What Telecom Providers should do to improve their Customer Acquisition Process?

For any business to succeed, it is necessary to make Available simple  Products, that are Easily Accessible and  Generally Affordable to the common mass.

In mid 95' when Mobile service started in India, I happened to be the Head of Switching in  one of the earliest networks in India. I tried my best to sell the above business views, but there were few takers then.

The business pundits were of the opinion that Mobile business volume comes from the creamy layer, the busy product guys churning out complicated products in dozen that no body understood, the network available only in pockets of business locatlities, and charge you when you most need it (busy hour) at Rs.16/mt and charge for the I/C call, and a PSTN charge plus Mobile Air time charge for a mobile call to the other operator n/w in the city.  

Ever heard of restaurants charging double during eating hours? How happy you will be to pay for someone calling to wish you happy birthday?

Things changed fast with BSNL coming into play, and then I happened to be  with the vendor selling Mobile Switches to them?

With 3G and multi-media and meg-band networks, are we not going back to the same old business philosophy?

But let us be grateful to be out of the days with the only Service provider that made business plans for minus five year's need, and implemented it in next five years !!!  So far so good.

I guess the questions centers around improving Customer Acquisition Process , which will result in Higher sales and thus higher margins , in ideal scenarios at a lesser additional cost.

But improving CA Process can be done in different ways:

1) Focus on core activities of a Service Provider - selling, marketing and customer care functions 2) Outsource the non core fucntions

3) Automate every damn process that adds value.

4) Venture in new teritorry , new markets for higher sales

5) Focus on Supply chain to able to reach the distant customer. Prepaid distribution in telecom is similar to FMCG Model, have tie ups with these companies

6) Go and reach the customers , increase the retail outlets with back end connectivity. Retail in telecom is still in its growth stage

7) Predict the Customer behaviour, have BI tools in place

8) Have Bundled offers, do benefit based selling : TATA Walky is an example, just dont push sales.

9) Ask Loudly : for complaints , feedbacks , Accept faults Loudly - have assurance process in place, Once rectified, Restate Loudly

10) Use Sensory Branding to invoke customers : like Intel , Airtel Backgwound Tune ...

11) Have a Standard Customer Application form.

12) Tie up with Entertainment and Media to offer converged offers , wherever it is possible. Like Tata Sky can sell a Walky alongwith. Reliance Customer may get 1 free movie ticket to any of Adlabs production valid for 1 month.

Thanks and Regards

Manish Juneja

CA is easy when you stand upyp your deliverance promise! NO HIDDEN COSTS!! Thats what goes for me...Keep it simple! No asterix marks.. The asterix makes things more complicated because the SP needs to protect itself from the consumer court!

just need the demand of poor customer in INDIA i:e backward area with low cost plan.

better and bigger technologies then the other countries not following thier path but the plan of own along with awareness about the technologies.

bann the foriegn market for the time being till india's market develop

Any Service oriented industry needs to have a proper thorough understanding of its products/service. so also in the case of telecom sector.

In the present days all the telecom players have got numerous Usage plans in place in both Post paid and Prepaid areas, but have they understood the need to launch a plan from customer point of view. It's a big No.

The reason is they have not done a proper segmentation of the customers based on demographics.

The demographics that can act an criteria for a detailed understanding of the customer segments are  like

a. Individual User/Corporate User

b. Income Level

c. Understanding of the Usage pattern of the client/customer

d. Understanding the unique behaviourial traits of the customers segments

e. VAS customised as per usage pattern and behaviourial traits

For example the a the income pattern in Metro and Tier I town is difeerent so also the usage pattern and the behavioural traits hence the need of VAS, hence one size fits all plan will not yeild desired customer satistfaction hence unprofitable and customer attrition.

This segmentation study will not help in providing unique plans to different customer segments but will also help in identifying the latent needs hence meeting those needs through add ons and VAS.

One question that always keeps knocking on mind why have the telecom players not designed loyalty points or for that matter reward points for a loyal customer to retain him or have they taken loyal customers for granted, then it is not going to be anymore because of introduction of Number portability. 

This is one very important factor to be taken care of. Telecom is a service industry and if customers are not happy and feel that they are not attended properly they will switch brands. And this tough time when the competition is so high a company cannot afford to loose the existing customers...

VAS are provided by every company but a particular company can have some specific patented VAS which are its core competency. I think this will help in customer acquisition....

VAS are provided by every company but a particular company can have some specific patented VAS which are its core competency. I think this will help in customer acquisition....

Now is time to think beyond voice as voice is already available at cheap rate and on similar stuff from any of the service providers. Beyond vi=oice, could be data service, VAS serice or Video service. Think bundled offers for corporate employees.

Reducing network congestion, impriving network quality and bringing clarity on offers which are introduced often..........