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Safaricom Sustainability Report 2016
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INNOVATION
As a technology-based company, if we are not constantly innovating, we are, effectively, stagnating and losing ground.
Many of our customers are quick to embrace new developments, becoming ever more sophisticated and demanding, and
each generation expects to accomplish more. If we do not keep up with customer sophistication, we run the risk of losing
market share and revenue.
We use several sets of indicators to assist us to manage this multi-dimensional material matter, including our Net Promoter
Score (NPS) and Brand Consideration scores, which track how well our innovations are meeting the needs of different
customer segments.
As a result, innovation is central to achieving our strategic objectives, retaining our competitive edge and ensuring that we
continue to grow. Innovation allows us to transform the lives of all types of customers, nonetheless, by developing tailored
and transformational products and services to meet all kinds of needs.
Innovation being driven by customers
Our new strategy has had a profound impact on the way we innovate and develop new products and services for
consumer and enterprise users. The process starts with specific customer needs and wants, based on insights and ideas
that are delivered to us from the segmentation team. Samples of customers also participate throughout the development
and testing of every product. The loop is then closed with customer feedback through channels like our NPS and Brand
Consideration mechanisms.
As a result, many of the campaigns implemented this year were not entirely new propositions, but attempts to ‘close the
gaps’ and solve the inadequacies in our existing offerings that were identified by customers.
One of our most popular campaigns, for example, was the ‘Never miss a moment’ campaign that was launched in July
2015. The campaign was a direct response to customer dissatisfaction with our existing data bundles. Customers were
frustrated that the 30-day validity on data bundles could not be extended and so this campaign introduced 90-day valid
bundles and enabled customers to roll over and extend this validity as well.
The campaign was an instant success and data customers grew by 960,000 within eight weeks of the launch.
100
75
50
25
0
-25
-50
-75
-100
NET PROMOTER SCORE
*
Consumer (overall)
FY16
FY15
FY14
46
53
66
* Assessment of customer satisfaction. Research performed by TNS.
As the preceding table shows, our NPS score for consumer customer satisfaction improved from 53 in FY15 to 66 for the
period under review. Much of this improvement can be attributed to our shift from an all-out growth strategy to focusing
on the frustrations and challenges being experienced by existing customers. We no longer measure our Brand Equity and
migrated to a new Brand Consideration metric during the year. Although no comparative data is available yet, our score for
FY16 was 82%, which we consider satisfactory. A more in-depth assessment of our performance will be included in our FY17
report next year.