Since launching the region’s first mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) via its FRiENDi brand in Oman, Virgin Mobile has racked up a wealth of experience. The company also has a sizable presence in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, building a combined customer base of more than 3 million customers across the three markets.
In an exclusive interview with ITP.net, Erik Dudman Nielsen, group CEO for Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa, reveals that Virgin Mobile is set to launch services to customers in Kuwait, further consolidating its reputation as the region’s biggest MVNO.
Now, Virgin Mobile is keen to share its digital expertise with MNOs across the region, sharing best practice and valuable insights with prospective operators and service providers.
“Since launching in Oman in 2009 with our FRiENDi Mobile brand, Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa has become the fastest growing MVNO player in the Middle East & Africa region, now serving over 3 million customers with our own operations in the KSA and Oman and including our B-Brand arrangement in the UAE through Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC).
“We believe the secret behind this success lies with our dedication to driving two core focuses in our business – segmentation and digitalisation: dedicated target segmentation to drive customer insights and create propositions to address the needs of specific market segments, delivered with an unwavering focus on customer experience through our unique digital platforms.
“Our ability to develop marketing strategies and service offerings that target sub-segments of the telecom market, thereby reaching out to a wide scale of different customer segments, has been proven by our own dual brand strategy with FRiENDi Mobile and Virgin Mobile, which allows Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa to deliver a bespoke experience targeted at different customer groups, thereby meeting the specific needs of those audiences to create high customer satisfaction,” he explained.
It is this ability to deliver targeted, bespoke services through its individual brands which has allowed Virgin Mobile to grow at such an impressive rate. Its array of targeted offerings allows it to appeal to the specific needs of the Middle East’s various demographic groups.
“Our FRiENDi brand was created for the region to provide an affordable mobile service targeted at key Asian and sub-continent ethnic groups. It was designed specifically to target their basic international communications needs, with a focus on price leadership on ‘home country’ destinations and flexible basic data packages. This dedicated mobile service is designed to meet not only their core communication needs, but also to provide a customer service journey dedicated to delivering a superior experience to this often-under-served segment.
“Our Virgin Mobile brand on the other hand, is design to attract more data-centric consumers who are catered to with exciting offers, new value-added services, data packs, and excellent customer service. It appeals more to western and Arab expats and locals and is becoming more and more focused on digital disruption to deliver a service that fits seamlessly into the lives of this digitally savvy population,” he said.
Inspiring the next generation of MVNOs
With its extensive experience in the region, Virgin Mobile is now turning its attention to helping other operators develop their own portfolio of digital services across the region.
“As an MVNO operating in multiple countries, we are expert in systems integration and have the agility to move quickly to address consumer trends. By connecting with existing mobile networks, we bring new innovations and features to the market much faster than traditional telcos, enabling us to complement operator offerings by developing marketing strategies and service offerings that target sub-segments of the telecom market,” Dudman Nielsen explained.
“For example, the business model for Virgin Mobile in the UAE, established in partnership with EITC, has been resolute from day one. With consumers choosing to spend more and more of their lives on digital platforms, we wanted to build customer relationships, and therefore experiences, digitally, with the objective to elevate the customer experience to a new level and create a compelling new brand experience. With digitisation at the heart of our offer, the cost of onboarding new customers drops dramatically and the average revenue per user (ARPU) has risen to twice the market average. The value the Virgin Mobile brand adds to EITC’s success is not measured only in increased revenue but also in providing a service complementary to du’s value proposition, positioning the company as a significant leader in the UAE’s telecommunications and broader economic landscape.
“The success behind these digital platforms comes from our ability and expertise to commercially deploy our digital platform – not only have we built a digital platform to deliver a world class digital experience that can be quickly and easily replicated for other markets, but we also have the experience and learnings too, which translates into a knowledge of running a digital commercial operation, reducing the risk for MNOs looking to going digital, and allowing us to deliver a digital platform with speed and efficiency. The cost of building a digital proposition from scratch is not insignificant, and often such programmes can face major challenges both in securing resources and in integrating these platforms with inflexible legacy systems. These are some of the headaches we are trying to remove,” he added.
Virgin Mobile provides a range of off-the-shelf solutions to help companies fast track their own digitalisation initiatives, by leveraging its own in-house Digital Factory.
“At the heart of our award-winning fully digital proposition is our in-house Digital Factory, established to bring together the best-in-breed digital talent. This dedicated team has developed Virgin Mobile’s proprietary digital platform, which comprises all the core elements of running a mobile operation with a fully functional digital customer experience – i.e. not only the customer-facing application, but also all the back-end underlying technology too.
“As an MVNO, we have always had to focus on our internal efficiencies to manage costs and improve speed to market. So when we built a digital platform to deliver a world class digital experience, we built it with the intention of having it quickly and easily replicable for other markets, with the ability to deploy within a few months depending on the level of integration complexity,” he explained.
Expanding across the GCC
Without doubt, Virgin Mobile’s decision to launch full MVNO services in Kuwait will be one of the biggest developments in the telecoms sector, in a year that has not been short of big stories. The move will see Virgin Mobile launch services in Kuwait through both its Virgin Mobile and FRiENDi brands.
