Are Papi’s pillars crumbling?
Six months down the line things appear to have stayed the same at Telkom, so MyADSL decided it was time to find out what Papi had to say about his so-called ‘new’ approach.
Molotsane made a name for himself as the man who had mapped out Telkom’s future in terms of five major strategies or ‘pillars’ as he called them.
His vision for the incumbent was to introduce a more customer centric approach, retain revenue whilst still generating growth, evolving the network through prudent cost management, engaging employees and finally building a positive relationship with stakeholders.
Molotsane made it clear that the cornerstone of his strategy is a more customer centric approach, making Telkom ‘a delight’ to deal with.
A quick six month review of exactly what has happened to Papi’s pillars reveals that at least three of the five pillars appear to be crumbling or have major cracks in them.
In a recent website poll on MyADSL the majority of voters described Telkom’s attitude towards customers as the same or worse after Papi Molotsane took over from Sizwe Nxasana.
Molotsane’s response as to how he was going to change the perception of ADSL users was as follows.
"Customer centricity is key to the new Company vision and strategy. The Company will focus on delighting our customers through excellent service and making them feel that the service is adding value to their business,” he said.
“In turn, our customer can only be delighted if our employees are delighted. We will ensure that our employees are properly skilled and make sure that they are fairly compensated for their work. Focusing on employees is also in line with the Company’s vision,” he continued.
It is all very delightful to hear this type of rhetoric from the incumbent but what exactly does it mean in terms of tangible developments towards a more consumer centric approach?
Telkom and Molotsane declined comment on this particular question.
Pillar number one, a more customer centric approach, at the very best looks rocky in light of Molotsane’s very bland comments.
Of particular concern to ADSL customers are the long installation times, the frequent ADSL outages and delayed fault resolution times.
One wonders if this is part of the ‘evolving the network through prudent cost management’ pillar plan.
When Telkom was quizzed on this issue Lulu Letlape, executive for corporate communications at Telkom said, “Telkom is currently exploring the viability of the self-install option. This will allow the customer to install their own ADSL connection and will relieve the backlog in ADSL installation.”
It is not entirely clear how the exploration of the ADSL self-install option will result in less network failures or faster fault resolution times. It will however make it easier for the telecoms monopoly to sign up more customers, putting additional pressure on its already overloaded support staff.
It seems as if both Telkom’s customers and their employees are in the same boat, which brings us to the third crumbling pillar, employee satisfaction.
A quick glance at the trade union landscape will reveal that in terms of employee satisfaction not all is well at Telkom. With trade unions having to join forces to deal with the monopoly to ensure that their members get a fair deal, it is unclear as to what Telkom is doing to create happier employees.
But all is not lost as Telkom’s Letlape assures us that “The needs of all stakeholders are equally important to the Company.”
This response is somewhat less than satisfactory when considering the empirical evidence that is available.
While consumers continue to pay exorbitant telecoms rates and are struggling with service and support from Telkom, the monopoly is showing tremendous profits which makes any shareholder smile.
Is the reason for this unbalanced situation the fact that Molotsane’s bonuses are based on company profits and not on customer satisfaction rates?
Telkom’s new CEO has been very quiet this year regarding all the promises he made when he first took the helm at Telkom. This begs the question whether his enthusiasm was dampened by the mammoth task of changing Telkom’s way of doing business.
To back up promises with concrete action has never been easy, and unless Molotsane starts to pay attention to what customers have come to expect of him he might just see the pillars on which he based his strategy crumbling in front of his eyes.
But at least that revenue pillar is still firmly grounded as Telkom continue to satisfy shareholders needs.
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