Zain – A Leading Telecom in Saudi Arabia – Standing out of the Connected Crowd

By Gérard Al-Fil

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is one of the most competitive Arab markets for telecommunication services.

With a total population of approximately 30 million people, the oil state “is a very dynamic market,” Hassan Kabbani, the CEO of Zain KSA, told Marcopolis in an exclusive interview. “There is a very high level of mobile penetration, reaching more than 180%, and very high level of Smartphone penetration.” Such figures are rare in the emerging markets, but typical for the Gulf Arab oil states with its low population density, but huge distances between the different cities and villages.

According to Kabbani, 63 percent of Zain KSA belongs to Saudi investors.

Smart phones in Saudi Arabia do not only show when the next appointment is or remind parents when their kids will arrive home from school, but they also show the direction towards Mecca and the exact timings for the ritualised prayer which Islamic demands five times a day.

High-tech desert state

“Having worked myself in various countries throughout the region, I know that the Saudi market is also the most important market in the Middle East region. It is very highly developed, and I believe the kingdom has, in fact, been focusing on developing telecommunication services and infrastructure throughout the country for the last ten years,” added Kabbani.

Currently Zain, whose full name is Mobile Telecommunications Company Saudi Arabia, has a 14 percent market share in the biggest Gulf state. Like most operators, Zain KSA shares are listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange “Tadawul” in Riyadh and part of the sector index telecommunication and information technology. The other stocks in this sub-index are Saudi Telecomm (ST), Etihad Etisalat (better known as Mobily), Etihad Atheeb Telecommunication Company and Saudi Integrated Telecom Company

A major challenge, according to the Zain KSA chief executive, is that consumers are very engaged in the sector and there is a high demand for telecom services. “The challenge you face as an operator is to make sure that your infrastructure will be able to cater to the needs of your customers.”
This led Sultan Abdulaziz Al-Deghaither, the senior director of network engineering, to say that “In 2013 we received an award as the best telecom operator providing LTE services.” LTE stands for Long-term Evolution and is usually marketed at 4G LTE, currently the most advanced upgrade for high-speed connectivity between mobile phones and IT terminals.

Zain KSA started its network commercially in August 2008. At that time the firm launched it as a single rung, state-of-the-art network providing the 2G, 3G and HSDPA plus services. “Then in September 2011 we launched the LTE network and were the first mobile operator to do so commercially. In 2013 we received an award as the best telecom operator providing LTE services,” said Al-Deghaither.

As of today, Zain is covering 51 percent of the populated area with LTE and the target for the next three years is to increase this to 90 percent. “Our coverage for 3G is 88% and our three-year aim is to reach 95 percent, while for 2G, or the traditional GSM services, our coverage is 92 percent, with a three-year target of 96 percent.”

Zain to Become the Best Telecom in Saudi Arabia with Newest and Fastest Network

The battle for data is described by CEO Kabbani as intensive, but he sees Zain in an advantageous position. “A good analogy for this is to describe it like driving on a highway, and you see a lot of traffic up ahead, a lot of congestion, so you turn off onto another road. This is exactly what is happening now with data. If people are not happy with the quality of service provision from their current operator, they are more likely to try the Zain network, and then they will see that we have an excellent level of quality for data communication. “

Global standards, local talent

High achievements require highly qualified employees. The employment structure at Zain shows that the times are over when Arab firms were desperately luring foreign experts into the country. “We are investing in Saudis. Right now, we have a Saudization rate of 82 percent and we are working on increasing this number, making sure we have the right capabilities to grow our business,” explained Nedal Yusuf Alobidan, the director of human resources operations.
Successful candidates who aim to kick off their careers in the telecom sector are young, dynamic and customer-oriented, then they many opportunities according to Alobidan.

In order to get not only the people with the right passport, but also with the right skills aboard, “this year we have conducted seven career days in various universities, such as the King Faisal University and the King Saud University, to try to get the right Saudi talent,” added Alobidan.

