The New Wireless Point of Sale:
An Intelligent Approach to
Customer Segmentation
By Fierce Wireless
January 08, 2003
subscribe for free: www.fiercewireless.com
Guest Comment:
The New Wireless Point of Sale:
An Intelligent Approach to Customer Segmentation
Telespree's CEO Bill DeKay offers
insight into how carriers can use advanced micro-segmentation practices
to optimize new customer service revenues -- using wireless devices
as point-of-sale tools.
Guest Comment:
The New Wireless Point of Sale: An Intelligent Approach to Customer
Segmentation
Telespree
CEO Bill DeKay offers insight into how carriers can use advanced micro-segmentation
practices to optimize new customer service revenues -- using wireless
devices as point-of-sale tools.
When it comes to customer
acquisition and activation, wireless carriers have come a long way in
the last decade. Wireless phones are sold in many venues, from discount
retailers to high-end, carrier-owned stores. Wireless subscribers no
longer have to wait hours to get their phones activated. And they have
a wide variety of pricing plans from which to choose.
But, as any wireless carrier
knows, the process is still less than perfect. It also remains highly
expensive, often costing $300 to $400 to acquire a customer. In many
retail locations, poorly trained salespeople sell consumers the wrong
minute plan and fail to up-sell them on additional services. On the
back end, operations support systems (OSS) are too rigid to capture
and manipulate anything but basic customer information.
But
in their efforts to rise above the limitations of current retail and
back-end systems, wireless carriers have ignored the most obvious point-of-sale
tool in their acquisition arsenals: The wireless devices themselves.
In order to truly revolutionize the point-of-sale process, wireless
carriers must insert intelligence into the acquisition and activation
systems in their networks. Using this intelligence, carriers can then
turn to wireless devices to automate and personalize the point of sale
experience.
Using the wireless device
as an intelligent point-of-sale tool gives carriers the ability to interact
with the buyer on a more personalized level and offer service plans
and features that best fit their lifestyle.
By
providing off-the-shelf devices that intuitively guide consumers through
the acquisition process at the point of purchase, carriers can optimize
retail distribution by engaging the consumer in a more personalized
experience while also reducing costs. Using the wireless device as an
intelligent point-of-sale tool gives carriers the ability to interact
with the buyer on a more personalized level and offer service plans
and features that best fit their lifestyle. This is a brand reputation
that can elicit strong customer loyalty, maximum service revenues, and
repeat business.
Consider this scenario: A
home improvement contractor walks into a major building supply company
and buys a wireless phone. After hitting the "power" button, the contractor
is prompted through a series of automated questions, during which the
carrier collects all of the information necessary to activate the phone,
including credit and rate plan information.
But
before the individual's account is created in the carrier's OSS system,
the carrier, through a network-based automated intelligent acquisition
system, can leverage additional information about that user by tapping
into the building supply company's existing customer database -- with
permission, of course. The carrier can then tailor the service plan
over to that user based on that information. For instance, if the contractor
has a corporate account with the building supply company, the database
may indicate that there are less than 10 employees in his company. The
carrier could offer the contractor a special group minute deal that
could cover all company employees. Or the automated, intelligent questioning
process could be used to determine something as simple as whether the
potential subscriber will use the phone for business or pleasure. If
the subscriber answers "business," the carrier may extend an offer that
allows the subscriber to push his or her Mobile Outlook messages to
the wireless data phone for $4 extra per month.
All
of this can take place without involving a poorly trained yet still
highly expensive commissioned sales representative, or without tying
up the resources of a call center representative at the cost of $1 per
minute.
For
consumers, based on information the user provided during the device-initiated
account set up process, the carrier can instantly target a specific
demographic segment with specialized offers: ring tones for a teen,
family plans for a parent, overseas plans for frequent international
callers, and new trial offers for any consumer micro-segment. Carriers
could also form a migration bridge between prepaid and postpaid, by
quickly credit validating a prepaid user and offering them a post-paid
service alternative offer, all via the handset itself.
All
of this can take place without involving a poorly trained yet still
highly expensive commissioned sales representative, or without tying
up the resources of a call center representative at the cost of $1 per
minute.
The
math is simple: Wireless carriers simply cannot afford to spend $80
or more to upsell a customer on an application that brings in only $4
in revenue per month. With intelligent acquisition, they no longer have
to do so.
The
idea of using intelligence to personalize the user experience is not
a new one. Thanks to the Internet, companies can use intelligent agents
to tap into databases and change responses to customers in real time
based on this information.
The
idea of using intelligence to personalize the user experience is not
a new one. Thanks to the Internet, companies can use intelligent agents
to tap into databases and change responses to customers in real time
based on this information. Extending this concept to wireless, carriers
can use auto-activating wireless devices to create an effective one-to-one
customer engagement - without spending a fortune to do so. Inserting
intelligence into the activation process enables carriers to use wireless
devices as the point of sale to interact with the buyer on a more personalized
level and thus offer targeted rate plans and features that best fit
their lifestyle.
According to Cap Gemini, carriers
spend anywhere from $14 to $100 simply to activate a new customer. This
only represents the activation costs, not the money spent on total customer
acquisition items such as retail commissions, call centers, and service
offer promotions. By relying on wireless devices to add intelligence
and automate the acquisition and activation process, wireless carriers
can achieve savings of about 10 percent on their cost per gross add
(CPGA), while also better serving customers using precise customer segmentation.
According to Cap Gemini,
carriers spend anywhere from $14 to $100 simply to activate a new customer.
This only represents the activation costs, not the money spent on total
customer acquisition items such as retail commissions, call centers,
and service offer promotions.
Relying on a wireless device
as a combined point of sale and intelligent OSS portal increases flexibility
for wireless carriers without requiring them to change their OSS back
end, an expensive process that can take months. Best yet, it allows
carriers to expand into new, diversified market segments and customize
the user experience to maximize revenue without having to manually handhold
each customer, an expensive proposition that carriers can no longer
afford.
Highly targeted and effective
customer acquisition systems, using advanced automation to learn about
subscribers in real time and provide customized service offers -- all
via the device through an intelligent acquisition system in their network
-- launch a new era in wireless sales.
Bill DeKay is CEO of Telespree Communications.
================================
FierceWireless is the wireless industry's daily monitor.
Editor: Stephen Wellman - [email protected]
Publisher: Jeff Giesea - [email protected]
Advertise: contact Jason Nelson at [email protected] or (202)
628-8778x10
Press Releases: email [email protected]
Subscribe for free: www.fiercewireless.com
Unsubscribe: click
here
FierceWireless
1319 F Street NW, Suite 604
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 628-8778
© 2003 FierceMarkets Inc *
® All rights reserved
back
to top...
click hereto print this page...