AIS Puts Focus on Customers to Keep Top Spot

By Srisamorn Phoosuphanusorn, Bangkok Post, Thailand

Aug. 22–Customer relationship management (CRM) has been designated one of the top marketing strategies of the mobile operator Advanced Info Service (AIS) this year in an aim to reduce its churn rate by 300 percent.

The move follows a marketing unit restructuring by the country’s largest mobile-phone operator as it seeks to maintain its share at 50 percent. AIS has revised upward its new subscriber target to 4.5 million this year.

AIS has consolidated its four customer-retention management units into the marketing department. They include call-centre, privileges, services and a statistical analysis unit with a combined 4,325 staff.

Vilasinee Puddhikarant, vice-president for customer and service management, said AIS was spending 220 million baht this year on its retention programmes to maintain and build on its base of 22 million subscribers.

“We have set a target to reduce our churn rate from the current 4 percent to 1 percent through our tailor-made customer-retention programmes,” she said.

Ms Vilasinee said AIS was stepping up further to add a greater variety of privileges and discounts.

The company is now teaming up with Central department stores, offering AIS customers special discounts. The 20- million-baht campaign runs from now until mid-October. She said AIS’s earlier discount programme with The Mall department store drew more than 70,000 participants and created sales volume of 70 million baht over two months.

“We are also moving into the dining segment under the ‘Five best restaurants at all 76 provinces’ concept, with the aim of having up to 3,000 restaurants join our campaign,” Ms Vilasinee said. “We’re also in talks with some discount stores to extend privileges to the mass-market segment.”

Of the 22 million subscribers AIS now has, 19.5 million are prepaid customers and the remaining 2.5 million are postpaid. Of the total base, 210,000 are platinum customers who spend more than 3,000 baht a month on average and 490,000 are gold users with 1,500 baht in billings per month.

Ms Vilasinee said the company also planned to invest in new software to make its customer-retention management system paperless and more efficient next year. It also plans to pursue a convergence concept using a multi-SIM card.

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