“Following a few delays due to Covid, we are very excited to announce that, following a call for application in November 2019, we have been awarded a preliminary licence to launch both our Virgin Mobile and FRiENDi mobile brands in Kuwait. We were the first successful MVNO to obtain the preliminary telecommunications licence and this will be the first new MVNO license to be granted to any operator in the Middle East region since our own game changing entry into the UAE, with our innovative B-Brand partnership with EITC, in 2017 and we are thrilled to be bringing our unique offering and exceptional customer experience to the country, making it the third market in the GCC to experience our amazing
digital proposition.
“Our presence in Kuwait, following other successful launches in the GCC, is part of our ongoing commitment to always provide more choices for consumers as well as to push the boundaries of traditional telco with our innovative propositions. We believe Virgin Mobile’s launch in Kuwait will usher in a new era in connectivity and customer-led service never seen before and we cannot wait to bring our brands to market in the first part of 2021,” he added.
Virgin Mobile also has one eye on Bahrain as it looks to expand its reach across the GCC still further.
“The GCC region has some of the top countries in the world for digital adoption, with more than 100 per cent smartphone penetration and more than 70 per cent social media adoption—even higher than the United States – so there is a definite demand for more digital propositions in the region, which is only increasing as the global pandemic continues. Virgin Mobile fills this space perfectly, so we are excited to strengthen our strategic expansion in the region and are looking at the rest of the GCC markets, in particular Bahrain, with interest.
“We have also been approached by some interested parties from North Africa, which is another area of interest and huge potential for us, especially with our B-Brand model.”
Boosting user experience through digitalisation in a post-pandemic world
Undoubtedly, the Covid 19 pandemic has sharpened consumers appetites for digital services. Likewise, it has highlighted the importance of telcos continuing with their own digitalisation efforts. Connectivity has been the very lifeblood that has enabled people to live full, remote, digital lives during the pandemic. Consumers will continue to demand similar interactions in the post-pandemic world and, as a result, telcos across the region are looking to fast track their own digitalisation initiatives.
“With the coronavirus pandemic pushing the world to adopt new norms in conducting business as well as providing services, the telecommunications sector too has had to redesign its ways. While telcos have historically been more resilient to economic uncertainties, the current pandemic is unprecedented in the affect it is having on consumer behaviours, as the world looks more and more to digital solutions, reshaping consumer demand at a rapid pace,” Dudman Nielsen explained.
“Operators clearly understand the need to deliver superior digital experience. However, they also acknowledge the challenges of legacy systems & lack of relevant skills, besides any innovation & culture limitations, which is where B-Brand models and Virgin Mobile’s digital expertise come into play.
“We have seen across all sectors that customers rate digital experience. Digital experience drives higher NPS over a traditional experience, resulting in higher recommendation and revenues – indeed digital service NPS scores are on average four times higher than standard mobile operator NPS scores.
"This is especially true in the telco sector where our Virgin Mobile digital proposition in the UAE has helped us achieve the highest Net Promoter Score for a mobile telecommunications brand in the UAE for the past two years.
"We can see a similar story in Saudi Arabia where, following the roll out of our fully-digital proposition in the Kingdom in 2019, customer satisfaction has improved dramatically with almost zero customer complaints reported by CITC.
“This increase in customer satisfaction stems from giving customers genuine convenience, genuine simplicity. As an example, you can get a new SIM in Dubai within one hour of ordering it, delivered to your door. And it is the same process if you lose your SIM and need a new one.
So, compare this customer journey with the personal overhead of getting in your car to a store, queuing and going through the heavy activation or SIM replacement processes in the traditional bricks and mortar environment.
"It is transformatory. And we extend this into the full customer interaction – choosing your plan, making payments, accessing great content, such as Netflix.
"We strive to make it all as straightforward as possible for the customer, who can avoid the low levels of customer satisfaction experienced with
traditional telcos.
“This is what we can share with other operators who want to open these leading digital experiences with their digitally craving customers,” he added.
2020 – A true turning point for the telecoms sector
Dudman Nielsen believes that the legacy of 2020 will be an increased focussed on digitalisation that will long outlive the shadow of the pandemic. In short, the Covid 19 has radically altered the way telcos will do business, for good.
“Overall, telecoms as an industry has experienced limited reduction in 2020 compared some of the other heavily impacted industries, so I think the key impact will be around the way telcos – as most other sectors - have had to become increasingly more digital both in the ways in which we work and how we provide our services.
“While the outlook of the telco industry remains fairly positive, 2020 will be a true turning point for the telco industry as it chooses to seize the unlimited opportunities presented by the shift towards digitalisation. Going forward, a critical success factor for mobile operators will be in the way in which they embrace the new digital world and adapt from traditional model and instead move towards an agile, digital business model.
At Virgin Mobile, digital has always been the core of our business proposition and we are proud to carry out our day-to-day processes through our digital infrastructure and offerings, putting us in a perfect place to expand our presence in the MENA region through new launches and partnerships in the post-Covid world,” he concluded.