upepo
Elder Lister
The marketing team at Safaricom seems to have completely lost the plot. Ever since the company adopted dynamic pricing - an approach meant to offer individualized deals to encourage higher data consumption - customers have been leaving in droves. In principle, dynamic pricing should reward users with progressively better offers the more they engage. Safaricom, however, appears to have turned this logic on its head. Instead of presenting attractive deals, they’ve used the system to exploit consumers by offering pricier bundles, particularly targeting users who have limited alternatives.
For a while, I assumed Safaricom didn’t mind the customer exodus. But this morning, I realized the situation must be serious enough for them to take notice. Here’s what happened: every morning, I transfer money from my Safaricom M-Pesa line to my Airtel Money account specifically to buy data bundles. Normally, M-Pesa prompts me to confirm the recipient details before completing the transaction. Today, that prompt was replaced with a message saying, “You can continue to send with M-Pesa or enjoy special offers just for you.” The first option was Continue, followed by a list of data offers.
It’s clear Safaricom has figured out that many users are transferring funds to Airtel specifically for cheaper data, meaning the trend is widespread enough to trigger a targeted retention prompt. What puzzles me is the thinking behind their strategy: why would marketers try to entice customers with “special offers” that are still nearly twice as expensive as Airtel’s? It makes one wonder what exactly goes on in Safaricom’s marketing meetings.
