Thursday, May 05, 2005

It's about the experience

This last week has been an interesting one for me.

I have been talking to a number of people who work in the industry about Mobile and just whats the problem.

The first issue is with the Mobile Network Operators.

Yes you were ripped off by Governments to stay in the game with 3G but get over it and move on. Build the networks out just like you did when we went digital and stick to what you should be good at, namely network optimisation and billing. Do not think that you understand data or can run a portal live that to guy who specialise. Invest in customer care and promote the fact to your customers.

The next issue is with Users

Just because you can talk and move does not mean that you have to all the time. Remember that the calling whilst driving laws are for a specific reason to keep other road users safe as well as your self. Remember that not everyone wants to hear you conversation and so try not to use your phone in quite public places like a cinema or restaurant. Therefore before you take/make that next call just think is it important or can I do this later in a better way?

Then we have the Content Guys

Try and remember that I have a mobile phone because I multitask, believe me if it was not for the fact that I need to make calls outside of the Home/Office then I would not pay over £100 per week to use such a poor service. This being the case then can you not try and segment me and try and understand that during the day I act as a Partner, Parent, Employee, Employer, Supplier, Client and Consumer sometime I am more than one of these things at anyone one time! This being the case I find it perfectly normal to seek train details, gifts, music and news in the space of 5 minutes. Just because I looked at a music site does not mean that I want to be spammed by you with offers for a new ringtone/wallpaper etc. I am a middleaged man with some disposable income at present and so yes I can pay for what I want but my Music education was in the late 70's - mid -80's and so I have little need for Dance music however it would have been good to kknow about Jill Scott sooner and my liking of Jazz does not include Jamie Callum or Katie Melua for me any way.

One for the Finance Guys

I would like to be able to store on my SIM card some of the details from my Payment cards. The SIM and the Smartcard look the same, my handset has a keypad with numbers, so when are you going to get with the program and not make me waste time putting in my full card numnber etc. Can you get your guys and Mobey Forum to talk with the Networks guys at SIMPAY and fix this before then end of the summer.



Sitting and talking with a number of executives it has become obvious that all involved have too many Accountants and NOT enough Economists, they need to employee more Sociologists than Economists and more Anthropologists than Sociologists. If they started employing people who tried to understand the customer rather than control costs maybe the customer would use the service more. It is not about the unit cost I pay for the service it is about the experience and utility the service provides. In the early days Orange was great because they tried to focus on the experience not the phone, now they focus on the technology and are not as cool.`

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

good post & a nice summary! just re: the simpay thing, no one is gonna do anything until the eMoney directive is reviewed this summer, so theyre waitin on the legislation

Ian Wood. Principal Wireless Foundry LLP said...

Hi Will,

SIMPAY goes live in Spain this Summer and will then launch in Benelux & Britain by Q4 this year. As for the eMoney regulation it looks like the control has been given back to a country level (the Conservatives would call in Subsiduarity)and this being the case like will be done to stop Micro payments due to the high transaction charges placed by the payment processing companies. I think it may take time for the arrival of macro payments on SIMPAY because of the regulation but this could also be resolved via the Near Field Commerce lobby.