Best marketing practices of Indian Mobile service operators – Part III

1.     7. Night time calling is charged less: One of the striking feature of a cell phone is that it offers unique possibilities of having intimate conversation and it guarantees total privacy. Thus it is not surprising that a cell phone is lovers' best friend. This has been en cashed by cell phone operators who offered very good rates on users calling each other at nights. Thus a new opportunity was created to garner more business.

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2.       8. Roaming charges: This was a lucrative business for the operators. Whenever a user moved from one circle to another roaming charges were charged. This way making and receiving calls when traveling was a very expensive affair. Again the operators quickly moved in. Now days for a extra Rs 62/- the roaming charges can be slashed. Now making and receiving calls when traveling has become a breeze. Same is the case with calling relatives and friends residing in countries like the USA, UK and Canada. Calls can be made for a unbelievable rate of 1 paisa per second. 

3.       9. Talk more and pay less: It works on the simple principle that the more a service is used the less the service will cost per unit of service consumed. This way calls for the first 500 calls will be charged at Rs 1 per call. 501 to 1000 calls will be charged at Rs 0.90 per call. And Calls from 1001 to 1500 calls will be charged at Rs 0.80 per call. This meant unshackling of the Public sector mindset of Indian marketers. For example Electricity users in India are charged the exact reverse way. The more one uses a service the more he/she would be charged. That way the public sector utilities were limiting the usage of their service.

4.       10. Customized packages: Mobile service operators are very aware of the fragile relationships that they  have with their customers. Users demand exacting standards of service and they are very unforgiving of any shoddy service delivery. They demand that any complaint be addressed swiftly and to their satisfaction. In such a scenario the operators can’t lose users. A user trying to shift especially in the post paid category is induced in all possible way to retain his connection with the existing operator.CRM professionals in that company study the usage of that user and design customized packages that give the best value for the user’s money. In the same way the operators have realized that prepaid users are not very lucrative and all types of inducements are given to shift then from prepaid to post paid status. But the unsavory reputation that the collection agents of various service operators have acquired has meant that many of the existing prepaid users are not willing to convert their connection into post paid status.