WDS Experience Podcast

Mobile Loyalty Audit 2013

2013-04-19T12:48:00.001+01:00

Series 2: Episode 3 - Mobile Loyalty Audit 2013

So the apostles, have been postulating over the 'Apostle Model' and stressing over the 'Stress Tests', to discuss the outcomes of the WDS Mobile Loyalty Audit for 2013; its implications for NPS and CSAT; and for operators in today's hype-competitive market.

Are you a loyalist, a mercenary, a defector, or a captive? Whatever your level of satisfaction, this can easily be impacted by poor network, security breaches or billing issues, but dive deeper and there are a few more myths to be busted.

The assumptions and the judgements present in many reports today often over-estimate loyalty and mistakenly determine the validity of people's sentiment. In a podcast that looks to discover more about the emotional drivers to switching from your operator and why they need to be better understood.

We must remind listeners that no harm came to the members of the panel whilst the 'stressing' was taking place. Although Rufus suffered slight bruising.

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Spot the Loyalist, the Mercenary, the Defector and the Captive.

Tim Deluca-Smith, VP Marketing at WDS, hosts the podcast with guests CCgroup Richard Fogg, Managing Director, Paul Nolan, Associate Director & Head of Telecoms and Rufus Jay, Senior Account Manager.

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WDS Loyalty Audit

The WDS Mobile Loyalty Audit cuts through industry churn data, talking to US and UK customers to understand how they really feel about their mobile operator. What’s creating loyalty, and what’s breaking it.
Download US infographic, UK infographic or request report.

WDS Trends 2013 #2 - The Predictors

2013-02-20T14:15:00.000+00:00

Series 2: Episode 2 - Wireless Trends 5 to 10

Part 2 of WDS’ industry trends for 2013, the panel charge straight into their deliberations to cover the remaining topics from episode #1. Spanning security issues in our post PC era; Windows Phone OS as a haven from litigation and Android proliferation into cameras, smart TVs and set-top boxes. Richard sips a little too much of the HTML5 cool-ade, and promptly splits the panel down the middle, and thanks to Nick a consensus is reached on the back of Patent Wars.

In the second of 2 episodes, each covering 5 of the listed topics, the team continues to cast differing viewpoints on our post PC, innovative, wireless technology space.

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The Predictors

Tim Deluca-Smith, VP Marketing at WDS, hosts Episode 1 of series 2 with guests Nick Gyles, CTO and Kayliegh Chapman Marketing Executive at WDS. From CCgroup Richard Fogg, Managing Director, Paul Nolan, Associate Director & Head of Telecoms and Rufus Jay, Senior Account Manager.

In summary, the remaining wireless trends in this podcast predicted by WDS for 2013 are:

Security threats put enterprise vendors on the mobile map
Android goes viral
Lingering patent litigation benefits Windows Phone OS
HTML5 web apps evolve
The beginning of the end for patent wars

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The Complete WDS Trends 2013

From Amazon's Kindle phone to BlackBerry's come back, one tap convenience to HTML5 web apps, here are ten trends set to shape the wireless industry in 2013.
Download Report or Infographic

WDS Trends 2013 #1 - The Predictors

2013-02-13T11:31:00.000+00:00

Series 2: Episode 1 - Wireless Trends 1 to 5

Each year WDS releases its 10 industry trends. Now in its fourth year ‘the predictors’ seek to provide comment on trends that will be pertinent and relevant in the coming 12 months. From an excellent track record, will their predictions stack up? Tim Deluca-Smith has nailed his colors to the mast and is joined by a panel not always in full agreement.

In the first of 2 episodes, each covering 5 of the listed topics the team will shine a light on the comebacks, the competition, the keypads and the consumer from a wireless perspective.

