With women’s safety a major concern today, a few telecom companies have developed strategies to offer help and woo women customers.
Take the case of Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL) that gives service under brand name MTS. It has put in place a special vigilance team to provide free self defence classes to its women customers in Delhi, besides introducing a special service to make women aware about safety tips and their rights. Interestingly, it is also offering a free pepper spray to women buying a prepaid connection.
Stating that the new initiative has been specially designed to provide women customers a sense of safety, MTS India Chief Marketing & Sales Officer Leonid Musatov said, “With incidents of crime on the rise especially against women, the challenge is to come up with innovations to create a safer environment. This Women’s Day, we are doing our bit by launching ‘MTS Women MPowered’. It includes a range of special initiatives aimed at empowering our women customers. Starting with Delhi, the plan is to roll out this initiative in other circles over the next few months.”
Similarly, leading mobile player Vodafone has introduced a pioneering concept of retail store, managed and run completely by women employees. Called ‘Angel Stores’, the store has the distinction of being the first-of-its-kind retail outlet with only women staff members, including security, pantry staff, customer service resources as well as management level personnel.
Underlining the need to introduce such a unique concept, Vodafone India Managing Director & CEO Marten Pieters said, “We strongly believe that economic empowerment of women is a great building block in social development. It is part of our commitment to provide our women employees with one of the most secure and productive work environment, besides encouraging diversity and inclusion at workplace. Additionally, women customers feel more welcomed while visiting the store. Going forward, we will continue to expand its network across more locations.”
Mr. Pieters further said spread across 13 states, Vodafone Angel Stores was now a 15-outlet strong network with stores operating in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Goa, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Shillong, Bhubaneshwar, Jaipur, Agra, Mysore, Chennai, Lucknow, Kolkata and Hyderabad, thus providing a national footprint. The 16 store would be opening in Kerala today on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
