Top TV - Epic fail or just a poor start?

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bigkahuna

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After ranting and raving to my friends about this new Pay TV provider I feel somewhat disappointed
by their offerings and general business model.

You would have thought that in SA with only one Pay TV provider, it would have been easy
for ODM to do a proper competitor analysis.

Top TV call centre
-Epic FAIL! From their analysis they should have taken the proper measures to ensure
they have a stable call centre up and running.

Top TV Walk-in Customer care shops
-Where are they???! You would have thought they would have at least have one of these
available in the country where you can do the following:
-Purchase decoder
-Arrange installation
-Offer local support

Consumer testing
This is where you give a few hundred people exclusive access to the ODM service and record
the consumers feedback and then proceed to do the appropriate actions to satisfy your consumers BEFORE launching your product.


Content
In the media world, content is king! but your not going to be king with k@k like Sarel see-monster
and wielie walie! LMAO

So, what's your opinion?
 
One tends to forget that MultiChoice had years to corner the market in South Africa, even more so on content we get here. TopTV won't get me to budge from DStv Premium anytime soon. With what they offer, they make the R600 I pay for DStv + HD a bargain.

My guess it that TopTV aims at the lower-income segment of the market with their product, looking at the channels on offer. Some of their channels are free with European providers, like Sky.
 
lcbxx said:
One tends to forget that MultiChoice had years to corner the market in South Africa, even more so on content we get here.
Click to expand...

Sad but true, it will be several years before most of the exclusive arrangments are up for bidding and even then it won't be easy matching the incredibly deep pockets that multichoice has.
 
bigkahuna said:
Consumer testing
This is where you give a few hundred people exclusive access to the ODM service and record
the consumers feedback and then proceed to do the appropriate actions to satisfy your consumers BEFORE launching your product.
Click to expand...


It seems consumer testing is something that isn't done anymore. ODM is following in Neotel's footsteps with regards to launching their product. Just as Neofail has failed massively to provide a decent internet service to consumers, so shall ODM...until 2 years down the line they realise what a *** job their doing because so many people are canceling.
 
With regards to the call-centre, try to remember that the 50,000 stock units were meant to be the supply for the entire month. They didn't expect the demand to be high enough to sell out entirely within a few hours. As a result, they grossly underestimated the kind of call-centre they'd require. As such, staffing is short, the line infrastructure cannot accommodate and they're already falling drastically behind. I can assure you that they're going to be looking into this aspect as soon as they can. (It is, after all, for their own benefit.)

I agree that they should have walk-in customer care shops but remember that Multichoice also started out with a single head-office and slowly started rolling out more across the country as they grew.
It's a new company and as such, don't have the finances to allow for massive expansion and rollout. As their revenues pick up, so will their service offerings.

Consumer testing is always nice to have but realistically, it's not always feasible. Multichoice did consumer testing with their DSTV-Mobile but never did any testing when they first entered the market with M-Net.

The content is not bad for a low-budget service, to be honest. Granted, they're airing a few archived shows but some of their content is still relatively new.
You need to remember that DSTV have first AND second broadcasting rights for most of the shows they currently air. As a result, it's not possible for Top-TV to compete as yet.
However, as time goes on, they won't be able to get that kind of advantage, especially with Fox shows.
For now, TopTV is not trying to directly compete with DSTV. They're an entry-level service-provider, focusing on the lower income consumer. This too will change as time goes on.

You'll notice that there was almost NO advertising for TopTV.
Multichoice obviously won't advertise for their competitor and seeing as how they have a strong relationship with SABC (being one of Multichoice's content providers, especially for sport), they obviously had an agreement that SABC weren't allowed to air TopTV ads either. The only channel that has been advertising is E-TV, which is independently owned.
Multichoice were trying to slow the rollout, yet it seems that despite the lack of advertising, TopTV is doing phenomenally anyway.
 
I love TopTV, stick it to the DSTV fat cats. And well done for selling 50 000 units within a few hours wow!!!
 
The TopTV dishes are not available yet... So why did they sell the decoders, if they knew the installers would not be able to supply the dishes. Now the end user has to pay the installer extra to get an unsubsidised dish.
 
I was going to right a reply like Kheiron's, but why duplicate the effort..

I'll just descend into being obnoxious instead : EPIC FAIL on bigkahuna's part for not paying attention to the news stories, and common sense.
 