When visiting a Saudi electronic or telecom shop, many tourists and businessmen are surprised about the high share of women working on the telecom sector. At Zain, the road to gender equality is irreversible, but there is room for improvement. Alobidan noted: ”Right now, 10 percent of our employees are women. They mainly cover the call centres and some direct sales because they can reach the women customers in the market. We also have certain programs in order to place women in senior positions.”

Building up a firm in a competitive market takes times and patience. After being in the market for just 8 eight years, Zain has become the synonym for reliability and speed in relation to customer service.

Abdulmajid Mohammed Alrashoudi, the chief customer care officer, said: “I can assure you that the fastest company in the market right now is Zain, because we are attending to almost 92 percent of customer calls within 20 seconds.” Zain also help the customer and carry out troubleshooting for their issues within 36 hours. Because of the service, data consumption in Zain’s network is 100 per growth every quarter.

“I can assure you that the fastest company in the market right now is Zain, because we are attending to almost 92 percent of customer calls within 20 seconds.”

What do Saudi clients expect? “Mainly, Saudi customers want good treatment, as do people anywhere in the world, and they also want a clear tariff plan. They want their needs to be attended very quickly. We are now trying to reduce our 36 hour resolution timeframe to almost 24 hours,” replied Alrashoudi.
Customer care and talent development go hand in hand. Alobidan noted: “We have tried to put into place a policy where by default the customer experience is crucial to every competency that we have here, be it commercial, technical or HR.”

With many telecom operators being in the market, some customers mixed up the different brands and sent wrong feedback to the media and on public forums in the internet. This triggered the Zain management to rebrand. “Right now, we are trying to transform Zain Saudi Arabia. You can see this when you look at our new image,” said Alobidan.

“We tried to find an image that is very clean and related to Saudi Arabia. Zain is a huge organisation that operates all over the world.” Zain was founded in 1983 in Kuwait. The group holds a 37 percent stake. Zain operates in a total of 8 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, among them Iraq, Morocco and South Sudan.

“At Zain Saudi Arabia, we have tried to push our dynamics in simple ways to help us achieve our goals. In the future, we would like to be the operator of choice for customers. We are trying to be excellent employers. Therefore, right now and in the future, we want to be the right choice for our customers and for our employees.” Awareness is huge in the Arab world, because Zain bought prime time slots for advertising during the holy month of Ramadan when Arab families and friends usually gather at the television after they broke the fasting at dusk.

Think Big!

With such a strong solid backup, Marcopolis was eager to know about Zain’s plans for the future.

“We have more than 8.5 million customers and 2,500 employees. We are very active, very dynamic, and very successful operation,” remarked Kabbani.
In order to please customers and to wind potential clients from other rivals away, Zain has recently introduced the CES (Customer Effort Score). “CES looks at how much effort the customer has to put in to get our services. If we get results whereby most of our customers say that dealing with Zain is very easy, then loyalty will certainly increase, and they will promote this network to others,” said Alrashoudi, the chief customer care officer.

Nevertheless, Zain does not want to rest on its laureates. “We want to grow this considerably over the next five years. As the CEO of Zain KSA, I believe that we should have a fair share of the market – 14 percent is not enough – and so our plan is to expand more and to gain a greater market share.”
Translated into the LTE segment, “with regard to the KSA market, we expect LTE traffic to increase by 75 percent in terms of subscribers between now and 2018,” noted networking director Al-Deghaither.

Global visions are not alien to the firm. “We also have a strategic partner with Vodafone to provide us with a wider scope beyond the Middle East,” said the chief executive.

“We can also exchange know-how and best practices with the Vodafone Group, which will allows us to improve and to compete at a global scale,” said Kabbani. “We have a very skilled and talented team of technicians, engineers and sales staff that we are proud of. The team is working extremely hard and doing a lot to make Zain a very successful operation.”

The company name is program. Zain is Arabic and means “good”.