Thursday, April 28. 2011What IS A Key Differentiator In Mobile Broadband?John Linton We spent the best part of four hours yesterday before 'adjourning' our meeting aimed at improving our mobile broadband offerings. We couldn't answer the question as to why people who sign up for our mobile broadband offerings opt 5:1 for the premium (much more expensive) services over the 'standard' services which are, as far as we can see, the lowest cost on the market. The only possible explanation was that we offer a zero contract on the premium plans and 12 months on the 'standard plans'. Personally, I can't see this being the real issue as mobile broadband is not location dependent which is the big drawback for 'renters' on ADSL plans. In reviewing how other suppliers 'present' information on mobile broadband it was clear that only Telstra claimed their service was a) fast and b) widely available with no claims made by other carriers and their resellers. What was equally evident, including Telstra, was the desire to 'hide' the true costs of the service as much as is legally possible in the main 'displays' of the pricing of the plans. Our conclusions were that Exetel had the best 'standard' plan pricing and, based on the publicly available information, the shortest (by the proverbial country mile) support and provisioning 'queues' and more skilled support/provisioning personnel at the end of those short queues. So what is our problem? Not enough people know about our mobile broadband services is the only conclusion we reached before calling an early end to the day's deliberations. We had one idea to promote greater awareness which is something that might work in the not too distant future but needs more thinking through before we attempt to execute it. It basically involves sending a sim with 5 GB of data allowance to 50 telecommunication journalists with our claim that the Exetel version of the Optus mobile broadband service doesn't only deliver faster downloads and greater reliability than the Optus mobile broadband service itself (and better than the Optus resellers such as Virgin, Internode, iinet and, particularly, Dodo) but it runs as fast as Telstra's mobile broadband service in every area but one in which it has been tested. We obviously need to 'do more marketing' as several readers of this blog suggested when I asked for ideas but Exetel has no money for advertising and we need better ways of communicating with potential customers and real proof of our 'better than Optus' claims - it is of very limited value making such claims ourselves. We will try again today to finish the re-vamp of the mobile broadband parts of the web site and then put in place a much more rigorous, and continuing, marketing program for mobile broadband. Any ideas would be warmly welcomed. Copyright © Exetel Pty Ltd 2011
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Why don't you simply ask (via email with link to a simple web form) your most recent 1000 or so customers why they chose the premium over the standard?
Definitely send a SIM to the journos - lifehacker like to do comparisons, and seem to leave Exetel out (maybe they assume all resellers of Optus are equal, and need to be pushed why this isn't the case). I use the premium service because it was the only one available at the time. It also had the $0 /month, PAYU option, so yes, I am one of those users that costs Exetel a few dollars a month. I use that SIM in the family's iPad - it is absolutely perfect for that. If you could bundle your services along with some of these new tablet devices, that would also help raise your profile. I know you're not really into "handset" offerings in the mobile space, but I imagine there are many users who will just want to get their mobile broadband at the same time as their device (talking tablets here, not phones) and so Exetel would miss out on a lot of these opportunities. Comment (1)
I find the Standard plans unattractive because of the contract AND the 6 cents excess cost. You miscalculate your usage and bam you get hammered.
The premium plans are better but you need something for the casual iPad or tablet user, it needs to be a pure PAYU plan. A challenge I know. Comments (2)
Oh I forgot, your best and cheapest "marketing" would be to embrace social media. In this category I would suggest Whirlpool, it is full of hardcore users and influencers. Yes they can bite but they know a good deal when they see it and word gets out.
Comments (2)
I used to have an Exetel HSPA sim and used it when I was on holidays or "on the road". This meant I used it maybe 4-5 months each year.
It had a great charge rate of $15 per GB. But then Exetel advised me that a $5 per month minimum charge would apply. I was not happy to may that additional $40 per year. So I looked around and found Optus had an annual plan with about 6GB capacity - which suited my usage.... and the average cost was around $15 per GB. I would consider purchasing another Exetel HSPA sim if they had an annual plan with 4-6GB of capacity.....or resumed the old $0 per month plan @ $15 per GB. Regards, Comment (1)
Maybe I look in the wrong places, but something that always strikes me, is that I rarely see Exetel’s name mentioned in newspaper articles and surveys. All the others pop up around the place - Internode, iiNet, Netspace, TPG etc - but rarely Exetel.
This led me to start thinking that perhaps Exetel is missing out on some business because people aren’t familiar with the name. When shopping around for a new deal, people tend to look at the familiar names. A long time ago I employed a “PR consultant” as they were called then. He was a part time employee who knew all the journalists and media contacts around town. He got to know my business and the special things we did and would contact a journalist with an interest in some area and invite them in for a chat. A week or two later, an article would appear in one of the papers about some aspect of technology and mention our business, or quoting something we said in relation to the article’s subject. So the PR guy kept our name in the media almost every week, including some radio and TV interviews from time to time. It was hard to quantify the results from this PR work, but it did seem to oil the wheels for our other marketing activities and promotions. Comment (1)
I'm sure you are right and that it's something we should do.
Comments (4)
Are you looking to target business or home users?
Business users are easy. On your cold call offer them the xGB free test over an arranged period. For existing business customers do the same with maybe a higher limit/period. Then just follow them up at the start/middle/end of the period to close the deal. Non business users could be approached the same with a lower limit. Alternatively you could pop an "enter your Optus/Dodo/iinet ect" contract number here to recieve a free sample of Exetel wireless. If the product is as good as it reads then helping the user to realise what the difference is should be easy? Comment (1)
When you were in the UK, how did you as a customer find the experience of searching for mobile broadband? Were there any lessons there that could be used for Exetel?
Now the selfish side, what choice did you come up with? I want to go to the UK soon and would appreciate any help finding a mobile SIM / data plan Comment (1)
I simply walk in to the first mobile shop that isn't busy and buy the first 'free' dongle that comes with a few GB of data.
Fifteen pounds is the most I have paid and, if possible, O2 is my preferred provider (widest coverage as I spend most time deep in rural areas). Most hotels/pubs have free wifi. Comments (4)
Read this last week and then had to think about it.
I support some users who use dial-up, so they must pay a monthly line rental fee, pay for each 019 call and then pay the monthly ISP fee for dial-up. It is a no brainer for me, use wireless. So if exetel chases 1/4 of the 800,000 users on dial up - another 200,000 wireless bband users. The add some other services, fixed-lines, mobiles and ARPU will rise. So target dialup users. Comment (1)
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