This article first appeared on www.innovation-village.com
There was a TelOne event this week that was for the launch of the mobile app as well as the new look website. It was a well attended do where TelOne CEO also took the chance the chance to share TelOne’s recent successes and progress, of note of course being the growth of Telpay as a payment solution in the Zimbabwe cash strapped society.
Initially, when TelOne re-branded last year I was skeptical, worried that it would be a case of putting lipstick on the pig while it really just remained a pig. I have had to eat my words, TelOne has been growing by leaps and bounds, fighting for their place in the ISP and telecoms space. I won’t lie, I am in awe of Chipo Mutasa, the CEO is the epitome of what leadership can do in changing and shaping the direction of a company and can play a big part in the success or failure of a business. She is leading TelOne into a very good space.
Telpay, with reported transactions of 4 million dollars in its +1 year of trading is looking good and that is admirable. Due to the great practicality and usability it has while offering TelOne consumers (who have always had to do things the hard way) and easier way to do things it has proved to be a generally reliable service and that always equals growth. TelOne said that Telpay was handling 800,000 worth of transactions monthly and they have forecast a doubling of this figure in the coming months. We will be watching.
I took a look at the TelOne customer experience mobile app and this is what I think:
UI
The User Interface has an absolutely clean uncluttered look. Typical of work from C2 Media, easy to use. Nothing confusing and everything right there available for the user to see.
Functions
Recharge | Payment. This bit allows you to pay your TelOne Bills as well as get tokens for the different packages that are available from TelOne
Products | Promotions. Interested in getting a TelOne package? Well this section will provide exhaustive information on all available products. You can also learn about the current promotions (though I didn’t see any current ones) from here.
Surveys. This feature shows TelOne’s determination to be on a path of continuous improvement. Giving customers a platform to share their surfing experience so that they (hopefully) use that information to see what they are doing right and where they need to fix. I like this feature.
Directory. I won’t lie, I have always wanted to have access to a TelOne digital directory so this for me came as a wonderful surprise. I mean I’m sure they had something like it working already, but I love apps. This is one of the nice features because it is very difficult to get landline numbers for business places nowadays thank you TelOne!
*GlitchReport* While the search option works perfectly I have noticed that if your search query is one of those surnames with a lot of results (surnames like Moyo, Dube, Sibanda) the app fails. For the rest though it works perfectly.
WIFI Zones. This is one of the nicest features on the app, a map featuring the locations of all the Wi-Fi Zones near you. The TelOne hotspot zones became quite a hit and its no wonder they made this available in the app. I like how they integrated it into this app instead of creative a separate app altogether like Econet did.
Social Media | News. This is a great way to never skip a beat in terms of news and updates that are TelOne based. I mean of course you may like their page on social media and follow them on twitter but that never guarantees you actually seeing updates. I was particularly impressed by how the Social Media feature was showcasing all (Not just TelOne’s) tweets with the hashtag #TeloneExperience. That shows that they aren’t all about hounding you with their news. TelOne wants you to know what other people are saying about them.
What’s Missing
TelOne was fairly exhaustive with the functionality of this app. The weird thing is , maybe because TelOne isn’t my Internet Service Provider I thought the biggest function on the app would be allowing you purchase ZETDC tokens in the app. I know that the electricity tokens are not a core part of TelOne’s business but I’m sure as a percentage, electricity tokens contribute quite a bit in the aforementioned 800,000 monthly revenues. I would have personally thought the key to that 100% growth TelOne Spoke of would be the ability to purchase Electricity Tokens.
Business brilliance or blunder?:
Overal, the #TelOneExperience is a great thing. The launch was worth it. It makes you expect good things from TelOne from now going forward. No Pressure. Good one TelOne, lets keep getting better.
#kaizenYOU
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