Le^stat said:
Fail in my opinion.... Go BIG or go HOME!
Click to expand...
Said like somebody who's never had a billion Rand invested in something that may or may not work and as such would rather err on the side of caution as opposed to blind optimism.
Granted, their optimism would have been justified but there are some risks you simply DON'T take unnecessarily.
They've realised that they underestimated the market and they're doing what they can to rectify it as fast as possible.
 
...... selling a mere 50 000 units in a matter of 3 hours............ if thats an "epic fail", I would hate to be the guy/girl who has to satisfy bigkahuna.
 
I actually can't believe that we already have threads like this two days after their launch, with one of those days being a public holiday and the other a Sunday. We have seriously created a nation of moaners who feel a sense of entitlement!

Kheiron said:
With regards to the call-centre, try to remember that the 50,000 stock units were meant to be the supply for the entire month. They didn't expect the demand to be high enough to sell out entirely within a few hours. As a result, they grossly underestimated the kind of call-centre they'd require. As such, staffing is short, the line infrastructure cannot accommodate and they're already falling drastically behind. I can assure you that they're going to be looking into this aspect as soon as they can. (It is, after all, for their own benefit.)
Click to expand...

Just to elaborate on what you have correctly said. The call centre apparently consisted of a staff compliment of 30. They were responsible for dealing with all calls as well as getting around to responding to emails. It has been stated that the call centre was receiving around 1000 calls per hour. That is 33 calls per call centre agent per hour. More than a call every two minutes. Non stop! Then on top of this you had people calling, holding for ten minutes and then leaving messages.

These would also need to be responded to. Of course from experience I know that you would also have had those individuals who called and when they did get through they'd keep the agent on the line for 30 minutes while they asked about the schedule for each and every channel!

I say cut them some slack. They are clearly on the right track is the up take of their product was anything to go by. All new systems have teething problems, and no one can plan for all eventualities.
 
I am fully behind TOP TV, It has been years we have waited , Finally a broad casting Solution
 
LancelotSA said:
I actually can't believe that we already have threads like this two days after their launch, with one of those days being a public holiday and the other a Sunday. We have seriously created a nation of moaners who feel a sense of entitlement!



Just to elaborate on what you have correctly said. The call centre apparently consisted of a staff compliment of 30. They were responsible for dealing with all calls as well as getting around to responding to emails. It has been stated that the call centre was receiving around 1000 calls per hour. That is 33 calls per call centre agent per hour. More than a call every two minutes. Non stop! Then on top of this you had people calling, holding for ten minutes and then leaving messages.

These would also need to be responded to. Of course from experience I know that you would also have had those individuals who called and when they did get through they'd keep the agent on the line for 30 minutes while they asked about the schedule for each and every channel!

I say cut them some slack. They are clearly on the right track is the up take of their product was anything to go by. All new systems have teething problems, and no one can plan for all eventualities.
Click to expand...

Well said. Where did you get the number "30" from?
 
LancelotSA said:
I actually can't believe that we already have threads like this two days after their launch, with one of those days being a public holiday and the other a Sunday. We have seriously created a nation of moaners who feel a sense of entitlement!

Just to elaborate on what you have correctly said. The call centre apparently consisted of a staff compliment of 30. They were responsible for dealing with all calls as well as getting around to responding to emails. It has been stated that the call centre was receiving around 1000 calls per hour. That is 33 calls per call centre agent per hour. More than a call every two minutes. Non stop! Then on top of this you had people calling, holding for ten minutes and then leaving messages.

These would also need to be responded to. Of course from experience I know that you would also have had those individuals who called and when they did get through they'd keep the agent on the line for 30 minutes while they asked about the schedule for each and every channel!

I say cut them some slack. They are clearly on the right track is the up take of their product was anything to go by. All new systems have teething problems, and no one can plan for all eventualities.
Click to expand...
Thanks Lancelot. I have to agree with you, especially on the point that some people cause further delays by asking a million questions.
Although I am not one of these, I am guilty of being in the habit of simply trying to make conversation. I tend to get operators talking about their home-life, their pets, their sex lives and an abundance of other irrelevant topics JUST because I like to pry. :P
 
Sheesh... give them a chance guys? Do you WANT them to fail? Do you WANT to go back to having only one provider? No... OK, then cut them some slack.

Or you try and do a better job.
 
We have been waiting for years for a competitor to DSTV, I dont mind waiting a couple of days for my installation. I can understand some people being frustrated but look at it this way, this overwhelming response means they will be able to add more channels quicker than they initially estimated.
 
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