Consumer Behavior Triggers Collaboration

Kompas

(From left to right clockwise) Deputy Chief Editor of Kompas Daily Tri Agung Kristanto, Director of Consumer Service at PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk FM Venusiana R, Co-CEO of PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa (Gojek) Kevin Aluwi, Chief Marketing Officer of PT Media Dokter Investama (Halodoc) Dionisius Nathaniel, and Chairman of the Daily Executive of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) Tulus Abadi in a webinar themed "Digitization: Catching up with The New Era of Consumer" which is a series of the Kompas CEO100 Forum, Thursday (14 / 1/2021).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Changes in consumer behavior due to the Covid-19 pandemic have triggered the awareness of digital sector players to collaborate to improve services. Digital companies are also innovating to deal with increasingly tough challenges in efforts to curb the economic impact of the pandemic.

For digital sector players, collaboration serves as support for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) segment as well as a support for the handling of the pandemic.

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This was revealed during a webinar with the theme "Digitization: Catching up with The New Era of Consumer" as a series of the Kompas100 CEO Forum, on Thursday (14/1/2021), which saw deputy chief editor of Kompas daily, Tri Agung Kristanto, as a moderator. Director of consumer service for PT Telkom Indonesia FM Venusiana R, Co-CEO of PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa (Gojek) Kevin Aluwi, Chief Marketing Officer of PT Media Dokter Investama (Halodoc) Dionisius Nathaniel and chairman of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) Tulus Abadi were present as speakers.

Venusiana said Telkom was open to collaboration and cooperation to improve services. "The Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumers in various aspects of life. [While] travel has dropped, e-commerce transactions have increased extraordinarily. All changes require digital connectivity to increase customer expectations of our services," she said.

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KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Officers enter spraying data on the online ojek application at a disinfectant spraying post in the Pramuka area, East Jakarta, Monday (10/8/2020). Spraying is carried out regularly and once a week for motorbikes for each ojek to prevent the spread of the Covd-19 pandemic.

As a result, the need for bandwidth or capacity of data transfer consumption that are closely related to internet connection speed increase. Fixed broadband services or cable internet businesses that take advantage of fiber optic networks have the potential to develop. The penetration of these services in Indonesia is still less than 15 percent of the household population. This figure is lower than Thailand (47 percent) and Japan (82 percent).

Kevin Aluwi said breakthroughs and innovations had minimized the negative impact of the pandemic on the economic conditions of the drivers and MSME players who partnered with Gojek. "In times like this, it is very important for digital sector players to work together and help each other to prioritize the interests of the partners and consumers," he said.

Support MSMEs

Kevin emphasized that digitization played a significant role in supporting the growth of MSMEs. This year, the number of MSME retail or outlet partners in the Gojek ecosystem stood at around 900,000 or an increase of 80 percent annually.

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Gojek also works with third parties to help MSMEs expand access to various services to meet consumer needs. GoMart and GoShop services work with sellers at traditional markets, minimarkets and grocery stalls.

KOMPAS/IWAN SETIYAWAN

Display of the Halodoc application, which is one of the Ministry of Health partners in telemedicine services for the public, Sunday (17/5/2020).

Dionisius Nathaniel explained that technology played an important role in tackling the pandemic. Halodoc partners and collaborates with the government and the digital industry players to improve long-distance medical services.

"Without technology, digitization and active cooperation among stakeholders, Covid-19 response in Indonesia cannot run well," he said.

The pandemic and social restrictions, Dionisius said, have made people rely on long-distance medical consultations. In providing virtual consulting services, Halodoc partners with 20,000 general practitioners and specialists. Meanwhile, medical products can be purchased from more than 3,000 pharmacies and they can be delivered to homes. This service can be accessed in more than 100 cities.

Without technology, digitization and active cooperation among stakeholders, Covid-19 response in Indonesia cannot run well.

In the midst of the providers’ efforts to improve services, YLKI received 3,692 consumer complaints in 2020. This number is much higher than in 2019, where there were 1,872 complaints.

According to Tulus Abadi, consumers face new problems during the Covid-19 pandemic. The problems are, among others, (the need for) medical devices, electricity bills, internet data and online shopping, which have increased significantly compared to in normal conditions.

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"The five largest consumer complaints are [those related to] the financial services sector 33.5 percent, online shopping 12.7 percent, telecommunication 8.3 percent, electricity 8.2 percent and housing 5.7 percent," he said.

This article was translated by Kurniawan H. Siswoko.