MINISTER of Information Communication Technology Jenfan Muswere has commended TelOne’s efforts in running with the country’s economic turnaround strategy following the official opening of the company’s Highlands, Harare, Client Experience Centre.
Highlands is one of TelOne’s biggest exchanges servicing a total of 20 000 clients.
The modern look centre gives an impression that one has visited one of the international firms from countries such as China and Dubai, by the minister’s admission.
“It is encouraging to see the effort that you continue to put to ensure that you are not left behind in this very fast-paced ICT space…I would like to commend TelOne for the various strides that you are making on different fronts. We believe in you and do not doubt that you will complement this world-class client experience centre with great service to your clients. As a sector, we seem to be lagging in terms of client experience and I am sure you have identified this as an opportunity to leverage your competitiveness,” Muswere said.
“As the shareholder, we have very high expectations for you and I believe that once you fix the client experience issues especially around the quality of service and responsiveness, you will be able to deliver on the five targets that we have given you.”
The minister expects TelOne to secure a 25 percent revenue market share, spearhead the development of 10 new data-centric products and services, reduce overhead expenses and infrastructure expansion and sharing.
“In our pursuit to make ICTs the backbone of the economy, we are driven by the knowledge that data is now the most traded item in the world surpassing most commodities and financial assets. I am aware that TelOne is complementing our efforts as the government in this area as you are chasing several innovations that I believe are more urgent now than ever before if you are to maintain your competitiveness in the market. Of interest is the smart cities project which has emerged as a key priority for the government,” he added.
“I want to urge you to continuously be on the hunt for modern strategies to market TelOne and surpass all your targets. The convenience that you are bringing to clients is one such strategy and I commend you for that.”
TelOne managing director Chipo Mtasa said her company was on a journey to assert the business around client centricity, one of their core values.
“World-class telecommunications companies do not only exude seamless services, but they also offer exceptional client experience. As TelOne repositions itself to an innovative and progressive technology company, it is surely our time to catch up with global standards from digitalisation, our service offerings, ambience and our overall client experience. Our endeavour to achieve this is what brings us together,” Mtasa said.
“Most certainly, without our clients, we cease to exist, hence whatever we do, we do it with the prioritisation of clients in mind. It is this conviction that has seen us taking time to introspect, review feedback from our clients and assess best practices from all over the world in our pursuit to ensure wholesome improvement of our client experience.”
The company’s board chairperson Douglas Zimbango said more is to come.
“This is part of the bigger plan that we are pursuing and are currently seeking funding with a target to deploy 100 000 (FTTH) service lines in the next five years as well as 150 000 LTE lines in the next three years under the National Broadband Phase II project,” said Zimbango.
“It is our conviction that TelOne has positioned itself for the future with a robust backbone infrastructure and the digital and innovation paradigm adopted a few years ago. It is now essential that we continue to consolidate and strengthen the service provisioning leveraging the network to offer more value-added services and explore more around the internet of things.”