PTCL surveys lost customers

Telecom giant will also text message customers to remind them to pay bills.

KARACHI: Representatives of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) are calling up those customers who have discontinued service from Pakistan’s largest telecommunications provider and asking the reasons and what it would take for them to reconnect with the company.

Officials said that this was due to an incentive scheme that PTCL’s human resources department had introduced that involves paying workers for any customers that they bring in. This scheme was introduced in December and will be reviewed in January.

Analysts believe that this may be an attempt to stay competitive within the telecommunications industry which is becoming increasingly saturated.

In addition, PTCL has also introduced a free reminder service for its landline and wireless postpaid customers who will be sent text messages from the 10th to 17th of every month informing them about their total bill amount and the due date.

Analysts said that this boded well for the company, in which the government has a 74 per cent share and UAE-based Etisalat owns the rest. Industry observers are uncertain if the alert service will have the intended effect, but reserved further comments until after statistics are available.

The Pakistan Telecomm-unication Authority (PTA) had earlier, in its annual report, pointed out some issues with the company’s customer service and the data indicated that the company – a significant market power and the sole operator to have coverage across the country – lost two per cent of its telephony market share to its rivals.

Customers can subscribe to this reminder service free of charge by calling a PTCL helpline and registering their active cell number in their profile. They will be then sent alerts on the number that they update. They will also have the added advantage of being allowed to deposit their bills at any PTCL One Stop shop by showing the SMS that has been sent by the PTCL.

Explaining why the service was needed, PTCL Senior Executive Vice President Commercial, Naveed Saeed said that in this contemporary era schedules have become so hectic that people tend to forget or delay things of prime importance.

Aasif Inam, the Executive Vice President for Consumer Services, said that the bill alert service has been especially designed for PTCL customers who are unable to receive their bills on time or forget to pay them due to some reason.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2010.