Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/3107/-1/130/
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SLOWEY SAYS DIGICEL MONOPOLY BREAKER IN REGION Thrilled With Service In Anguilla
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Digicel’s Country Manager in Anguilla, Vanessa Slowey, has described the telecommunications company as “the monopoly-breaker in the region,” having entered the Caribbean four years ago and launched its service in Jamaica where, in one year, it broke records.
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Ms. Slowey, Rita Morson, Stephanie Brooks and Rhon Rogers
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She said that what was seen in Anguilla so far had mirrored the success story Digicel had scored in other markets. “It is a company that is incorporated in the Caribbean and 98% of all staff are made up of people from the developing islands and we are now operating in fifteen of them,” she stated.
“We wanted to come into Anguilla for quite some time,” the Irish-born Digicel official continued. “We felt that the market was ripe for competition. We did a lot of consumer and customer surveys…and we really found out what the Anguillians wanted.
“In Digicel, one size does not fit all and so we tailor things for specific markets. We are delighted and thrilled to be able to come into this market with such a strong offer. I think we have come with very strong messages – ‘2 cents after 2 minutes’, ‘5 cents per SMS’ and a ‘50 cents flat rate international.’ They are phenomenal prices and also the offer of the free CD player with every purchase is another very strong offer. You can combine that with a state-of-the-art network that has crystal clear coverage [throughout the island…]. I think it is something that Anguillians needed, demanded and deserved.”
Ms. Slowey said Ericsson was Digicel’s equipment provider and her company had partnered with that manufacturer in a lot of islands and had found their networks to be resilient and robust. “We have very good roaming partners so you can travel anywhere in the world and get service on your Digicel phone,” she further stated. “So if you go to any other island where Digicel operates, you can get prepaid roam on our network – another very strong message. The way that Digicel is expanding throughout the Caribbean at this rate very soon you won’t be able to go anywhere without roaming whether you are a prepaid customer or postpaid customer.
“Another thing about prepaid is that we make it very easy to top up your phones so you are never more than five minutes away from a top up as we have over 75 locations in Anguilla so you can top up electronically…We do a thing called ‘the business in a box’ where if you are a taxi-driver or a bus-driver we set you up with a business. It is another way of earning revenue for yourself where you can top up your customers or passengers as you are taking them to their destination.
“As a company, we really believe in giving back into the community and keeping the money in the island so these kinds of initiatives are quite important to us. Our success is your success and with the competition, as we are seeing it now in Anguilla, we have received a warm response and welcome…There may only be twelve and a half thousand people living in Anguilla, but we have received a hundred thousand welcomes.”
She said every day there had been queues of people at the office and at the main outlets and the company had been enormously proud to serve Anguilla by bringing another telecommunications provider to the island. “I believe we have the best team of people here with the focus being totally on the customer. The customer is king and you got to keep your customer happy. You got to go out there, find what your customer wants and deliver that to your customer,” she emphasised.
She said all members of staff had gone through a two-month period of vigorous customer service training so that they could deliver the best customer care. “That is really what it is at the end of the day – delivering better value, better coverage, better choice. We launched our new tag line recently - Expect More, Get More - and that’s what Digicel is all about,” she affirmed.
Ms Slowey paid credit to all of Digicel’s suppliers and contractors in Anguilla who helped to make its service happen. “We are totally indebted to them. It was the finest group of professionals I have seen for quite some time. It was really phenomenal. We are very delighted that they are all part of it, she added.”