Valuing Customers Starts with Respecting Their Rights
There is something interesting approaching this year’s National Customer Day. It is not just about discounts, gifts, or corporate ceremonies greeting customers, but rather something very close to people’s daily lives: remaining internet data quotas. Through Circular Letter of the Minister of Communication and Digital Number 4 of 2026, the government has affirmed the protection of remaining internet quotas that customers have already paid for.
Mobile operators are not permitted to simply eliminate remaining quotas or impose additional fees just so customers can maintain or use them. At first glance, the issue might seem simple—a certain number of gigabytes remaining when a package’s validity period ends. However, from a customer experience perspective, this policy brings a broader discussion regarding rights, choice, transparency, and customer control over services they have paid for. This question becomes increasingly relevant as we commemorate National Customer Day every 4 September.
When Quota Becomes Part of the Customer Experience
For a long time, data package services have been available with various schemes, benefits, and validity periods tailored to product characteristics and customer needs. The introduction of a policy regarding the protection of remaining quotas opens up a wider discussion on how the benefits of paid services can continue to provide fair value to customers. Minister of Communication and Digital Meutya Hafid emphasised that paid quotas are a customer right.
The government provides protection through several mechanisms, ranging from rollover, extension of active periods, transfer of benefits, compensation, and refunds, to other forms of protection that do not disadvantage the customer. What is interesting is not just the choice of mechanisms, but that this policy demonstrates the increasing importance of the dimension of fairness in customer experience. Customer experience is no longer solely measured by network speed, ease of purchasing packages, or the quality of interaction with customer service.
There is another equally important dimension: the extent to which customers feel they are receiving benefits and being treated fairly. It is in this context that customer protection and customer experience truly meet. Good service is not just about providing a service that works well, but also about building trust that the customer’s interests are considered in the service design.
Providing Greater Space for Customer Choice
One important aspect of this policy is the increasing space for customers to choose services according to their needs and usage patterns. This perspective is relevant to the development of the concept of customer-centricity.
Being customer-oriented is not merely about providing products deemed appropriate, but also about providing adequate information and choices so that customers can determine the service most relevant to them. Companies today have an increasing ability to understand their consumers. Data and algorithms can read usage patterns, predict needs, and even offer more personalised services. However, customers still play the primary role in determining what best suits their needs.
Thus, technology should ideally help customers make better decisions, rather than reducing the space for customers to determine their choices. This shift is important because the relationship between companies and customers in the digital era is moving from mere transactions towards a relationship built on choice, trust, and experience.
Transparency is Also Part of Service
The policy also places communication as a vital part of customer protection. Information regarding prices, quota amounts, validity periods, usage segmentation, usage terms, service expiration, and the treatment of remaining quotas needs to be conveyed simply, clearly, and easily understood. This is where the challenge of digital service communication becomes interesting.
The availability of information does not always equate to the understanding of that information. In communication, there is a difference between information delivered and information understood. Information may be available through applications, websites, notifications, or various service channels, but communication effectiveness is only achieved when customers understand that information and can use it to make choices.
Therefore, transparency does not stop at providing information. Information needs to be present at the right time, using easy-to-understand language, and helping customers make conscious decisions. This idea aligns with the discussion of ethical customer experience in Humanoid Communication 2.0, which places transparency and trust as essential parts of the customer experience in the digital ecosystem. As technology becomes more capable of personalising services, organisations are increasingly required to maintain ethical and human aspects in their interactions.
Customers Are Not Just User Data
The telecommunications industry is at the forefront of digital transformation. Millions of customers interact every day through applications, chatbots, self-service, automated notifications, and data-based recommendations. Efficiency is certainly required, and data allows companies to understand customer needs much better.
However, digital transformation brings another challenge: how to ensure customers are still viewed as humans, not just a collection of usage data. Customer numbers, quota amounts, consumption levels, active periods, and churn rates are indeed important in business management. But behind all that data, there are humans with different needs, habits, abilities, and expectations.
Therefore, customer experience in the digital era is not enough to just become faster and more personal. It also needs to become fairer, more transparent, more relevant, and provide space for customers to determine their choices.