Smart Customer Care Action in Indonesia

　　　　　　　　　　　  ZTE helped P.T. Smart to build a stable and rapidly growing CDMA network

Customer Evaluation:

SMART CFO B T LIM, “SMART CARE will enable Smart Telecom to link the business driver and meet customer priorities quickly.”

Indonesia is a country with the most islands in the world. It is nicknamed as “country with thousands of islands”. It is considered to be a comparatively active economic system among the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). In Indonesia, the mobile telecommunication is growing rapidly and the mobile penetration is very high. It is estimated that Indonesia will become the fourth largest mobile telecommunication market in Asia during 2009.

P.T. Smart is Indonesian 1900M CDMA network operator subsidiary of Sinar Mentari Gemilang (SMG), one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia. In 2006, P.T. Smart selected ZTE as its partner to build the CDMA network. In November 2007, P.T. Smart launched commercial CDMA network service in Semarang and Yogyakarta. In the following one year, P.T. Smart deployed the CDMA network in other 15 cities. In November 2008, P.T. Smart completed network upgrade and launched formal commercial EV-DO network. During the rapid growth of P.T. Smart, ZTE provided this company with high-quality CDMA network construction and it is committed to improve its comprehensive strength and market competitiveness.

Improving Strength to Improve Competitiveness

Before the presence of P.T. Smart in Indonesian telecom market, there had been five GSM operators and five CDMA operators. The market competition was very fierce. In 2006, P.T. Smart entered Indonesian telecommunication market with the launch of its CDMA network. To win recognition and trust in a short time and to make a breakthrough in market share among the competition, improving its market competitiveness is crucial.

After having a good understanding of P.T. Smart and finding the key factor that may affect the market competitiveness of P.T. Smart, ZTE carried out a series of action plans:

♦　　  Improving user experience by optimizing the network

♦　　　  Establishing reasonable market strategies and providing more attractive service and tariff schemes

♦　　　　 Using all kinds of promotion means to build the telecom brand of P.T. Smart

♦　　　　 Establishing employees’ training certification system to reserve and promote talents

Customer Care Action Addressed Key Issues

In June 2008, ZTE and P.T. Smart set up a “Smart Customer Care” team and carried out a series of actions according to the key issued faced by P.T. Smart.

Network polling

To improve the network quality, this team planned and organized an all-round network polling, addressing network problems, optimizing and promoting network quality. After network polling, the call drop rate was reduced to below 0.34%, the hard handover success rate was increased to over 90%, and the soft handoff success rate was increased to over 99.4%. As a result, the network communication quality was greatly improved. The improvement of the network quality through network polling not only consolidated P.T. Smart’s confidence in market, but also laid a foundation for large-scale commercial number allocation and quickly opening the market in future.

Full-service market strategy

To make the customer enjoy more attractive and differentiated services, ZTE not only built an integrated CDMA network providing 1X voice service, 1X data service, EV-DO high-speed broadband service and value-added service, but also helped P.T. Smart to customize proper market strategies covering voice and data services by using its rich experience in CDMA operation on the basis of Indonesian telecom market.

Brand marketing

To quickly build the brand of P.T. Smart in the telecom field, ZTE committed more than 2 million RMB to all kinds of promotion means such as television, Internet, broadcast and plane media. By virtue of its awareness and influence, ZTE built the joint brand of “ZTE-Smart” and succeeded in making the brand image. The “Smart Customer Care” team made full use of all large-scale activities for brand packaging and brand communication to quickly increase the awareness of P.T. Smart in Indonesian telecom market. For example, they elaborately planned CDMA number allocation ceremonies in Bali and Venten.

Figure 1 CDMA Number Allocation Ceremonies in Bali and Venten

Sales promotion of terminals

To promote the rapid development of subscribers, the “Smart Customer care” team offered the maximum advantage of ZTE’s role as the fifth largest handset vendor in the world and obtained the care allowance of USD 3 per handset for P.T. Smart. A huge attraction among the local users was felt when the two million handsets close to Indonesian market demand were put into market. The market was immediately opened and the original market pattern was broken in a short time.

Employees’ training

To improve the comprehensive technical strength of P.T. Smart and improve the technical level of employees, ZTE and P. T. Smart executed further cooperation. By establishing a complete customer training certification system including primary, medium and high-level trainings, ZTE trained and provided a large number of excellent experts.

User Base Increase by Strength Improvement

Through the joint efforts of ZTE and P.T. Smart, the Smart Customer Care plans were carried out with high quality. The short-long plan can rapidly see the market feedback; the long-term plan can serve the cooperation in a long run. The Smart Customer care action improved the strength of P.T. Smart, enhanced its confidence, and created a very high user growth rate. In June 2008, the number of online users per day was not greater than 300,000. In December 2008, the number of online users per day was increased to 930,000.

A number of P.T. Smart employees will attend ZTE’s training courses for technical improvement on daily basis. The perfect customer training certification system tailors proper courses for the employees at different levels and different positions. While improving the technical skills of employees, ZTE helps P.T. Smart to witness a huge improvement in the comprehensive strength and helps it to be a winner. ZTE’s customer care action has made great achievement. Through continuous efforts, ZTE fulfilled its early promise for P.T. Smart.