Thursday, April 16. 2009Instant Customer Feed Back - How Did We Exist Before Fora?John Linton We sent an email to our ADSL users yesterday afternoon following a suggestion from a customer (via the suggestion box) that we move the 'off peak' period start from 12 midnight to 2 am but still provide a full 12 hours a day, every day, of "off peak" time. It seemed to be a sensible suggestion and there have been times in the past when 'off peak' has started at 1.00 am and also for a brief period at 2.00 am....there appeared to be no reason not to contemplate changing it again. We have been refining the concept of 'off peak' usage since March 1st 2004 and after starting with unlimited usage during off peak time (which was 8 hours a day then) had to put some limit on it which we brought in late in 2004 at, if failing memory hasn't completely mislead me, a soft limit of 20 gb - still quite a hefty allowance in those days. We experimented with various forms of 'restraining' downloads over the next 12 months or so before bringing in charging for downloads over what had then reached 42 gb in a 9 hour period. We have progressively increased the 'allowance' in off peak as well as progressively increasing the amount of of peak time to what it is today - a full half day and 60 gb for all currently offered plans to new users - easily the most generous (and therefore easily the most useful) major plan component provided by any Australian ISP. Of course, not every user needs such a generous allowance but EVERY user benefits from having a twelve hour period each day where there internet use doesn't rack up down loads which allows them to select a lower 'peak time' plan allowance than they could do from other ISPs therefore allowing them to spend less money each month - the real advantage of this method of 'plan design'. Exetel have been able to continually increase the amount of allowance in off peak in line with our month on month growth of total IP bandwidth which has now reached well over 3 gbps which still means that 'off peak' usage goes nowhere near being even 50% used for most of the 12 hour period - though, presumably because so many customers don't understand how to use download schedulers, it still peaks at midnight each night before quickly falling away 20 minutes later. So there was more response to the email asking for feedback than any other email we have ever sent to the user base other than an email some two years ago requesting feedback on changes to fault resolution procedures. A lot of it was via email but there has also been a great deal via the forum thread opened for the purpose. As usual the 'spread' of suggestions is quite wide and, as always, is very useful. It has surprised me that so many people seem to be unaware of download managers and the other 'timing features' of the computer hardware they use and somehow have formed the view that they have to be 'awake' to start some download process but then I guess that's simply the 'VCR timer' issue still being a major factor in the use of 'technology' products. One of the suggestions, which strangely we have never considered before, is to allow the user to choose their 'off peak' period start time. This has some merit and although it could only be within a 'narrow choice band' it could well be another "Exetel Exclusive" that is useful to some percentage of customers as well as to Exetel. I'm sure our programming skills and resources could cope with providing a User Facilities choice of, say, a default 12 midnight to 12 noon 'off peak peiod' with the ability to select a 1 am to 1 pm period or a 2 am to 2 pm period. Perhaps we could 'reward' people who selected the later start periods with additional download allowances (66 gb for a 1 am start and 69 gb for a 2 am start?) I don't know - only having read the majority of the feedback just before I started writing this blog but maybe it would be both a benefit and another major 'plus' for Exetel's plans. I have always liked the ability to use the 12 midnight to 12 noon period on the pricing break down - to me, it looks more impressive than 2 am to 2 pm (though maybe it would get rid of the constant dribble of criticism that its hard to work out). One thing's for sure - customer feedback is a very valuable 'resource' in running a commercial enterprise better. Trackbacks
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Maybe you could use the same method to get further info about ADSL1 vs ADSL2 takeup (yesterday's blog).
Email people who have ordered ADSL1 (vs ADSL2+) over the last 3 months requesting comment. Regards, Harry. Comments (2)
"Peraps we could 'reward' people who selected the later start periods with additional donload alowances (66 gb for a 1 am start and 69 gb for a 2 am start?)"
Sounds like an excellent suggestion to me. Comment (1)
This also sounds like a great idea.
It will allow late night gamers and users an extra couple of hours before the main leechers come online as they move to start their downloads to 2am. I think 65gb for 1am and 70gb for 2am. It should be enough incentive without affecting exetel's bottom line too adversely as most would not utilise this amount of data anyway. Comment (1)
I love the idea. I usually get home from work at 1-2am (thus get to bed at 3am) so waking up and still being in off-peak would be a plus.
Comments (2)
I am a big fan of customisation... letting people decide when to start their off-peak period is a great idea.
