Simple billing, stupid
With a current price war between operators in South Africa in full swing, business solutions provider, Consology argues that simplicity and transparency offers networks and service providers’ strong opportunities to differentiate themselves.
According to Kevin Meltzer, co-founder of Consology, complex, opaque billing is one major cause of customer dissatisfaction with operators among contract subscribers.
Telecommunications products have grown in complexity over the years as operators have sought to differentiate themselves with a range of pricing schemes and packages, and as new data products have been added to the mix. Product bundling has also resulted in multiple products being presented to a customer from a billing perspective, he says.
The result is that many consumers struggle to understand how they will be billed for voice and data usage and are often at a loss to find out which of the myriad complex packages on the market are right for their usage patterns and levels, says Meltzer. This aspect of the telecommunications experience is finally getting some scrutiny from the networks, he adds.
“The price war is heating up, and one aspect of that is that operators are finally starting to relook their packages,” Meltzer said. “We are seeing some of them slim down their numerous contract offerings into fewer, more streamlined options that consumers can understand and compare without resorting to a spreadsheet. At last, we are also seeing uncapped, flat-rate voice tariffs come into play, though we have a long way to go before we can compare to Europe and North America in this regard.”
Meltzer says that networks are beginning to understand that simpler and more transparent billing structures benefit them as much as they do consumers. In addition to fostering customer trust and loyalty, they also help cut down bill disputes and ensure prompter payment of bills by customers.
What’s more, simpler billing provides a platform for real product innovation and helps operators to streamline their own back-office and frontline service structures. “For example, it becomes far easier to help customers move to mobile or online Self-Service billing, because they don’t need to pore over a complex paper bill to understand their telecommunications spending,” he said.
Meltzer says that one area where networks need to focus more on transparency and simplicity of billing is in data usage, where in-bundle and out of bundle data pricing structures can be mystifying. With some operators looking to bill LTE services at a higher rate than 3G services, the picture is set to get more confusing.
“There is plenty of room to streamline here,” Meltzer said. “Data is the future for operators, so they should be looking to simplify their offering here as more users adopt smartphones, tablets and data cards.” Data call volumes can now surpass voice call volumes for many customers and itemized billing could start become unwieldy if not viewed in a new way.
But overall, a shift towards simpler and more transparent billing is inevitable in a market where competition is heating up and regulation is getting tighter, the company lead says. “Laws like the Consumer Protection Act and the price war will accelerate this change in the market,” he added.
Kevin Meltzer, co-founder of Consology.
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