The Jeff Pulver Blog: How do service providers go about *learning* what customers want?

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February 06, 2007

How do service providers go about learning what customers want?

And even if service providers know, is the customer's need in line with the company's need? One might argue that the service provider's main objective is to achieve reliable, recurring revenue with a relatively low duty cycle - which may or may not be in sync with what customers actually want. The best way to fulfill the service provider's typical objective is to come up with more things to charge for which might sound neat, but which most people will rarely use even though they continue paying the bills.

Great example: One well-known local provider's cellphone-video service. This rents for $15 a month, and I'll bet maybe 5% of people who pay for the service, use it. When you're in the store, buying the phone, it all sounds great, and once they've got you down, it's troublesome to eliminate the charge. In fact, on a basic level, it is quite possible that few people really need, want, or use this service.

Meanwhile, the network is full of dead spots, which even a sense-blind carrier must *know* people want fixed. BUT, there is no return to the carrier for fixing the dead spots, except maybe some fewer complaints from the regulators - and there are hundreds of lawyers on staff who get paid anyway, whether or not they're handling complaints. And there's no downside for having the dead spots, because customers accept them and pay for service anyway.

In the United States, this is what our "mobile phone" experience is all about.

Tags: VON, voip, Purple Minutes, Jeff Pulver