Airtel Thanks App Now Available in Kannada for Airtel Prepaid Customers

As part of its mission to simplify the customer journey through innovative digital interventions, Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) has announced the launch of Kannada language support on Airtel Thanks app for prepaid customers. The feature is LIVE on Android and will be available on iOS shortly. With increasing smartphone penetration, particularly in smaller towns and villages, customers are looking for vernacular online experience. This new feature on Airtel Thanks app will drive more adoption as well as make the user experience simpler and highly interactive for Airtel customers by removing language barriers. 

Airtel Thanks app allows Airtel smartphone customers to access Digital Self Care - make recharges, bill payments, checking real time data usage/balance details. Customers can also log service related issues through the app in a matter of few clicks. The app also offers access to digital payments and financial services along with preview of Airtel’s digital entertainment library.

Says Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Airtel: “At Airtel, we are obsessed with solving customer problems and making their experience better through digital technologies. As India transforms into a smartphone nation, close to 35% of Airtel Thanks app users now come from Tier 2/3 towns and rural markets. With deep vernacular support, Airtel Thanks app becomes even more relevant and accessible for these customers and enables them to unlock the full potential of Airtel’s exciting digital services.”

Airtel Thanks app has been fully designed and built by the in-house engineering team of Airtel.

Airtel XStream App to "LIVE Stream Rath Yatra 2020" on Smartphones

Airtel mobile and broadband customers can now watch the proceedings on their smartphones and tablets by simply installing the FREE Airtel Xstream app 

As India observes social distancing norms, Airtel is bringing this year’s Rath Yatra to devotees on their smartphones in partnership with Shemaroo.

Airtel Xstream app will be LIVE streaming Rath Yatra 2020 from Puri enabling users to catch the proceedings on their smartphones or tablets, wherever they are. The LIVE stream will be available on an exclusive channel on the home page of the app. Users can also rewind and replay the LIVE stream as per their convenience.

1st July 2020 (8:00AM to 6:00PM) - Bahuda Yatra & Hari Sayana Ekadasi

2nd July 2020 (3:00PM – 11:00PM) - Sunabesa

3rd July 2020 (7:00PM – 10:00PM) - Adharpana Ritual

4th July 2020 (2:00PM – 10:00PM) - Niladri Bije 

Airtel Xstream, an india-first video network for premium digital content, is available to all Airtel customers as a FREE download on Playstore and App store.

The app offers over 10,000 movie and shows from India and across the world along with over 400 TV channels. Airtel Thanks customers can also access premium content from top content producers on Airtel Xstream app.        

Airtel Declares War on Service Failure and Targets Resolution of Every Customer Query

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest integrated telco, is further raising the bar as part of its mission to deliver best-in-class services to customers.

Keeping consumer obsession at the core of its DNA, Airtel today said that it has set itself a target of answering and resolving every single customer query, learn quickly from failures and ensure they don’t get repeated. And the company is taking this message to customers across India through a bold multi-channel marketing campaign [‘watch it here https://youtu.be/Gqe3uJLLV3c].

The current times have put telecom services and reliable connectivity at the core of the daily lives of customers. Be it Work from Home, Virtual Classrooms, Online shopping, or Digital Entertainment, telecom networks have become the backbone for accomplishing most things from within the safety of our homes.

Consumer centricity has always been at the heart of everything that Airtel does, but during these testing times, the brand has realized that a network provider’s responsibility towards its customers has never been greater. Airtel acknowledges that it not only has the responsibility to provide access to high-quality telecom services but also to give answers to all their service related queries by responding and resolving them in a quick and transparent manner.

Says Shashwat Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Airtel, “The relationship between Airtel and its customers has never been more important, and to serve them even better we have decided to take our customer obsession to the next level. We know that "ZERO questions" is an IMPOSSIBLE utopian thought especially for a telecom brand, but that won’t stop us from trying because we know that the closer we get to ZERO, the happier our customers will be. We promise to be humble, learn every time we fail and be relentless in our approach. For us, this is not just a campaign, we are now re-engineering the entire organization towards this goal and are obsessed with building a culture of consumer centricity.”

The company has already taken big strides in this journey and these are some of its key recent initiatives to make sure that customers get the best possible service experience:

Network Technology: In the last three years, Airtel has invested over Rs 70,000 crores in high-speed network rollouts. Airtel has led the introduction of new technologies such as pre-5G Massive MIMO and Carrier Aggregation. The result is Airtel being consistently rated as India’s top mobile network by multiple experts.

More recently, Airtel became the first mobile operator in India to launch Voice over Wi-Fi to solve the indoor coverage issues faced by its customers. Today, millions of happy customers enjoy seamless indoor coverage over Airtel Vo-Wi-Fi.

