Personalize or perish: A why and how guide for operators

Monica Zlotogorski, Program Marketing Manager at Openet writes a compelling article on the state of wireless operators and to succeed, they must offer more personalized service.

On an ongoing basis, industry insiders are reminded that wireless operators often follow in each other’s footsteps when it comes to new technology. Tiered pricing is the most recent example. For years, operators, vendors, analysts and industry watchers had been shown, ad nauseam, the graph of data use outstripping revenue gains. Yet it took until 2010 for a U.S carrier, in this case AT&T, to make the move to tiered pricing, although others have since followed suit. One area that has gotten a similar “wait-and-see” treatment in the wireless industry is personalization.

We know that consumers respond better to offers that speak to their personal needs, and slowly companies are responding by moving from a one-size fits all methodology to a more tailored or personalized approach to their services and offers. On-demand movie recommendations, supermarket loyalty discounts and personally customizable group couponing sites are now par for the course. As a result, those same consumers want an equal level of service from their mobile operator, yet U.S.-based carriers in particular have been slow to give it to them. While outlining the benefits is essential to showcasing personalization’s importance, so is the way the wireless industry as a whole views the technology that enables it.

Industry talk often looks to segment technology into “revolutionary” vs. “evolutionary” buckets, with most of the attention going towards the former. Yet revolution carries risk and by definition change cannot always be revolutionary. In fact, the more common mode of change is evolutionary or incremental change, which is more manageable, affordable, achievable and realistic, and often delivers more immediate benefits to service quality and performance.

Read the full article here.