Director for Consumer Business Unit at Telecel Ghana, David Umoh, disclosed this to journalists at the press and public launch of the Telecel Brand in Ghana.

He noted that in launching Telecel in Ghana, the company was also looking at how they could enhance some of the existing support platforms and make them serve customers better, and one of those platforms is the Chatbot, ToBi.

Before Telecel took over Vodafone Ghana, the telco had a customer service Chatbot called ToBi, to which it practically ceded all customer complaints, even ones that involved illiterate customers who had no understanding of the workings of a Chatbot.

ToBi was placed behind almost all customer service channels like social media platforms, customer service short codes and phone lines among others; and even though ToBi had a major flaw of hanging up on customers who it could help, Vodafone used to take pride in the efficiency of ToBi, spiting customer complaints about ToBi. On the contrary, Vodafone was notorious for ignoring repeated and numerous customer complaints and worrying feedback on social media.

David Umoh said the feedback about ToBi has been taken in good faith and the whole chatbot is being redesigned to ensure that its capability to deal with issues is enhanced significantly.

” And the name of the new Chatbot will no longer be ToBi, it is going to be Terry,” he revealed.

He said “I cannot guarantee that everything is going to be perfect with the Chatbot at a go but I can guarantee you that we are taking very concrete and solid steps to help our customers and make them see us as solutions partner of choice, rather than just an operator.”

Beyond revamping the existing artificial intelligence (AI) tool, he said Telecel also intends to us to AI in terms of how they get close to customers, how they get customers to use their services, and how they can identify the peculiarities of customers and use those peculiarities to tailor-make products and services for the various categories of customers.

Network improvements 

David Umoh also stated that as part of the commitment Telecel is bringing to the market is an enhanced and wider coverage characterized by improved network availability and stability across the country.

That journey, he said, has already started and in a few months the impact will be felt across the country.

According to him, Telecel has already invested heavily in mounting 500 more 4G cell sites and also increased retail stores from 30 to 150 in just one year, with plans to double the number before the end of next year.

“It is an aggressive plan to get close to our customers and ensure that they can find Telecel retail shops in their neighborhoods where they conveniently go and be served. And we also want to use the retail shop spread to create jobs in the various communities,” he said.

Digital and Financial Inclusion 

According to him, the other thing Telecel is taking very seriously is the services and offerings available to customers.

“Our services and offerings will be very, very engaging and innovative. It will not be just the usual voice and data but a lot more on digital, because we believe digital is the platform on which everyone will get into the global village,” he said.

He said Telecel has intertwined Digital and Financial Inclusion offerings, such that whenever it is taking any products to the market, they will be thinking of it in terms of both digital and financial inclusion.

” It is a real, real exciting future with Telecel and I want to guarantee everyone in Ghana that Telecel is here to solve your problems. Our brand promise is ‘Connecting Energies’, which simply means we are putting up a platform for our customers to connect to their passions, aspirations and ambitions; and to connect to their dreams.

” In real terms, it means that we are now moving into how we can empower big businesses, SMEs, startups and young entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams. We do have specific solutions to assist all these categories of people and organizations,” he said.

David Umoh said Telecel intends to bring more people onto the network through affordability and innovation, and so the company will not be increasing prices any time soon.