For its busy postpaid consumers, Airtel’s launched Platinum Network. This gives its premium users priority in both network as well as services across their touch-points, so that network and telecom related issues don’t disrupt their hectic schedules.

Digital Gateways: To help customers recharge during COVID-19 lockdown, Airtel launched ‘Superhero’ - a first of its kind program that allowed Airtel customers to recharge the prepaid accounts of fellow Airtel customers through Airtel Thanks app. For every recharge, the Super-hero makes a 4% retail commission. This helped millions of customers who don’t have access to online recharge options or are not digitally savvy. Over a million Airtel customers are registered as Superheroes.

Culture of Customer Obsession: The Airtel Management Board meets every day in the morning to review customer queries, resolution mechanisms and timelines, and the learnings from customer feedback.           

Airtel’s new campaign will run across TV, Digital and Print to communicate the company’s promise to customers. The campaign has been conceived by Dentsu-Taproot, led by Pallavi Chakravarti and team. To watch the TVC click here https://youtu.be/Gqe3uJLLV3c.

India mobile users to cross 1 billion by 2015

India’s mobile subscriber base should up to 993 million by 2014, according to researcher Gartner, which expects the world’s fastest-growing mobile market to close 2010 with more than 660 million subscribers.

India is the second-largest wireless market in the world after China with its 618 million mobile subscribers at end-May, according to data from the country’s telecoms regulator. Mobile connections were at 525 million at end-2009.

While the regulator’s data also includes fixed wireless subscribers of operators like Reliance Communications and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Gartner forecasts exclude these subscribers, Neha Gupta, a senior research analyst at the research firm, told Reuters.

She estimated India had about 519 million mobile users at end-2009, excluding the fixed wireless subscribers.

More than half of the population in India now have a mobile phone, and Gartner sees the penetration reaching 82% in 2014, it said in a statement.

Sharp fall in call charges and launch of services by new mobile operators have helped the country step up mobile subscriber additions in the past one year, but increasing mobile penetration could lead to some slow down in future growth.

“We were expecting a degrowth in 2009, given the penetration rate, but because of the entry of new operators and decrease in price points, it didn’t happen,” Gupta said.

“We are not expecting that kind of triggers in 2010,” she said.

Gupta estimated Indian operators would add mobile subscribers at a monthly average of 12 million, lower than 15 million seen in 2009.

Gartner estimated mobile service revenue in India to reach $19.8 billion by the end of 2010, up about a fifth from 2009 and reach $23 billion by the end of 2014, it said.

Web 2.0 a hit with handset makers

Cell phone makers are increasingly pre-loading their handsets with social networking applications to woo Internet-savvy consumers.

LG Mobile has tied up with Mobile 2.0 service provider RockeTalk which will upload a social networking application on its phones. Similarly, Samsung Mobile has a tie-up with ShoZu, provider of mobile social media services, which has pre-loaded social networking software on select Samsung phones.

Says Samsung Mobile country head Sanjay Dutt: “Early next year, we plan to launch our own proprietary software for enabling social networking through mobiles. This will be preloaded on most Samsung multimedia phones. The idea is to enable users to stay connected while on the move.”

LG GSM business head Anil Arora: “Social networking is the next thing on mobile phones. In future, we plan to preload more mobile phone models with social networking application without any extra charge.”

The company currently pre-loads the application only on LG KT 610 and KF 750 cell phones.

According to handset marketers, social networking on mobiles is a hightraction feature in the urban market where youths form a big consumer group for handsets. Says Motorola India and South-West Asia senior director (sales) Lloyd Mathias: “Social networking is an important feature, especially in the urban market and can define the purchase decision. Today’s Internet savvy youths seek access to social networking sites on mobile phones.”

Motorola has social networking application pre-loaded on seven of its handset models, including all phones in the Moto Rokr and Moto Ming series.

Some handset makers are eagerly seeking a tie-up in the space. Says Meridian Mobile CEO Rajiv Khanna: “We see potential in this feature and are planning to make even our low-end phones internet-ready. Early next year, we will tie up with a local web 2.0 service provider and upload this feature in our phones at the shop-floor level.”

Service providers are spoilt for choice as manufacturers queue up seeking collaborations for pre-loading phones with social networking applications.

Says RockeTalk marketing director Sameer Agarwal: “Our application makes it easier for mobile users to send voice messages, pictures and videos. Social networking on mobiles is set to grow exponentially as mobile internet penetration increases.”

The US-based service provider claims to be in advanced stages of talks with handset makers--Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Spice Mobile--for pre-loading web 2.0 applications.

Almost 10 million new handsets are sold in India every month, making it one of the biggest markets globally. No wonder, handset marketers like LG and Samsung are quick to adopt novel features to fuel sales.

Source: Agencies