John Linton
.........about what broad band buyers need, want and will buy - I finally finished the re-vamp of the ADSL2 plans that will be offered from October 1st 2009 at around 2 am yesterday.
In the end the changes were far more radical than I had anticipated and addressed far more issues than I had expected to be able to do. I think it was only the freshness of mind of 4 weeks absence from the daily minutiae involved in running a small business which despite, all the strange errors that jet lag induces, allowed such a comprehensive review of the market, the current and possible changes in Exetel's costings and an analysis of the short term future economic pressures to be done in such a relatively short time and produce such a "radically" different set of plans.
The constant feedback from current customers throughout the process was almost overwhelmingly negative and, in many ways, that was to be expected because the new ADSL2 plans are not aimed at the profile range of Exetel's current customers who, for the most part, are mature individuals with a realistic knowledge of communications technologies and what it can really do for the more sophisticated user.....there are obviously many exceptions to that within Exetel's current user base but they tend not to be the ones who comment, at least not to me.
Exetel has always highly valued its 'intelligent' customers and has shown this in many ways including its Pioneer Discount program which gives Exetel's earliest customers a significant monthly cost saving on whatever plan they use as well as providing them with various 'grace and favour' accommodations to meet their specific needs over the years. We will continue to meet the needs of all of our current customers by allowing them to remain on the various 'generations' of plans that they have selected over the years and many tens of thousands of those plans provide services that make Exetel very little, or in some cases no, money at all. So no current customer has been inconvenienced in any way by the sharp change in 'focus' these new ADSL2 plans represent.
The new ADSL2 plans have been aimed at addressing a wider market than Exetel has aimed at in the past. This has become necessary simply because the residential markets available to Exetel have changed and if we don't more closely meet those market's needs then our residential ADSL2 business will decline which is something we would not like to see happen at this stage of the company's development. The new plans are aimed at providing the best value for money at the lowest possible prices to the more 'general' ADSL2 buyers than the more 'sophisticated' buyers which we previously tried to address - or maybe kidded ourselves we did.
As far as I can see, and I've looked pretty completely and double and triple checked my analysis, the new plans offer lower prices with more functionality and far more possible add ons (at low prices) than any other provider to three of the more general residential marketplaces - and they do this in a major and conclusive way - no ifs or buts or "if you look at it this ways" type garbage - just straight out lower monthly costs for more of everything. Also no activation fee for either new or churn customers. Also no 18 month or 24 month contracts. Also a choice of ULL, SSS or No PSTN line at all choices - something no other ISP is able to offer from Telstra down to the dregs. So, all in all, a very compelling set of plans that include the very lowest monthly prices and a 'complete' range of options for every level of the three largest residential marketplaces......only in my opinion of course.
Despite the criticism I received while developing this new approach, and of course everyone can have an opinion on how to run an ISP, the first day's sales orders were quite pleasing with a noticeable increase which, while in no way meaningful, was more heartening to see than a decrease. I will be particularly interested to see if the different plans that have been targeted at different marketplaces actually work out but that won't be known for quite a while. However I was pleased to see our sales of ADSL via SSS pick up very sharply on the first day. It will be an interesting few weeks to see what happens and whether our intentions are met.
For those people who contributed their, positive, suggestions - thank you for your interest and help - I always find other views both interesting and helpful in making final decisions. For those people who suggest I've got it hopelessly wrong - you could well be right but at the end of the day a decision on what Exetel does has to be made and the people who have the most to lose (or gain) from that process have to take the responsibility for making whatever decisions they deem to be in the best interests of Exetel and its customers....they also then get to endlessly agonise over those decisions.