Most of Vietnamese use cash payment, especially in rural areas, islands, and mountainous regions, where the economy and bank services are undeveloped. Viettel’s mission is to bring financial services to every individual in the country, regardless of where they live and whether they had used such services previously. Viettel Group is Vietnam’s largest converged services telecoms group. Its network covers 63 provinces and cities, covering 99% of the country and its infrastructure systems, serving up to 11,000 wards and communes, including 100km of sea area around the mainland. Viettel Money’s financial services included ViettelPay, an online retail bank account for everyday needs.
In December 2021, it added mobile money services to enable people to use their mobile phone numbers to pay other ecosystem members – such as gas stations, pharmacies, and e-commerce platforms in South-East Asia – as well as depositing and withdrawing money.
It took the pioneering step of converting traditional markets into digital payment hotspots too.
To make people aware of and confident about the convenience and security of mobile money services, Viettel designed templates from TM Forum’s Guidebook on a 360 Degree View of a Customer to understand different aspects of customers. These insights were used to develop and target customers’ personas and position the benefits of mobile money in the most appealing but grasping which channels they prefer, and what elements of customer experience most matter to them. The
n it set up support policies and structured communication programs to educate people about the benefits of mobile money, and set up a customer care system to monitor service quality and meet customers’ demands 24/7. It offered consumers incentives collectively worth billions of Vietnamese Dong (tens of thousands of dollars) to consumers around adoption and usage. Its second line of approach is expanding the mobile money ecosystem into untapped areas.
These customer-centric activities also help Viettel Digital improve its business decisions, including how to earn customers and keep them satisfied in the new, highly competitive fintech market.
