1-year? to service/fix a product that costs not RM68 but thousands of ringgit per month is quite natural. It’s also easy to disappoint them.Think about it; If the automotive brand can spend millions on Advertising and Promotions annually, why can’t they spend these monies on ensuring there is sufficient parts inventory, better staff training to improve troubleshooting competence and other areas that makes an owner proud to be one.

But the sad truth is many companies prefer to spend good money on finding new customers instead of taking better care of their existing customers. And it’s easy to understand why. If today I have 500,000 subscribers contributing RM1,000,000 per month, money on A&P is best spend recruiting new subscribers. Customer retention is applicable only when they are at the verge of losing that customer which they will then treat like a new recruit since they’re losing them anyway. Nothing unusual about this – think back on the last time you wanted to cancel your credit card or gym membership and see what they offer in return. Other telcos such as Digi and Celcom aren’t saints either since emphasis on new recruits is always higher. Heck, if you’re a performing staff, think on how the company counter-offered you with a salary increments previously not provided during pay revision.

It’s a bit Zen when you think about how the more resources you spend building fans of your product or service, the more you’ll sell your product and services. After all, the best sales people are your customers. If you have a campaign that targets specific groups of customers, the effects would be unsustainable (hangat-hangat tahi ayam) and unscale-able (cannot build on the campaign for greater results). A visit to the service centre is like a visit to the dentist; no one wants to go unless they have to. For those who appreciate a healthy vehicle, servicing is done on the dot. Honestly, how often does that happen? Once in a quarter at most? Don’t ask customers to waste more time than necessary to get their vehicles serviced and repaired. The occasional door gift would help too and there are some manufacturers that offers other perks such as access to airport lounges just by presenting the car key to the reception. Customer satisfaction is old school – today, the focus should be customer delight. To achieve that, take small incremental and consistent steps. Eventually, they will all add up.

Perhaps it’s time telcos wake up to doing things differently; that sales comes from two sources – recruiting new customers and retaining existing customers. Ignore either one of this and you’ll have an imbalanced ratio and earnings will certainly drop. What better way to make a company listen than to threaten its income, right?

But it’s ok, Maxis – at least you don’t have 2014 inventory to sell and destroy the second-hand value of some of your models before you launch a new product.