Circles.Life's jab at Singtel said to be a marketing teaser for new referral scheme

Days after pulling a marketing stunt with a microsite stating “Don’t go GOMO! Go Circles.Life!”, Circles.Life has unveiled its new referral scheme. According to Rameez Ansar, Circles.Life’s co-founder, the referral concept introduced by the telco two years ago has since been mimicked by other players. As such, the team decided to set another example on prioritising customers and reciprocating its "love" with an upgrade of its offerings. However, the telco did not comment on why, specifically, Singtel's GOMO plan was chosen as part of its teaser campaign. The telco known for its cheeky advertising had initially created a microsite which said users who switch from Singtel’s GOMO plan to Circles.Life are entitled to SG$120 cashback and SG$34 off registration. The imitated site also did a comparison of the Circles.Life’s new plan, as opposed to GOMO’s. The stunt came weeks after Singtel rolled out its all-digital mobile product called GOMO (Get Out More Often). Similar to Circles.Life, GOMO offers a no-contract plan allowing customers to link their debit or credit card for monthly payments and purchases. Other offerings include digital mobile sign-up, same day SIM card delivery, a Care app and 24/7 live chat for customer service enquiries, as well as data allowances and lifestyle benefits. New scheme The new referral scheme is an add-on to its base plan, which was pushed out a few weeks ago. In this new scheme, existing customers will receive one month of free unlimited data for each person they refer while new referred customers will receive three months of free unlimited data. This upgrade aims to "celebrate" both new and existing customers. Circles.Life said its high Net Promoter Score, which reflects the loyalty of a company’s customer relationship, explains why more than one in four Circles.Life customers are through referrals. According to the telco, it has a score of +50, above the industry average NPS of -30. However over the recent weekend, Singtel’s GOMO app faced network issues and delay in SIM card delivery although it was promised as same-day delivery. In addition, according to The Straits Times, customers were neither able to contact the customer service team or chat with the live agents on the app. A Singtel spokesperson said in the ST article that the team was working on resolving the "teething issues" and ironing out the kinks faced by customers. The spokesperson added Singtel thanks its new customers and strives to exceed expectations. Read also: Circles.Life picks Mindshare for media duties Circles.Life picks creative agency Eunice Olsen hopes for more conversations around ad ethics after Circles.Life incident Circles.Life pulls down ad featuring local star Eunice Olsen as she files police report Circles.Life admits to asking Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding out on a date Circles.Life hands customers free data for taking public transport Netflix hijacks Circles.Life’s vending machine hype to promote Stranger Things Circles.Life Singapore vandalises “competitor” OOH assets Circles.Life responds to controversy over “Hungry for more data” ads Singtel and Circles.Life cheekily banter over data plans Circles.Life and StarHub stuck in love triangle with customer