Roke Telkom, a home-grown Ugandan public service provider for voice and data communications services, has revamped its self-care portal in a bid to enhance customer experience and enable them self-serve with convenience.

Using the Roke Telkom self-care portal, customers will be able to conveniently manage their accounts on the go or from wherever they are yet guaranteed seamless interactions. The portal’s main features include: checking and tracking data bundle usage, checking bundle balance, topping up on data bundles, and ticket follow up among others.

The self-service function is a way of availing different platforms where customers can be assisted, on top of customer service helplines, USSD prompts and the main Roke Telkom web portal. It also takes into consideration the fact that customers have unique needs.

Customers can access the self-care portal using a mobile, tablet or PC device. The customer will visit the main Roke Telkom website and click on the ‘My Roke’ icon on the top right corner of the Homepage. Alternatively, they can directly use the URL (selfcare.roketelkom.co.ug).

The ROKE user only requires a One Time Password (OTP) to log in. Once they are logged in, they can now navigate the portal depending on what service they require.

Commenting on the revamped portal, Michelle Baine, the Brand Manager, Roke Telkom, said; “At Roke Telkom, our value proposition has always been superior customer service. In our continuous innovation, we ensure we have the customer’s needs at the center of the processes and to ensure these needs are incorporated in every fabric of our services and products.”

“In this particular service (self-care portal), the value is convenience. On top of our Reliable and affordable Internet, we want our Roke customers to enjoy a seamless experience, whether purchasing data or checking for their balance. The other advantage is – the portal is available 24/7.” Baine added.

Global trends in not just the telecom industry but businesses in general have placed effective customer service experience at the top as a key determinant for customer retention. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), businesses continue to provide their customers with instant, on-demand services to fulfill their needs, such as making payments, troubleshooting basic service issues, among others. As AI progresses, there will be more that can be done for customers which will provide a better system for them to use, for example, the use of a face recognition dataset can help with security measures as well as streamlining operations. This is just one area that may be looked into favorably, depending on how businesses want to advance within their sector. 

“For telecom companies, providing a positive customer experience is more important now than ever before as it is tied directly to customer retention,” according to a Customer Service Benchmark Report on the telecom industry, by Netomi, a leading artificial intelligence company and developer of human–computer interaction technologies.

It adds; “Modern customers expect quick, effortless resolutions on their channel of choice.”

The Covid pandemic has also occasioned a shift in customer behaviors, leading many businesses to consider contactless interactions with their customers by building or augmenting their digital capabilities.