Promos, Lotteries Killing Innovations in Telecoms Industry

Telecommunications companies have been urged to use their mass market approach to reward customers’ loyalty, rather than promos and lotteries, Nigeria Communicationsweek can report

Wumi Oghoetuoma, chief executive of crown Interactive Limited, said he was excited with the ban of promos and lotteries, noting that these stifle innovations among the telcos.

“I am excited about it. I thought the telecommunications companies were becoming lottery companies and that they were taking advantage of consumers. It also means that they were taking their eyes off innovation.” He added.

Telcos all over the world, he said, invest in innovations “but our telcos here mainly do promos and those type of promos drive addiction.”

“The promos and lotteries were impacting on quality of service and those who should be making calls because they needed to make calls or use a service they needed could not, because they were using it for lottery purposes”.

As a result of this, he said, money that should be used to provide for the family was being spent on lotteries. People who needed to make calls or use essential services could not because the lines are jammed.

Citing examples of loyalty and reward schemes that telcos can be involved in, Oghoetuoma said they  

“What kind of innovations can telcos do? What about a fuel subsidy framework which involves telcos partnering with petrol stations that if you use X amount on your phone, you get X point of petrol. How about the telcos partnering with transport companies like BRT that if you use X amount on your phone, you get rewarded on your fare.” He stated

Telcos can reward their customers with free access to contents, he said.

“Telcos should look more into cross country rewards, cross industry collaborations with which I think they can reach the customers and also benefit a wider range of people. If you look at the whole transport subsidy proposition that we are talking about in technology and cross industry rewards, if you are looking at transport, you are either driving a car or you are using petrol, or you are getting on a bus.”

“With their mass market approach can actually reward customers with a transport subsidy product which rewards customers with fuel, that rewards customers with transport points because petrol stations are now looking at loyalty schemes.” The Crown Interactive boss added.