Over the weekend, EcoCash announced that the minimum airtime recharge one could do via EcoCash would be a $1. The development was reported to be taking effect on the very same day the announcement was made, no warnings whatsoever.
What interests me about this announcement is the opening statement on the flyer, it goes like
In order to serve you and continue to improve our services, the minimum value of airtime you can buy on EcoCash has been increased from 50c to $1 with immediate effect…
The first part of the statement can really get someone excited, but just so disappointment can knock them back to the ground. In fact, that statement causes one to fall from an even higher position than they would have had EcoCash not mentioned the serving you and improving services part first. One would then wonder, was that intentional???
Anyway whatever the reason the flyer was worded in that way, point still remains; the reason why EcoCash is doing this is entirely for its customers’ sake, at least that’s what they say. What’s more interesting is the part where they make the announcement on twitter and as usual the twitter audience question what they mean – well that’s not the interesting part, the interesting part is their response to those that ask.
For people who chose to make improving their service as the reason for the change, they sure should be willing to back it up with a point or two but no. No No No. All that’s being said on twitter is “Please note that we are working on providing the best experience on our EcoCash platform. We sincerely apologize for all the inconveniences that we have caused you” or “We sincerely apologise for inconveniencing you. Kindly note that the decision is subject to review” or the one that killed me (oh this one I’d need to embed).
Hi Matt. Kindly DM your mobile number so that we can assist.^UM
— EcoCash Zimbabwe (@EcoCashZW) October 8, 2017
Well since EcoCash cannot say, I’ll speculate. Is it that the system is now under too much pressure with all the transactions being made? I mean considering 90% plus of all mobile money transactions are being done on EcoCash. Has the government indirectly and unfairly put pressure on EcoCash with this move to plastic money? Was EcoCash expecting this at all? Were they ready for such a big responsibility?
If the reasons are centered around those questions then it might make sense for them to cut off the ‘least’ important transactions and in this case it’s those 10c, 20c, 30c transactions. Actually those were silently scrapped off a while back or maybe I just missed the announcement but all I know is I woke up one day to realise the minimum airtime I could purchase on EcoCash had become 50c. All the same, it makes no difference now since the minimum has shifted to a dollar.
So the question now could be are people just disgruntled for now but will otherwise adjust and work with the $1 limit (as always) or they will surely act upon their threats and move to other options such as OneFusion?
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As a small business person, my humble contribution to the author’s article is, you also need to understand the concept of “Optimisation of capacity and price Management”. Even as I run my small tuckshop here in Rujeko, I know that for me to remain in business for years to come and reach greater heights, it’s a balance between satisfying both low end (those who regularly come to buy on credit – vanokwereta- I have a few neighbours I give stuff on short term credit) and high-end customers (those who almost ‘empty’ my tuckshop stock every time they come to buy groceries).
At the end of the day, we all know there are costs associated with managing and sustaining any service or product and successful businesses of this the world over have made bold decisions for sake of continuity of given services. Without mentioning specific products, I think we all know of services/products that have since experienced natural death as a result of unsustainable pricing models. At the end of the day, EcoCash as bundled service has more to offer us as customers more than the airtime, in as much as airtime is important. Anyway, let me dash to buy my Kose (Kwese) using ecocash tiri hedu pano paMasvingo.
True. Thanks a lot for the contribution. But here (still speculating), to them it’s more of a trade off so to speak. Clearly they cannot have both low and high end and they have made their choice.
Anyway, say you were faced with a similar situation with your tuckshop, who would you choose?
This is most likely a response to the depreciation of the USD against itself in Zimbabwe
You can still buy 0.50c airtime through Paynow Topup and pay with Ecocash.
https://www.topup.co.zw/mobilerecharge