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The Predictors

In summary, this podcast's wireless trends predicted by WDS for 2013 are:

Mobile operators finally pose a real challenge to fixed line players
Price pressures ensure the survival of the featurephone
BlackBerry bounces back
NFC deployments concentrate on information sharing
The Kindle Phone enters the market
Security threats put enterprise vendors on the mobile map

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The Complete WDS Trends 2013

From Amazon's Kindle phone to BlackBerry's come back, one tap convenience to HTML5 web apps, here are ten trends set to shape the wireless industry in 2013.
Download Report or Infographic

Putting telecoms loyalty through the blender

2012-11-13T11:46:00.000+00:00

Series 1: Episode 7

What is loyalty, what are the financial benefits of loyalty to a carrier or hardware brand and how can this be grown and managed? Primarily consumers are easily swayed on price; are rarely or truly loyal, and mapping the intricacies of customer satisfaction against the lifecycle is challenging.

One of the principle mistakes made by wireless organizations is to correlate satisfaction directly to loyalty when the two are actually very different. Satisfaction is just that, an end-user’s degree of satisfaction at any given time in the customer lifecycle. Often measured by a Net Promoter Score (NPS), customer satisfaction seeks to understand whether the end-user’s expectations have been met.

So, we put loyalty in the blender, look at its constituent parts, and seek to understand the nature of the end-user relationship to determine the experience that meets the customer’s brand promise.

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Tim Deluca-Smith, VP Marketing at WDS, hosts Episode 7 with guests Craig Rich, CMO at WDS, Richard Fogg, Managing Director at CCgroup and Paul Nolan, Associate Director & Head of Telecoms at CCgroup.

Show Notes

Are you loyal, truly loyal?

Take your pick, there’s habitually, emotionally, intensely loyal, insert or lazily loyal.
Is it difficult to be loyal to a service?
Do you actively encourage a brand?

Are wireless carriers mistaking loyalty for satisfaction, can consumers ever be loyal to a service provider?

It’s not the product of a single experience, its lots of different experiences over a period of time.
Most service providers treat tenure as loyalty.
Ahh! There’s always retention.
How is the industry recognizing and building loyalty?
Managing loyalty through customer experience.
Thanks Neelie Kroes and Viviane Reding

There are 2 real traits/attributes to loyalty, forgiveness and resistance to offers and price promotions. How do you build on these attributes?

You can't buy loyalty, they are a series of interactions that you have with the brand.
The drive for the race to the bottom.
If you acquire me on price, then you'll lose me on price.
Should loyalty be based on price or value?
What are the metrics used to segment customer types?
Where’s the end to end view, and what metrics should be captured?

Customer Lifetime Value and maintaining profitability.

How much revenue can you extract from a customer?
Risky operator strategies are rewarding bad behavior, patching over churn risks with a free phone or extending the inevitable.
Are operators doing enough work to keep the customer?
Give me a reason not to complain.
Brand expectations, when it dips below my tolerance level, I churn.
How much are you willing to forgive? Forgiveness ratio.

How do you measure loyalty? It's tricky.

It's not tenure and it’s not spend.
Net Promoter Score. That’s questionable. Is it attach rates?
Loyalty. Will it blend?

The end-to-end customer experience.

Product, care and retail. A holistic view of the customer.
Traits and departments of loyalty.
Why did your customer really choose you?
Understanding the initial engagement is a key.

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Battery Apathy! Are you always charged up?

2012-10-08T12:49:00.000+01:00

Series 1: Episode 6

We’ve long been aware that battery performance is the Achilles’ Heel of the smartphone. Not only have we seen the volume of technical support calls relating to battery performance quadruple since 2008 but in a recent report from J.D. Power and Associates, found a clear link between satisfaction with battery performance and the likelihood to repurchase a device from the same manufacturer.

Of course much of the problem lies with the technical and design limitations of today’s battery technology. However, we had a hunch that a lot of the problem could be better managed if device manufacturers were more transparent in how they reported battery performance.

