So yeah, Safaricom has several ways through which its customers can be served. Like calling 100, 234 (M-Pesa) or 400 (Safaricom Home Fibre). Or using social media (Twitter or Facebook). Or good old email. I am not sure if they allow physical letters (LOL). There’s one more easy way to get things sorted without needing the intervention of a human, at least not directly: the Selfcare portal.
Here are some of those things:
1. SIM swap
For one reason or the other (could be that your phone was stolen, you’re upgrading to 4G or something) you may need to replace your Safaricom SIM card. Normally, that involves a trip to a Safaricom shop or an authorized outlet like the many M-Pesa outlets that dot the entire country. Did you know that you could do all this by yourself? It’s easy, just go to selfcare.safaricom.co.ke from your desktop or mobile web browser, log in and you’ll be sorted out in no time.
2. Check your top-up history
If you ever wanted to know how much you were spending on airtime at any given time, how would you go about it? The Selfcare portal makes it all easy.
3. Set up roaming alerts
This is for those who are constantly on the go. If you ever find yourself outside the borders of the country, the Selfcare portal would come in handy. Through it, one is able to turn on periodic alerts for when they are exceeding their set usage limits. This helps prevent one from using up all their credit or incurring a high roaming bill at the end of the month in the case of postpaid users.
4. Bar/unbar phones one is using
Thanks to the nature of my daily work, I alternate between various devices every other day. Safaricom keeps a log of all these devices so at any given time, I can log on to the Selfcare portal and see on which devices my Safaricom SIM has been used. From there, I am able to either bar or unbar usage of my Safaricom SIM on any of those devices. Easy.
5. Check Bonga points
Okay, this one is not so unique as you can do the same through the mySafaricom application or a shortcode (*124# or *126#). But hey, it doesn’t hurt to have one more option, does it?
6. Checking out M-Pesa transaction charges
This is quite interesting. On mobile devices, users are spoilt for choice. They can use the mySafaricom app to look up transaction charges just before the transaction is completed. They can use Safaricom’s M-Ledger application, which has a built-in “M-Pesa cost calculator” to see a detailed breakdown of charges they are likely to incur in the event they make a transaction.
All that can be done via a desktop or mobile browser, too, thanks to the Selfcare portal. Did you know that?
7. Create service requests and keep track of them
A service request is a user request for something to be done for them by a service provider. In this case, any Safaricom subscriber can request for something to be done or fixed for them. This can be physically at a Safaricom retail outlet, online through social media channels or via calls or texts. For instance, when one has an issue with their billing and reaches out to the customer service team using any of the channels, the customer service representative on the other end of the line will create a service request on the system through which the user request can be properly addressed. Using the Selfcare portal, one can just raise these service requests themselves. The advantage here is that you can be as articulate as possible about the matter at hand and be able to log in to the Selfcare portal later and see how far it is as far as handling of the request is concerned.
8. Check the PUK
While it’s easy to just use the mySafaricom app to do this (just go to My Profile on the app and it’s all there) or using another device to request the same (though here a national ID number will be needed), one also has an option to get the PUK number through the Selfcare portal.
9. Check your tariff
Growing up, tariffs used to be a big deal. I remember tariffs like Taifa in the early 2000s and how switching from one tariff to another meant a change in cost structure, pricing of services (calls and SMS, data wasn’t a thing). Today, tariffs aren’t really a big deal thanks to the maturity of the market that has meant that we have flat rates for calls and texts and universal charges for data (bundles). However, that doesn’t mean that the tariff is dead or insignificant. It lives on and is as important as ever. In addition to the text messages one gets upon recharging that indicate the tariff one is on, the same information can be obtained on-demand on the Selfcare portal.
10. Opt out of promotional messages
We all look forward to the “Lxxxxxxxx Confirmed. You have received Kshs …” You should see the faces of many when what they anticipated to be a mobile money transaction text turns out to be a promotional message from the service provider or someone else. Yeah, Samsung’s swanky new Galaxy Note 8 is in Safaricom shops but the message asking me to get one only serves to remind me of my poverty status and that, at least for now, the Note 8 remains a device of desire. What’s better, though, is the fact that I can choose to not receive a similar message when the Galaxy S9 arrives next year through the Selfcare portal. Just go to Do Not Disturb under the Products & Services menu to get started.
