I hope some Canadian wireless executives—whether they be inside the big three incumbants, or the new owners of wireless spectrum—read this New York Times story, which looks at how U.S. wireless carriers are starting to open up their mobile networks. In Canada, the wireless industry continues to nickel and dime, and generally confuse its customers, whether they do it with baffling data plans for the iPhone (disclosure: Rogers owns this website) or by charging people for incoming text messages. It’s that attitude, more than just high prices, that stifles the adoption of wireless data in this country, and limits innovation in an industry going beserk everywhere else in the world.
What really perplexes me, though, is that Rogers, Bell and Telus also offer high-speed Internet services, and to my mind, that is the single best example of what happens if you give people open access to data—they get used to it, and most importantly, they will pay almost anything to keep a high level of service. I suspect I’m not alone in that I pay a premium for the certainty of all-I-can-surf Internet access, even if I’m buying the top tier service when a lower tier might suffice for my surfing habits. Why? Because it’s simple, the Internet is that important to my family, and I don’t have to second guess what my actions online will cost me a month hence. Same goes with my wireless voice plan, for that matter. But not for wireless data—not yet, because I haven’t discovered the applications.
As the NYT story notes about the pull of wireless apps:
Applications spur the use of higher-priced wireless data plans and the purchase of more expensive smartphones. “What is most important for us is to have a customer sign up for a plan,” said Ralph de la Vega, who is in charge of AT&T’s wireless unit. “We think we can have multiple ways to make money.”
This is a matter of consumer trust: if a customer doesn’t really know how much opening up the mobile browser on her phone will ultimately cost, or if she’ll be able to make it work, she’ll just never do it. No one has any idea how many KB are in a web page, nor would they bother to count them, and average people—not the early adopters who reflexively throw money at this kind of stuff—will never get around to experimenting. They don’t want to make some mistake and have it end up costing them. So they freeze, with their thumb hovering over the keypad, and then just put the phone away. I’ve certainly done that many times.
Some of the blame rests on handset makers, because they haven’t made it easy. No one wants to end up paying extra money to their carrier because they couldn’t figure out what buttons to press and went to the wrong site. But that’s changing: the iPhone certainly makes it simple and fun, and that’s why 25 million applications were downloaded from Apple’s App Store in its first 10 days.
It’s important to note, of course, that in the U.S., the price is right for using data on the iPhone. Canadian carriers can do a much better job creating a simple, trustful experience for their customers to discover wireless data services and applications. And once Canadians are hooked, they will pay a premium, even if all they do is check the weather on their phone while they’re already standing outside.
One more thought: locking customers into 3-year plans doesn’t encourage them to upgrade to more data-friendly phones, nor do all the extra charges that come with device upgrades. Maybe the new carriers will spur some innovative approaches.
2 Responses to “ The wireless penny drops—in the U.S. ”
The whole premise is hilarious from the perspective of a northern Michiganian who would be exceedingly happy just to have reliable mobile TELEPHONE service - where one party speaks intelligibly to another - let alone texting and surfing and data transfer. An AT&T rep told me that I should just switch to texting because “it seems to work better than voice around here.”
By Gerry Sell on Aug 5, 2008
Beware What They Telus
Okay, you’ve probably already heard from some disgruntled people about the service - or rather - the lack of service Telus fails to provide.
They’ve been on a recent campaign to recruit subscribers and you’ve probably already received a few calls by now to be sold on their “great deals”. For your own sake, please be sure to thoroughly investigate what you’re buying into VERY carefully first, before you regret it later.
Sure, they may be able to provide what seems like a decent rate up front; and you may not need those “extra frills” they would nickel and dime you on every month. After all, the only thing that matters is that your telephone works when you need it to. Right?
Of course.
If it’s always working, then there’s nothing to bother worrying about. Landlines have been pretty stable for most of the last century, so there’s not much to be concerned with. Right?
Here’s the real deal though, it’s true; the Devil really does live in the details and it’s in the details where you’ll find yourself in Hell.
Imagine a horror story like this one happening to you.
It begins with octogenarian parents and one with a heart condition, a tight budget and regular calls from a variety of telemarketers offering solutions to save some money on their telephone service. Over time, temptation wears down one’s natural disinclination to switch from the security and stability of a service one has grown accustomed to relying on. People are switching telephone companies all the time, so it shouldn’t be too big a deal to try someone else; particularly if it helps to make ends meet.
My senior citizen in-laws decided it was time to switch away from Telus to an up and coming service they’d heard was pretty decent Heck, even I had enjoyed the long-distance savings I had gotten from Yak. In my case though, I only used their 10-10 number to get my price breaks. I hadn’t actually switched my service over to them. My in-laws went one step further and actually switched to them as a service provider.
Here is where the irony meter kicks into overdrive.
Sure, Yak took over their service by routing their calls through Yak’s switches and sent them Yak-branded bills with Yak pricing; but when the phone stopped working, Yak went to Telus to provide a technician to (supposedly) fix the problem.
Here is where the Devil introduced himself and took us all on his elevator ride to Hell.
