Telecommunications Regulatory Authority registers 12 million interactions on its Twitter account

UAE, October 4, 2016 - The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has announced that it has been consistently monitoring its customers’ suggestions and opinions through the TRA’s various social media accounts as part of its top priorities by studying the interactions that have been taking place through this channel to meet their expectations. Following up on customers’ interaction and responses are part of the TRA’s efforts to meet the needs of customers and fulfill their happiness, as it continues to generate huge positive responses from the social media interactions, specifically in Twitter where it reported 12 million interactions since beginning of the year until end of August 2016, compared to 9.5 million in 2015.

The TRA considers social media as an important additional portal that allows the public to communicate with the entity, offering an opportunity to serve and satisfy customers’ needs, especially that social media has become widely accessible to all. It has been adopted as one of the communication tools that are in line with achieving the TRA’s strategic goal of promoting electronic lifestyle in the UAE. It urges the public to continue using modern technology in their government transactions to get their services.

H.E. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, TRA Director General, said: “The TRA has included the concept of happiness as major element in its long-term strategy. The goal of any initiative in the TRA is to ensure customers are happy and that the nation’s people are satisfied with our services in general, which is one of the reasons we have made efforts to diversify our social media approach and monitor customers’ aspirations to be able to meet their needs. We want to ensure that all suggestions and interactions are properly addressed with world-class services in the country and improve our quality of life.”

Ahlam Al Feel, Director of TRA’s Corporate Communication Department, Happiness and Positivity CEO, said: “The TRA is keen to communicate with our audiences all the time which can be easily reached through interactions in the social media. The TRA has paid a lot of attention to respond to customers’ requests and inquires through this medium and has achieved a huge increase in terms of interactivity, especially on Twitter. It also raises customers’ awareness on the TRA’s role and responsibilities in the ICT sector, its importance and how it is achieved, thereby building a positive connection between the TRA and the audience.”

“The TRA has made it a priority to listen to customers’ opinions and meet their expectations on ICT-related concerns, following the directives of TRA’s leadership. The results of this initiative would be our guide to further develop the sector and respond to audiences’ needs in line with the happiness charter, a vision for all government hubs to be a source of customers’ happiness and satisfaction,” Al Feel added.

The TRA innovation camp hashtag topped in the mostly viewed tweets on Twitter with more than 250,000 views days before launching the camp until its conclusion. Tweets for Zayed Humanitarian Day has also reached around 250,000 views.

Since the beginning of the year, the TRA has implemented various awareness campaigns through its social media channels, covering important issues like security, guidance and technical concerns, such as ‘cyber blackmailing’ and ‘RANSOMWARE.’ In addition, it has also launched a campaign that urges voting for UAE ‘s projects during WSIS, along with other awareness campaigns like ‘Open WiFi Awareness’ and many other educational and awareness initiatives.  

The TRA sees the importance of variety in the content as well as choosing the subject according to time in successful social media communication, including a timely response to inquiries and questions as it saves customers’ time and efforts as well as reduces the number of customers’ visits to TRA’s service centers. Social media has played a huge role in giving the opportunity to express, share information and address inquiries.

The TRA has received various commendations through various social media channels for its positive interaction in protecting customers’ rights and directly responding to their inquiries and complaints, as well as meet their respective requirements.

The TRA has also made efforts to meet active social media users by organizing regular meetings with them to listen their needs and aspirations, considering their comments for further discussion and study or to find alternative solutions to common goals. One successful initiative is the latest decree of putting a hard cap on data bundles, which came about after the TRA has met with social media users and have been notified of their complaints regarding unexpected high charges on their bills for data packages as they were not aware that their bundles had already expired. 

The TRA has taken action by issuing a new policy to avoid the automatic renewal of data bundles after its expiration without first informing the customer and getting an approval. This has also resulted in the recent implementation of a TRA directive covering the prevention of using extra data above the available balance within set mobile data bundles, ordering UAE providers to get prior approval from the subscriber before doing so.