Smile Nigeria Chief Marketing Officer, Tolu Ladipo, tells Senior Correspondent, GODDIE OFOSE, that the time has come for broadband services to be sold like Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG).
When Smile Telecom Holdings entered the Nigerian market early this year, it came with a promise to provide better broadband experience for data consumers.
Smile Telecom Chairman, Ernest Obiejesi, said “people’s ability to access the full range and benefits of ICT (information communication technology), and to use these to create a better world is one of the defining issues of our age.
“Our digital lives increasingly define who we are, how we live and the opportunities we are able to pass on to our children. The digital revolution holds untold promise, but only if we can ensure that every resident of Nigeria is also a full and equal citizen of our digital world.”
Nigeria is one of the most dynamic markets in the world, he stressed, and mobile broadband will play a crucial role in the transformation and development of the country.
However, in his view, Nigerians are still too often let down by slow and unreliable services, and have been disappointed too many times when operators promise more than they can deliver.
“Smile will not repeat their mistakes, we have the technology, people and partners to ensure that we deliver what we promise and more.”
The company promised to play in the 4G LTE broadband space and immediately began rollouts across the country.
Critical to maturing the Smile brand and their services are deepening rollout and retail penetration, as well as engaging the market and investing in growth.
Smile recently hired Ladipo to facilitate customer engagement, retail products development and penetration and general growth of the brand.
She comes with a rich background in marketing and marketing communication that, many believe, will impact the Smile and its businesses in the immediate term.
A lawyer by education, Ladipo packs years of experience in marketing communication, having worked in A-list institutions, including Vic Lawrence and Associates, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Bank, and Union Bank.
Her experience in the retail business may have counted in her favour as the brand is reported to be set to expand into all major Nigerian cities.
To succeed, and ensure Nigerian data guzzlers have a fair deal, she thinks she has to focus on the critical areas such as:
Highway transmission
Data on the go is one channel through which Smile wants to get into the hearts and minds of consumers. Ladipo’s experience in retail may have told her how easily people forget brands that keep certain distances from customers. So she thinks ensuring a sustained interaction is the way to go.
Nigerians are a striving lot, traversing the length and breadth of the country in search of opportunities, excitement and relationships. Ladipo’s vision is to have Smile services in all major highways in the country to facilitate seamless experiences for customers.
A Smile customer who has to switch to another network while travelling from Lagos to Abuja may not be loyal since he will have to live with the frustration of not dealing with issues in real time or rely on another network.
But for Ladipo, a “Smile” on the highway is one sure way to be with the customer end-to-end. It also creates more opportunities for the brand to make more hay.
SMEs connectivity
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the critical drivers of any economy. They may be scattered unevenly around the country and may not be fat data eaters like big corporations. But the aggregation of these disparate units forms a huge market.
As broadband services expand in Nigeria, Ladipo also knows that winning SMEs is critical to success. And she says she is out to connect these segments of business to the broadband ecosystem. This is a huge opportunity.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there were 17.28 million SMEs in the country in 2012. The number has since grown and whoever solves the data nightmares of these people will certainly “smile”.
Quality experience
Buffering. Glitches. Slow upload. Frustrating downloads. Poor connectivity. This is the experience of Nigerian internet users. Many believe it may never go away because service providers seem determined to deliver network nightmares.
But this is an assignment Ladipo also says she is at Smile to help conquer. “We care about our customers and I am here to drive Smile’s commitment to deepening customer experience. That is the reason I am here.”
Customer feed back
Yes, we are in a country where solving customer complaints can take eternity. Where you get response to complaints within 48 hours, people shout praises.
But Ladipo says Smile will be different under her “marketing” care. “Our response time to complaints is 24 hours. We are committed to that and we will sustain the commitment”
Social investment
Social responsibility ranks high in her agenda. Ladipo says Smile believes in social investment and will continue to do that throughout its business life in the country. One of the planks of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) project she hopes to deepen is free internet access to public schools in all states where Smile operates.
“Already there is a policy which enables free data services for 25 public schools in the states where we roll out services.
“We work with the Ministries of Education in these states to effect this. The only criteria for a school to benefit are: it must be a public school and it must have computers.
“We are doing this because we understand that education is the key plank for national development. So we are encouraging e-libraries and e-learning cultures in many schools across Nigeria.”
More cities
Ladipo says good retail product development and marketing will encourage rollouts in many more cities nationwide. Smile is looking to expand beyond Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt to 13 major cities in the short term.