Several calls and several hours after the problem had been reported without achieving a resolution; my wife took over dealing with the situation on our end on behalf of her parents. Several calls and several hours later, a “trouble ticket” was issued and a technician was scheduled to be dispatched to initiate repairs within the next couple of days.
The technician never arrived. Several calls and several hours later, a technician was scheduled to arrive the next day. Problem solved? Not hardly. The technician never arrived and it was now the end of the week.
Minor delays like these are usually only annoying inconveniences; not life and death emergencies.
My father in-law unfortunately, suffers from a heart condition. He has already had a couple of hospital stays to monitor his heart after two mild attacks. My wife hadn’t been able to speak with him for several days by this point and was, as one might easily imagine, becoming very concerned.
Several calls and several hours over the weekend to customer service representatives from across the globe speaking with nearly completely incomprehensible English; one of several rather polite and apologetic people managed to discover a problem in their issuances of “trouble tickets”. They were never actually issued because of inconsistent policies due to the establishment of operations centres spanning diverse geographies and a variety of countries, each with their own unique sets of obstacles complicating a streamlined operating policy and procedures.
A rather pleasant fellow named Ragu assuaged my wife’s nerves somewhat by explaining what had happened and by assuring her that a technician had been scheduled for the next day. This was on Sunday. Monday morning came and business hours went. My wife tried calling again. After another hour of listening to what was initially soothing but was now aggravating “hold music”, the connection was lost.
It was at this point where I became more actively involved. I was fortunate. My call connected me with a customer service representative in Toronto who spoke perfect English. I felt bad for her, but I felt by this point that it was necessary for me to light a fire under her to get some results. I was forceful, but not rude. The result was for me to discover that Yak has apparently made service agreements with a variety of carriers across the globe. At first, she believed that Bell would be handling the issuance of a technician. Bell cleared up that misconception for her after she made a few calls while I waited on hold.
The ball had bounced squarely back into Telus’ court.
There was nothing more she could do until the next day because Telus’ office was closed. I confirmed the chronology of events with her. I carefully delineated the complex relationships as clearly as I could with her. The gaps in her understanding made it clear to me that I was asking questions which were above her pay grade and beyond the limits of her training.
Nevertheless, I felt armed with enough information to be able to speak directly with an after-hours representative from Telus to get some additional questions answered. I had hoped to be able to speak with someone at Telus who could provide enough insight to help facilitate a resolution.
I found myself speaking instead with a rude, obnoxious and fast-talking brick wall named Val.
I tried to explain my situation and was quickly stymied by a rote response delivered at a rate which would make an auctioneer jealous. I attempted uttering a couple of more words in an effort to pose another question and was interrupted once again by his “party line”. I tried again and was again stymied before finishing my first sentence. I tried once more and was immediately blocked again.
That was when I popped my cork. “I’m the customer”, I started yelling. He yelled back. I yelled more loudly. He yelled more loudly and I went into overdrive. He hung up. I called back and after getting through the robot driven menu system, was back in the service queue.
Soon, I heard the robot tell me I was being transferred. It was then that I heard the system “hiccup”. “Your call is being transferred.” I then heard a beep, then “Your call is being transferred”, and another beep. This went on like a broken record for at least a half-dozen times and the robot returned. “I’m sorry, there seems to be a problem in connecting you, please try back later.”
The connection died and I was back to hearing my dial tone.
While I fumed, I contemplated my experience. Val had been well trained to avoid providing service to “neo-customers” that Telus wasn’t directly billing. It apparently doesn’t matter if Telus actually makes money off customers whose service is paid for on an indirect basis. To not be registered to receive bills branded by their logo is apparently an incentive to them to treat people like dirt.
Perhaps I’m just too naive, but I always treat the customers of my customers like they are also my customers. Hey, I try to treat everyone I meet like they’re a customer. Perhaps that’s only because I operate a small business and I’m more motivated to grow my customer base.
As Confucius once said, “A man thinks differently in a palace than in a hut”, and perhaps if I was a large business that had been transformed literally overnight from a government run operation with decades of secure operation into a capitalist enterprise, I might think differently about customer service. Perhaps I might choose to nickel and dime my customers with penalties for incremental features to pad my shareholders’ profits while the competition nipping at my heels includes them for free. Perhaps if I had inherited a monopolistically grown customer base instead of having to win each one by one, I might be more inclined to care less about each as individuals.
If that’s the case, then I hope never to grow so big as a business, because to me, the relationships I develop are what make my business worthwhile.
I do remember some customer research I encountered decades ago in my career that a happy customer will recommend a service to about two in ten people whereas an unhappy customer will tell up to eight in ten people about their negative experience. It’s been a long time since I learned that memorable lesson so I am not certain if the statistic still holds true to this day.
What I do know for certain is that my Telus mobile phone is going to be dumped as soon as I find a better provider.
Oh, and for those who have cared enough to get this far down in my diatribe; thank you for your concern, but my father in-law now has a mobile phone and has switched his landline provider to Shaw.
By 4unner on Sep 30, 2008