Reflecting on the recent WDS study on battery performance http://bit.ly/battery-apathy the WDS Experience Podcast lineup, examine how battery specifications are communicated amid the change in consumers' expectations.

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Tim Deluca-Smith, VP Marketing at WDS, hosts episode 6 with guests Craig Rich, CMO at WDS, Richard Fogg, Managing Director at CCgroup and Paul Nolan, Associate Director & Head of Telecoms at CCgroup.

Show Notes

Do you find yourself struggling by lunchtime?

Is 2G talk-time relevant to measure battery performance?
Would you consider an all-day smartphone?
Are device manufacturers communicating real world usage to consumers?
Are you always charged up?

Conspiracy theory or a legacy industry standard?

Who watches 13 hours of video playback a day?
Blended battery performance
Current manufacturer benchmarking

Battery expectations in the real world

Support calls relating to battery performance are on the rise
Acknowledged apathy
Where is Moore's law for batteries?

Are we missing a niche for perfect performance?

A global standard
Is the industry in stasis or innovating?
Why is the ultimate battery technology always 18 months away?

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Retail: I want a quirky keyboard

2012-07-16T08:54:00.002+01:00

Series 1: Episode 5

There is a growing appreciation and awareness that retail is forming a key part of the customer journey. No longer is it just a transaction or a point in the lifecycle to just purchase a mobile device. It's now become fundamental to the brand awareness, profitability and loyalty as the user progresses along the customer journey. Is the experience consistent with other interactions? Is the online retail model impacting the delivery of service at retail? Has the retail experience become disjointed from the rest of the lifecycle? We look at what is happening to the retail environment and how providers can compete in this important service area.

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Tim Deluca-Smith, VP Marketing at WDS, hosts episode 5 with guests Tim Joyce, VP Research & Innovation at WDS, Paul Nolan, Associate Director & Head of Telecoms at CCgroup and Howard Jones, Account Director at CCgroup.

Show Notes

Are deficiencies at retail impacting profitability?

The mis-selling and mis-matching of devices
Are retailers just pushing stock?
Have there been any changes in recent years?

I want to be able to use email and play Angry Birds

How are sales agents differentiating?
The retail experience, how should it be?
I want a quirky keyboard
Can I trust the retail script and is it useful and accurate?

Mitigating the support call

Staff training
What is a Gmail account?
I'm a new customer, is this call plan and device right for me?
Bundles of joy?
Reach out and touch me

Multi-channel support

Do people self serve at retail?
Cross channel engagement
Convince me that my online choice is correct for me!
Segmentation
In store support

The sales agent and the retail environment

Price and the dangers of upselling [over-phoned]
Let's innovate and improve
Threats to the retail environment

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Customer Experience

2012-06-13T10:42:00.000+01:00

Series 1: Episode 4

'Customer Experience' is the current mantra, permeating all sectors including the wireless industry. Operators are vying to differentiate their personal notion of a consumers' experience with evolving networks, devices and applications. Network speeds and price plans have been favored tools to deliver competition, but are brands open and honest in providing optimum customer experience, and are brands pro-active enough in the way they engage their customers? CEO, David Ffoulkes-Jones theorizes with host Tim Deluca-Smith and CCgroup.

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Tim Deluca-Smith, VP Marketing at WDS, hosts episode 4 with guests David Ffoulkes-Jones, CEO at WDS, Paul Nolan, Associate Director & Head of Telecoms at CCgroup, Howard Jones, Account Director at CCgroup.

Show Notes

Can you define customer experience?

Managing expectations
Satisfaction and loyalty
Brand association

Is customer experience a differentiator?

Coverage and speeds are homogenized, how can consumers choose?
The social web is changing the consumer
Will customer experience engender loyalty?

Who does customer experience well?

Other industry examples
Is brand honesty important?
Are brands at a danger of doing themselves a disservice to compete?

When does satisfaction become loyalty?

