How can Vodacom improve?

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Be able to bolt on data specials onto voice contracts.
 
Vodacom needs to have customers care consultants instores because currently the stores only do sales.082111 always contradicts themselves.Improve coverage in the rural and coastal areas.Simplyfy tarrifs and deals.
 
"How can Vodacom improve?"

There was a time when I benched marked everyone else to VC standards.
I was proud of "MY VODACOM " A true South African successes story. "YEBO GOGGO"

Then VC made the bulls wear RED and they lost the game. Sorry Unforgivable!
 
Strip away the bullschit veneered as “unsustainable”. Be frank with your “informed” clients on myBB, and call a spade a frikken spade.

A lick of paint does not morph your suddenly into something “fresh”, rather, innovate with your own fresh ideas and offerings instead of reacting to your competitors in a flimsy haphazard and rushed manner.

Kill that frenzied OOB shark once and for all, make OOB reasonable.

Lower data costs to generate higher volumes = win/win for you and the consumer.

Take careful cognisance that you are eroding the faith amongst the countries tech elite, primarily on this forum, and by your very own inactions are treating them with disdain. This will bite you in the backside with more pain then that frenzied shark; bigger companies have fallen for having your attitude. Most importantly change this attitude and LISTEN to your customers.
 
First of all- coverage. It is the main area where I feel Vodacom can improve. I live in Pretoria North, and I'm lucky to get even decent EDGE signal. Voice is mostly fine, but even that suffers horribly in my flat. I have to go outside sometimes just to hear what other people are saying. No one in a major city should be having any issues with regards to signal quality (I'll leave the comments about urban areas to those people who have experience living/working there)

The pricing on data bundles needs to be restructured. (OP says not to say stupid things like "lower pricing" but as you can clearly see, it is probably the biggest gripe, even if it's not my biggest gripe). I don't have a head for figures but one needs to stay competitive with regards to pricing, that much I'm sure of.

Accessory bundles when purchasing a new product (be it phone or tablet)- one of my main concerns when I upgraded back in April was a lack of protection for my Galaxy Nexus- two unfortunate mishaps now leave the device permanently scarred- Vodacom could have made close to another R1000 off of me just on accessories alone- but I had to revert to other means of obtaining these which sadly is profit they lost out on.

Make contracts more accessible to the man on the street. I know this sounds strange, but let me explain. I had to take my Nexus on a contract on my mothers name (again... FML...) because I had an apparently insufficient credit record. Heck, I own a vehicle hundreds of times more expensive than a cellphone (and did own the vehicle already at that stage), which is registered in my name, that I'm paying off monthly, without ever missing a beat- but I don't qualify for a cellphone contract? I also have a fully paid off student loan to my credit- spanning 3 years of repayments, in which I never missed a single payment, yet that was also disregarded.

Loyalty rewards for long-standing customers. I've been with Vodacom since somewhere before 2000.

For the 1st time this year I've seriously considered jumping ship to a competitor because of the points raised above- the only thing keeping me a Vodacom customer is contract penalty- which is a lousy tactic in my opinion. I believe with superior service (and pricing), no company would ever find a need to resort to tactics like this.

If Vodacom can address the issues raised above- which I am sure they are more than capable of, seeing as they are one of the oldest SPs in the country with plenty more experience in the industry than some of their competition- I'd be happy to stay on for as long as I'm happy. Currently, my happiness is waning...
 
1. Peak and Offpeak. Seriously has to go, it doesn't cost you any more to provide that same amount of airtime. What is offered on contracts is pathetic. One flat rate all day everyday is the way to go. Basically give people what they pay for.
2. Start competing. If smaller companies with a smaller client base can do a better price while maintaining the latest technology on their network (if the advertising is to be believed) then why as South Africa's most established and oldest cellular provider still dragging feet?
3.Fire Shameel.
4. I am on board with some sort of loyalty reward system. As a long time customer of Vodacom (approx 1997 till present day), it feels bad to be unacknowledged.
5. Stop trying to make "specials" and make specials. The best innovation I have seen in years has been the Smart packages of Airtime, Data and SMS which is great for Smartphones. Sadly ripped off from CellC's similar product and done worse due to peak minutes.
 
1. Data product that is actually worth something with no BS 24 month contracts
2. Better call centre reps
3. Drop that stupid OOB rates!
4. THAT R2 A MEG OOB SHARK!
 
show please call me balance. show all balances not account balance only. have a separate number to buy bundles, going thru *111# is a mission. add tariff options & their prices on free sms info 31050 instead of calling infoline. give a choice to join or not join talking points.
 
