“You don’t earn loyalty in a day. You earn loyalty day-by-day.”Jeffrey Gitomer
“Do what you do so well that they will want
to see it again and bring their friends.”
WALT DISNEY
Many marketers know the term ”marketing loyalty” as a form to retain existing customers through incentives. But how do marketers ensure that they get it right in the mobile market, where competition is fierce on one hand, while technology evolves every changing minute? The simple solution is to combine these two elements with the way people are consuming other technologies these days; quick, real-time and targeted consumption and the answer is simple: Contextual Loyalty. What does this mean? Take a leaf from Google’s book and offer customers relevant offers at the right time… time and time again. Read more
| Leave a Comment July 25th, 2011
Trapped in “Technological Centricity”
Why Churn Management is more than complex statistical tools and techniques
With penetration of mobile phone usage approaching and even exceeding 100 percent in many countries, mobile carriers are becoming more and more dependent on data generated by their legacy transactional systems to innovate new products and implement customer retention campaigns. Customer churn has become one of the major indicators that mobile operators keep their eyes on, when planning and reporting market share dynamics. And although most of the carriers have their strategies and a complex of measures to reduce churn and increase customer loyalty, industry wide researches, including the one implemented by Enders Analysis on UK mobile market in 2010 (Diagram 1), demonstrate the persistence of customer churn management challenges and its growing concern. Read more
| Leave a Comment December 29th, 2010
Social Effects on Customer Retention at a Mobile Operator
Researchers recognize the role that social interaction has in the adoption of new products or services: word-of-mouth interactions can lessen the risk and uncertainty associated with new products. But what about quitting behavior? If social connections can induce a person to adopt a product or service, can they also lead a person to abandon a product or service? Until recently, it has been difficult to study this question because of the extensive data needed to do so, but in the past few years, researchers have used telecommunications databases to explore social network behavior. In the current research, Irit Nitzan and Barak Libai of Tel Aviv University use a cellular phone company’s database of more than one million customers to examine the influence that customers who leave the company (defectors) have on their first-degree contacts (direct contacts, or “neighbors”) in their social network.
| Leave a Comment September 5th, 2010
The Pain in Spain: Fake SIM Activation
Spain has one of the largest mobile markets in Europe, with effective competition from four mobile network operators and a growing number of resellers. The economic crisis, combined with new EU regulations and the fierce competition has driven down the cost of mobile calls by 35% since 2005. As if that’s not enough, the Spanish prepaid mobile market has encountered another challenge which seriously affected ARPU. Fake SIM activations, also known as “revolving doors”, have recently hit Spain, significantly impacting operators’ revenue. Some users activate a new card due to the loss of an old SIM, but others take advantage of an attractive acquisition offer (e.g. free airtime, subsidized handset…). In such a case, the old SIM remains dormant and in due time is considered a churned customer.How can operators handle such a phenomenon? How can they identify and differentiate between the different kinds of SIM activations, and more importantly – how can they be prevented? Read more
| Leave a Comment July 20th, 2010
Case Study: Enriching Marketing Campaigns With Context Pays Off for a Tier 1 European Mobile Operator
Gartner has published a case study* in which they document how the use of real-time, contextual information, targeted highly relevant offers to individual customers, have helped a Tier 1 European provider boost their service revenue from prepaid phones, enhance customer loyalty and reduce churn.
The main findings illustrate how the operator has succeeded to follow and better understand the individual needs of their entire customer base and based on this data offered specific targeted prices and products which were highly relevant to individual subscribers. Due to the real-time execution and automatic fulfillment of these offers allowing quick follow-up, and guaranteeing higher response rates, the operator had succeeded to increase overall revenue per subscriber: “offerings that are personalized to the customer segment and presented when the customer is most receptive generate tangible new revenue.”
In this example, the case study highlights how the operator’s “acceptance of promotional offers rose from 2% – 10%.” It further explores how the operator has managed to create an ongoing dialogue with their customers.
Furthermore, the case study recommends that “vendors should target the marketing team, rather than the IT or business intelligence (BI) teams with their products. Highlight that this type of approach allows marketers to radically change the way in which they create and manage promotions”
In addition it is recommended that: “Communications service providers (CSPs) should select a vendor with a proven track record of successful implementations and comprehensive consulting services — they will need to rely on the vendor’s advice to avoid the most common mistakes when creating this new type of campaign”.*
Gartner, Inc.:. Publication ID Number: G00175497
Gartner research is available at www.gartner.com
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