Maxis Malaysia recently found itself in hot soup with angry customers demanding for a better package as their competitors, DiGi, Celcom and U Mobile raised the ante with crazy deals. U Mobile even went one step ahead of their competitors with a generous 15GB of data and unlimited phone calls for only RM 70. (so much so that I’m personally tempted to switch out my Celcom line)
So what can Maxis Malaysia do amidst their trouble on social media and where truckloads of customers have been switching out of their plans? Read on after the break for our suggestions on Maxis Malaysia Troubles.
1) Maxis Malaysia Troubles  : Do not offer different plans to different regions
Maxis Malaysia’s troubles started when a user began to post about the different treatment he got compared to a friend. And the difference in offers between East Malaysian Maxis users and Peninsular Malaysia Maxis users. And that made customers upset as they feel that their many years as a loyal Maxis subscriber wasn’t well appreciated.
In our opinion, offering different prices by state or region, will not go down well with many regular customers. Rather, perhaps a united price offering would do Maxis’ reputation much good
2) Maxis Malaysia Troubles : Match competitors’ prices or don’t bother trying
While prices are subjective to the telco provider, and it isn’t wrong for Maxis to decide to price themselves higher than their competitors, a two-tiered pricing plan that gave more if you are living in East Malaysia doesn’t help. Rather than having an East Malaysian only plan that matches competitors, perhaps deciding to not match any competitors would help. And then some explanation like if they have invested heavily on infrastructure, can help customers decide if they would like to stay.
3) Maxis Malaysia Troubles : Â Immediately release new prices
Another reason why the customers are busy porting out of Maxis is due to Maxis’ delay in releasing the new packages. Changing prices are as simple as updating the Maxis Malaysia site. Perhaps Maxis is waiting to see their competitors’ moves and whether the prices will be back to normal. But in a price war like this and with the ability to easily switch providers, Maxis is loosing out by not releasing their new prices soon enough.
4) Maxis Malaysia Troubles : Be clear on the plan
In such a crucial time, it is more important for Maxis to be very clear to the customers, rather than just having the current Maxis Malaysia CEO to do a video. Customers are frustrated with the two tier prices and feel that other telcos are just much more attractive. An action plan must be taken to reassure customers of their worth. With Maxis having lost 377k of customers back in the fourth quarter of 2015 1, any further losses will haemorrhage into Maxis’ earnings.
5) Maxis Malaysia Troubles : Offer superior data and less SMS at affordable rates
We have noticed that Telcos tend to bundle in SMSes in their packages and some limited phone calls. However, with improvements over voice compression algorithm and hardware (meaning cheaper calls), it was a matter of time when a telco break the trend and start offering a lower price in order to gain more subscribers. And who else would do it, other than U Mobile who has the lowest amount of subscribers nationwide?
One way for Maxis to get subscribers back isn’t by offering a worse package than their competitors. Or offering a better East Malaysian version. But perhaps to start with 3GB at RM 30, 5GB at RM 50 and go from there? Perhaps not so much talk time for both, but more data and an easy way to upgrade. Or perhaps even let the customers mix and match packages, like between 3GB data to 15GB data and variable amount of talk time. That might truly nab them a good portion of customers.
As of now, Maxis seems to be bleeding customers, with many friends of ours transferring to other telco providers due to their better rates and non region based pricing.
Conclusion:
Maxis needs to act fast before their customers switch to other telco companies. For many of the customers switching out, they are both tired of having their friends brag about how much data they are getting, and the controversy surrounding the Maxis East Malaysia plan.
Have another networks to choose like Digi. RM78 can get 7GB. Worth it better than maxis. Sorry maxis..
Yea, the damage is done. Oh well, Maxis can still redeem themselves with a strong showing 🙂