One in Four Would Churn Due to Handset Problems

New research conducted by Tickbox on behalf of Sicap, a provider of mobile device management, reveals that one in four (25%) of high-spend consumers (aged 16-34) would change operators because their handset is faulty, despite respondents saying operators (58%) and handset manufacturers (53%) are equally to blame when services don't work.

The survey of 1,859 UK mobile phone users revealed that operators are also under pressure to not only deliver compelling services that work, but to make them straightforward: when it comes to using advanced services, the vast majority of all users (80%) rate ease of use more important than the service working first time, indicating that many people find advanced services too complex to use and access. This is compounded by the fact that over half (54%) of 16-34 year olds have experienced problems with advanced mobile services such as internet browsing and photo or video messaging, and 43% of users of all ages.

However, operators can be reassured that many of these issues can be centrally resolved by implementing a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution.

Traditional voice revenues are in decline and operators are looking more and more to advanced services to boost profits. The research reveals encouraging results for the uptake of these, with 69% of 16-34 year olds using services including photo/video messaging (63%), WAP/internet browsing (29%), downloads (19%) and mobile email (15%). This supports the fact that 16-34 year olds are the key group operators should continue to nurture to ensure advanced services are a success: with more than one in four (27%) of this high-spending group believing they currently have an unresolved problem with their mobile phone or service, operators should be aware that this is potentially incurring lost revenue.

Some underlying dissatisfaction was revealed when respondents were probed about resolving issues via customer services, as one in three felt that they did not receive a satisfactory resolution: 14% were told to contact another department or company, 12% were directed to the operator website to download software upgrades and 6% have still not had their issue resolved. This could explain why nearly half of respondents have not attempted to contact customer services to report the fault. Further to this, less than 30% believe that operators can support customer's service needs when rolling out new services in future.

"Operators are making significant financial investments into new, sexy services which they hope to entice subscribers to use regularly, both for communication and entertainment. But it is clear from our research that in order to reap the most benefit, essentially reduced churn and increased revenue, operators need to ensure that services work for everyone and are as easy to use as possible. They need to remove any obstacles," commented Per-Johan Lundin, marketing director at Sicap. "Mobile Device Management, which ranges from Point of Sale data transfer and backup facilities to fully network-integrated solutions that automatically optimise handsets, can provide operators with a straightforward way to achieve this, maximising the potential of existing of advanced services."

Posted to the site on 3rd November 2006