Free, unsolicited product management advice for Verizon Wireless

As I mentioned yesterday, I am using EV-DO to connect to the internet here in Vegas for CTIA. It's more economical and reliable than the hotels' and convention center's WiFi hotspots. What I didn't say is that the way I contract for this service is convoluted and actually, on my analysis, loses money for Verizon. Details to follow.

It's got me feeling a bit guilty, so I would like to offer them some free advice. If they implement my ideas and wish to share perhaps 10% of their incremental profits on the change, I'd be happy to accept. [VZW, you can email me at inquiry (at) caddellinsightgroup (dot) com for my PayPal info.]

Here's the situation with EV-DO. I have a Blackberry, using a 10MB per month plan costing $24.95 per month on top of my voice subscription. This is fine for emailing and web browsing through the Blackberry, but not enough to support what I'm doing this week--blogging, video uploading, etc.

For that application, VZW requires I buy unlimited data access for $49.95 per month, and on top of that buy tethered modem service (that allows me to use the Bberry as a modem for my computer) for an additional $15 per month.

As a result, it would cost me $39.95 extra per month to subscribe to this EV-DO service. Except for the fact that I need it for perhaps 15 days per year. The rest of the time, cheap or free WiFi hotspots do the job. So I can't justify an ongoing subscription for this service.

But here's the thing: VZW allows me to sign up for the service, then, when I don't need it anymore, I call them back to cancel. The billing is ugly and almost incomprehensible, but at the end of the day I only get billed for the days I use EV-DO, at the rate of about $1.33 per day. A bargain for me.

But not for VZW. Here's a litany of costs they incur, each time I set up the service:

Calls to tech support: 2 @ $10 (one call to activate, one call to deactivate)
Letters informing me of a change in service: 2 @ $2.50
Incremental billing costs for changes, prorates, etc.: unknown

Total: at least $25

For this trip, I will use the service for four days. Meaning VZW will get incremental revenue of $5.33, but spend $25, for a marginal contribution margin of ($19.67). Ugh.

Here's my idea. VZW should offer a daily plan. [Virtually every other wireless ISP offers such a plan.] I would pay $5 per day for that plan. Have the signup be online rather than through tech support, meaning the incremental cost should be near zero. Have me sign up for exactly the number of days I need, and have deactivation be done automatically by the ordering system.







Related post: "Worst Practices in Product Management"

product management, mobile, wireless, customer service, packaging, pricing, technical support, Verizon Wireless

Worst Practices In Product Management

I had a call with Verizon Wireless yesterday afternoon that went something like this:

Me:

"I got a Blackberry recently and I was trying to use it as a wireless modem for my laptop and I'm having trouble."

Tech Support:

"Let's try some things."

...time passes. We try lots of things. Problem persists...

Tech Support:

"I checked and I found out that you need to activate a feature to enable you to use the Blackberry as a modem. The feature costs $15 per month."

Me:

"What? I am already paying for data access, by the megabyte. Modem support costs $15 more?"

Tech Support:

"Yes, I'm sorry. Would you like to speak to Customer Service?"

...on hold for a while...

Customer Service:

"Yes, sir, that feature is $15 per month."

me:

"How come that wasn't clear when I signed up for the Blackberry service? Plus, I'm already paying you $150 a month."

Customer Service:

"I'm sorry, that's the only way we sell it... think of it this way: It's only $0.50 per day."

me:

"But I only need it occasionally. I can't justify paying $15 per month for occasional use."

Customer Service:

"This might solve your problem. You can activate it when you need it, then deactivate it when you're done. You'd only pay for the days you use in that case."

me:

"I have to call once to activate, then again to turn it off? Every time I want to use it? Why don't you have a daily access?"

Customer Service:

"That's the only way you can do it."

me:

"I might try that, but it's unfortunate that you don't have a plan that helps the occasional user, like me. And I don't like having to pay $15 or even $0.50 per day for something that should have been included with the data feature I already bought."

Customer Service:

"I'm sorry. Can I help you with anything else today?"

* * *

So: no resolution. Tech Support and Customer Service were fine, creative, even approaching that state of bending the rules to satisfy a customer. (Installing rigid processes that force this kind of behavior is a worst practice depicted nicely in a recent post by Dave Snowden.)

It's Product Management I have the problem with. First of all, an additional fee for my laptop to use megabytes I'm already paying for is bad. (It's done so that people who pay $60 per month to use the Verizon PCMCIA card in their laptop won't feel that they're getting ripped off--even though they already do.)

Second of all, not having an occasional-use plan and forcing me, the customer, to do work to synthesize this plan (call to activate, call to deactivate, every time I need the service) is also bad.

Finally, I am a $150 per month wireless customer. (VZW's ARPU is around $50.) I'm a Verizon VIP. Yet there's no accomodation built into the product for my kind of customer.

It's just poor packaging all around. And it needs to be fixed. This is one of the reasons mobile phone customers hate their suppliers.

Aaargh.

product management mobile wireless customer service customer service packaging pricing technical support Verizon Wireless