Comment (1)
I've only had a quick look through the forum as the thread has been going that fast it's hard to track but the most common thing I noticed from those that didn't like the idea was having to stay up later to commence their downloads, obviously they don't know how to manage scheduled downloads so perhaps some how-to guides to assist those that don't understand how to schedule would be worthwhile
Comments (2)
I like the idea of the user choice. Indeed, whenever I read threads on the 'midnight slowdown' or similar I have a look at the MRTG Graphs and ponder options on how to flatten the usage peaks and troughs.
I kept coming back to a Tiered approach rather than peak vs off-peak. Eg an 8-8-8 split or 12-6-6 or whatever, with quota in each. This is more complex and I know a lot of people would complain (I want to use my quota when I want!). However my assumption is that you want to try and get overall data use to be as flat throughout the 24 hours as possible. There seems to be a number of periods where people want different things. Eg: (Very generalised list) -Business hours - VPN, VOIP, browsing (interactive) -Evening / early morning - gamers, Streaming -Overnight - queued bulk downloads Making quota really flexible could be a great point of differentiation for Exetel. Instead of offering standard ‘me too’ type plans, you could have a table of time bands with a download allowance at given prices. People could then mix and match based on their preferred projected usage patterns. Of course Exetel would weight the bands to encourage use during the troughs. I don’t know how this table will read in this blog but here goes: ---Time---|-12GB-|-20GB-|-40GB-|-60GB 2000-0200-|--$7--|-$10--|-$30--|-$40 0200-0800-|--$5--|--$8--|-$20--|-$30 0800-2000-|-$10--|-$20--|-$40--|-$60 So people pick one column from each time band (radio button). There’d probably need to be an access charge on top. Kind of like a PAYU plan but with blocks rather than flat rate. The figures above aren’t important just illustrative. As I say, more complex, but great flexibility in user choice and certainly a point of differentiation. Getting back to the simpler user selectable off peak. I would recommend making the band that Exetel prefers to be the default Eg 2-2 for 69. This then forces people to choose the earlier one. The perception is that they ‘lose’ something. Like a reverse incentive. If you left the default at 12-12 and people can opt for the latter, I think you’d find most? (many) people would leave it at default. Comment (1)
You're almost certainly correct - but customers are not the easiest people to "change things on".
Comments (2)
It's a similar suggestion, but what about a "weighting" factor for the different time bands.
You would simply have peak, off peak and shoulder timeslots, and give customers a weighted time allowance, such as 60GB weighted. Midnight to 2am is weighted at 1.5 8am to noon is weighted at 1.5 2am to 4am is weighted at 0.75 4am to 8am is weighted at 1 So every GB downloaded between 12:00 to 02:00 costs 1.5GB of the offpeak This would allow users to select what they prefer. For instance, I am a low-use downloader, so I would download in the peak periods without a worry. Others would schedule for later times to maximise the total GB they can download. This may enable you to extend the period from 11pm to 2pm, even... Comment (1)
Too complicated... The old saying, KISS... "Keep it simple, stupid."
I don't mean that in any derogatory way Comments (2)
I'm a bit like you John, off-peak 12-12 is nice. 2-2 is not, but 3-3 would work for me. It's a bit like setting your TV volume to 5 but not 4 or 6
Comment (1)
sorry... wouldn't work.
I only have my volume on even numbers! Comment (1)
after reading though some more of the forum posts from people that are against any change their views sound somewhat similar to people that are against daylight savings because their curtains will fade due to the extra hour of sunlight
Comments (2)
If your living in WA then the 2am-2pm would be preferable to many as this would in effect be 12am-12pm for them.
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Imagine if you could implement a system like the electricity providers use. You "signal" modems or whatever to say that usuage isn't high at the moment and you can download for free/half price.
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Now that's a great idea. Or a seperate bandwidth pool (port no) to use that's severely restricted unless Exetel has free/excess bandwidth to allow us.
Comment (1)
isnt the whole idea of offpeak usage based on what free space the ISP has left of paid ip usage and is not fully utilizing, between certain hours, and it is designed to fully ultilise any freespace of that bandwidth you have left.
im confussed. Comment (1)
Why not use "a market approach" and charge people for their usage throughout the whole 24 hours.
Have lower rates for times the system is not being used all that much. ... and the profile of your users may becomea more profiatable one overall. H. Comments (2)
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