Realising that every employee is a brand ambassador, Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL), which provides CDMA services under the ‘MTS’ brand, has roped in every single employee to sell its services.
Under the initiative — M-Star — SSTL has asked its more than 2,000 employees to promote the brand and products in their immediate circle and locality.
“The thought came from an employee itself. Every employee represents the brand he works for, and through this initiative, we intend to penetrate to sectors the traditional channels could not move into,” Sandeep Yadav, head - voice and data business at SSTL told
“Importantly, employees reside closer to customers and it is much easier for them to connect with the users,” Yadav said.
Modus operandi The company, along with its sales team, will set a canopy or disbursement centre at the employee’s society or locality. SSTL will sell SIM and recharge cards, activate connections, mobile handsets, dongles, Wi-Fi devices and its home security solution ‘M-Secure’ from these centres.
“All that an employee needs to do is get requisite approvals from the residents association for the setting up the canopy,” Yadav added.
For the customers, the company provides offers such as preferred numbers and additional value added plans that are not offered through the regular channels.
However, the company is not offering any discounts on tariffs or handset prices.
SSTL will reward its employees by gifting them smartphones, blended data usage or Internet plans, apart from recognising them internally as achievers.
The company, which has operations across nine circles in the country, has already launched the services in Rajasthan, Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It intends to launch the services in the remaining circles in the next couple of weeks.
Encouraging response The initial response has been encouraging. “However, it’s too early to talk about the exact numbers. An incremental 3-4 per cent increase in user base every month can be termed as successful,” Yadav said.
SSTL, which has about 10 million subscribers, has been adding about 400,000 subscribers every month for the past six months.
However, this does not mean that MTS is doing away with the concept of brand ambassadors. The operator, which had earlier roped in Bollywood actor Imran Khan and Olympian Shiva Keshavan to endorse the brand, is still open to rope in a celebrity as brand ambassador.