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With Vodacom Talking points, it would be nice if they were a bit more flexible with regards to talking points. I had a lot of talking points, and I wanted to convert them to Free SMSes, but I by mistake pressed the wrong thing and I got like 300 free MMSes. I called the call centre to try and ask them if they could reverse the transaction and give me SMSes instead but no luck, and now I am stuck with 300 MMSes I don't use. Not flexible at all.
 
1) The option to purchase data without a 24 month contract
2) The option to buy data bundles at data only contract rates which you can bolt onto your normal voice contract - be it for a month of for a year
3) Offer free itemised billing (especially if you receive your bill electronically) and free clip. I still don't see how in this day and age you have to pay to receive you bill. And clip shouldn't even be something that people should ask for let alone be charged for.
4) Completely free on network calls off peak - without having to subscribe for this - should be standard on the contract - if this is too much, a friends and family type setup will still do
5) Equal to prepaid, if not better deals/rates (sms, data, voice) for customers on contracts
6) An app for smartphones - something that you can use to check your balance, free minutes etc. Via the same app you are able to do airtime or bundle purchases (via credit card - or directly to you monthly bill), transfer airtime, update your personal details etc.
7)They should better handle situations if a customer wants to speak to a supervisor or manager - especially if they have the reference numbers to show their query has not been resolved after a standard SLA for resolution expires.
 
Stuff that should change:

  • Increase your coverage and upgrade existing towers. I still struggle to get proper 3G in Bloem.
  • Lower your profit margins on all your data offerings, people will move away as long as your competitors have better prices.
  • I have never received good, honest service in a VodaShop, this needs to change urgently. Prospective customers will not give you a second chance if their first experience was appalling.
  • Make sure that all staff is well-informed of new deals in advance.
  • Always make sure that there is ample stock of newly released and anticipated devices. Customers should not need to drive around to find stock.
  • Be innovative, there was a time when Vodacom really was South Africa's leading cellular network, aim to return to that.

Stuff that you are doing well:

  • I have only encountered great service at VodaCare so far, keep it up.
  • Your warranty service is excellent; I have heard many horror stories from customers at other providers.
 
Really need to stop the new guy speaking in public, he really isn't the best public representative! Although I see he hasn't said much recently!
Need to give contract customers as good if not better specials than prepaid clients!
Get rid of the OOB rates or at least allow your bundle to be capped!
 
allow patch on of contract data bundle prices/specials to a current contract.
fix soft cap
fix oob pricing
fix carry over
 
1. Dramatically simplified product range, each component priced separately.
- flat rate for voice (always per second)
- flat rate for data (same in and out of bundle pricing)
- flat rate for sms
- same price for contract. prepaid or top-up
- pricing drops the more you buy
--over R250 total, price drops 10%
--over R500 total, price drops 20%
--over R1000 total, price drops 30%

2. smartphone data bundles at same price as data card bundles

3. data pricing in line with CellC and 8ta offers (5c per mb)

4. don't hold up software updates for so long. Better yet, get out of the way of them.

5. do something about the terrible call drop rate and the failed to connect call rates.
- 25% of my calls this year got dropped
- compared to 15% last year.
 
1. Make contract data prices available for prepaid users(contract users can never get benefits form a special promotion vodacom has)
2. Easier to understand contracts (no more 75min Vodacom to vodacom + 25 weekends + 10min Between 7 and 10) or what ever, nobody can keep track of this and its just there to confuse customers.
3.How about a real time andriod and ios app that shows data usage (widget style) (that means no more OOB shark)
 
VODACOM

1. OOB rates are killing your customers as well as you reputation. This needs to come down asap and by a big margin.
2. Start listening to your customers.
3. Do something about your customer care centre. They are not trained to handle the difficult questions.
4. You need to change your PR personal with competent people.
5. Get a rep that can sort out problems on MyBroadband or at least answers a PM
6. Get someone to write a speech for the CEO and ask him to stick to the facts. (LTS/4g)
7. Stop giving us promotions that are running for 15 days……
8. You have a lot of prepaid and topup customers……. You need to look at them as well when it comes to specials. They are still paying an arm and a leg for data bundles and voice calls.
 
I would like to see Vodacom leverage on their Vodaphone ties to bring cheaper international services, especially for those of us travelling abroad. While happening in some countries, for my last travels it was still cheaper to simply buy a pay as you go simcard (Europe).
 
Vodacom can improve by doing the following:

1. Identify 3G dead spots especially in urban areas and get these areas covered and if a costomer has issues with coverage and reports it to the customer service centre, look into the problem.
2. Deal with the congestion issues on EDGE and 3G especially during the evening hours.
3. Give their pre-paid subscribers better data bundles.
 
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