<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV>Safaricom must improve or lose to a better option<BR>By Andrew Odete<BR><BR>Dear Mr Michael Joseph,<BR><BR>I tried calling you for a chat, but the network was down, so I fell<BR>back to the old ink and pen.<BR><BR>It never lets you down, which is more than I can say for the postal<BR>service. That is why I have taken the liberty to write to you through<BR>the media, for which I beg your understanding and forgiveness. It is<BR>not because I am a cheapskate.<BR><BR>Greetings from many readers who have asked me to relay their<BR>heartfelt congratulations to you for dragging Safaricom, biting and<BR>kicking, into the Sh12 billion-profit mark. The readers are also your<BR>subscribers and they have exhorted me to relay their concerns<BR>relating on your service to your doorstep.<BR><BR>You are top in
business<BR><BR>First, your customers appreciate that achieving such an unprecedented<BR>subscription as you have in the proverbial blink of an eye is worthy<BR>of accolades. Many say, and rightly so, that you have come top of the<BR>business stakes in the region for listening to and understanding your<BR>customers.<BR><BR>What is more impressive is that you achieved this in the hitherto<BR>unexplored terrain of mobile telephony in Kenya.<BR><BR>However, your customers hope that this year, the company will outdo<BR>itself and improve on last year's performance. Oh yes, sir, they seem<BR>to believe that there is room for improvement on your part.<BR><BR>Some even reckon that it is pretty easy to be the "Better Option" in<BR>a field where there are not too many service providers to challenge<BR>you on the quality of the product.<BR><BR>Cheap but clogged<BR><BR>While they appreciate that you have increased coverage in the<BR>country, they wish you could also increase the
quality of telephone<BR>service.<BR><BR>Clarity of phone calls and reliability of the service is all they<BR>want.<BR><BR>For instance, when you so very kindly offered cheap calling rates<BR>during the festive season, the relentless crush of callers ensured<BR>that nobody could get through the network at various times of the<BR>day.<BR><BR>Your network crashed, as happened increasingly often in the course of<BR>last year.<BR><BR>Moreover, sir, you know we have such diverse accents and dialects<BR>that it helps to have a clear line; otherwise, we could as well be<BR>insulting one another over the phone. That would be uncivilised and,<BR>if I may say so, unChristmas!<BR><BR>When Kananu calls from Imenti, Muli from Masinga or Jaoko from Mbita<BR>next to the lake, I want to hear the phonetic innocence of their<BR>respective dialects and interpret them accordingly.<BR><BR>No reason to toast<BR><BR>And when Akinyi jets back to Kenya, and tries out her full-on Texan-<BR>cum-Siaya
drawl on my ears, it would help to, at least, hear some of<BR>her words.<BR><BR>This year, Safaricom may need to ratchet it up a notch higher if your<BR>subscribers are to see the sense of continuing to top up so that you,<BR>in turn, may continue to top the profit league.<BR><BR>I am sure you have the savoir-faire to remain the toast of East<BR>Africa. Already, your subscribers cannot stop thanking you for the<BR>reduced call charges. But I fear that unless you give your customers<BR>a new year present in the way of better quality services, an even<BR>better option might come along and make toast of you.<BR><BR>And now that I cannot get through to you on the phone, sir, I take<BR>this opportunity to wish you a happy New Year and to request that you<BR>please call me back when the network is back to normal. Thank you.<BR><BR>odeteac@yahoo.com<BR><BR><A href="http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143963704" target=_blank><FONT
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