The elements of CX
Passion, tolerance and loyalty programs
Who's got an emotional attachment to a brand?
Customer retention
It was the power of the consumer what done it!

Who owns the customer experience?

How important is it that all customer life-cycle touch points work in a cohesive manner?

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RIM | I love buttons

2012-05-02T14:18:00.002+01:00

Series 1: Episode 3

Blackberry was an executive aspirational brand that was the game changer for mobile email. Many would say their messaging functionality is still superior, the build quality is reliable and carriers prefer its efficient network model, making Blackberry the logical choice. What has happened, what's happening, and why is their market share dropping?

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Tim Deluca-Smith, VP Marketing at WDS, hosts episode 3 with guests Nick Gyles, CTO at WDS, Howard Jones, Account Director at CCgroup, Paul Nolan, Associate Director & Head of Telecoms at CCgroup.

Show Notes

What has happened?

The Blackberry Cliché
Market share
Brand association - Teens & Enterprise
B.Y.O.

Surely Blackberry is the logical choice?

Outage, Reliability & USP
Mobile email - is BBM still better?
Security - traffic inspections and privacy

Bringing RIM products to market

Playbook is a slick device
What would get you to drop your current device?
BB10 & widgets
Licensing to other OEMs

Future propositions

Are they an acquisition target?

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Windows Phone – Can it hit double digit market share?

2012-04-10T14:04:00.000+01:00

Series 1: Episode 2

Competing against the rampant march of Android and an ever-loyal base of iOS users, can Windows Phone compete in the brave new world of wireless to become the third ecosystem? Episode Two asks what Microsoft needs to do to reach a double-digit share in the smartphone market.

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Tim Deluca-Smith, VP Marketing at WDS, hosts episode 2 with guests Nick Gyles, CTO at WDS, Howard Jones, Account Director at CCgroup, Paul Nolan, Associate Director & Head of Telecoms at CCgroup.

Show Notes

Overview of current market share

A third OS / ecosystem – Windows Phone?
iPhone will always have a ceiling (one product syndrome)

MSFT’s historical woes in the smartphone market – why is it so important to them?

Positioning
To the consumer
To the OEM / Operator community

Fragmentation

Mandated hardware specs – does this protect the experience / operator costs?
Is this Android’s weak link to exploit?
Example data from whitepaper – hardware failure

What is Windows Phone doing right / wrong?

Is the Lumia a desirable brand?
Too much emotional baggage from Windows Mobile 6

Reliance on Nokia partnership – will this fly in the US?

Recommendations

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OEM Differentiation

2012-03-09T15:44:00.001+00:00

Series 1: Episode 1

The smartphone form factor has homogenized and many of the world’s leading manufacturers now launch products all running the same (or similar) OS variants. But if everything looks and feels the same, how can today’s device manufacturers build brand loyalty or compete on anything but price? We look at what’s happened to innovative industrial design and whether manufacturers can ever compete at the service layer.

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Tim Deluca-Smith, VP Marketing at WDS, hosts episode 1 with guests Nick Gyles, CTO at WDS, Howard Jones, Account Director at CCgroup, Paul Nolan, Associate Director & Head of Telecoms at CCgroup.

Show Notes

Return from MWC12

Is handset development stagnating?
Everything looks the same
Did we see anything truly ground breaking or desirable?

Hardware has homogenized at the top end.

How can OEMs build brand loyalty and differentiate?
Too much reliance on software / services (at the cost of industrial design)?

Is this problem worse for the Android OEMs where even the software experience is uniform?

OEM overlays – problematic?

Is this all down to cost pressure?

Race to the bottom / play it safe.
How do I tell the difference between a top-end Samsung and an entry-level Samsung?
Is the race to the bottom dangerous for operator costs (increased cost of care).

Future for OEMs

How do they differentiate?
Will they commoditize themselves?
Partnerships
Dedicated devices (camera / gaming etc) – will it come back?
Do OEMs have an ecosystem play?

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