By Prince Osuagwu & Nnamdi Ojiego

Since Zain became Airtel in November 2010, the new company has introduced many customer related promotions and innovations. At the heart of these campaigns is perhaps it belief that the only way to grow customer base is to entrench the company in the heart of the customers.

Some of its offers that have become household names among mobile subscribers include 2Good Xtra, which reduces calls to 20k/sec to all networks in Nigeria; The Airtel Big Family plan which is available to all Airtel numbers at just 15k/sec; the 2SIM offer, which offers 10k/sec between paired SIMs all day; 1k/sec between paired SIMs from 12am – 4.30 am and 120 free SMS/month between paired SIMs.

So it was not surprising when Airtel gathered ICT industry stakeholders at the Lagos Sheraton Hotels and Towers Ikeja last week to introduce another offer tagged My Airtel, My Offer, MAMO.

The new offer according to Airtel was meant to hand customers the unique power to determine what they get, how they get it, and what they pay for the services coming from the company. That sounds rather unbelievable, but that was the promise of the MAMO offer.

What this means is that when customers call a dedicated number 141, they will receive comprehensive information about the full range of products and services that are available on the Airtel network in order to choose what suits their spending power.

Perhaps that was why the company’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Mr Deepak Srivastava, told the mammoth crowd that gathered to behold the new offer, that “My Airtel My Offer is a segmented offer that is uniquely designed based on a clear understanding of customers’ usage behaviour and preference. It will give customers access to latest and value enhancing offers that suits their specific needs.”

For him, MAMO is one in a long list of innovations that Airtel has rolled out in recent times as part of the company’s relentless efforts to ensure telecommunications freedom to Nigerian subscribers.

The offer is said to have been designed to deliver flexible and unique offers for every customer’s changing needs in a unique platform for all customers to choose and personalize their offers.

According to Srivastava, the innovations of Airtel have proved stronger and more radical in ensuring value for money for subscribers than seemed likely a year ago. He noted that with the aid of technology and systems, the new offer was developed with a unique ability to suggest the right product/offer to each customer within Airtel’s network.

“With My Airtel My Offer, Airtel customers can select the best available product and service from tariff packages to recharge denominations and options, value-added services, validity periods, promotional offers, and· other services. The aim of this service is to let customers know more about various offers that suit their requirements without being disturbed by unnecessary SMS’s.”

However, to take complete advantage of this service, customers only need to dial 141, a toll free number, from their mobile phones to know the offer of the day and interact with the IVR in their local language.

The new offer responds to the different needs of the subscriber, with clear and easy to understand message, as it personalizes the requirements of the subscriber and gives instant fulfilment.

In addition, Airtel customers can also dial 141 to know more regarding the offer of the day. Airtel has launched My Airtel My Offer only on the IVR platform as of now, but could be available via SMS and USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) soon.