Today’s wireless operators need to fight harder than ever for competitive edge. It is becoming increasingly difficult for them to maintain and grow market share, revenues and margins.

Closer engagement with their customers offers one potential route to business advantage, but historically this has not been easy to achieve. Operators using traditional, pre-provisioned, prepaid SIM cards have been unable to offer subscribers the kind of personalization of service that really drives loyalty to the brand – from number selection to choosing a tariff best suited to their needs.

In most markets, prepaid subscribers are in the overwhelming majority, with prepaid rates in India and Africa believed to be around 95 per cent and 99 per cent of all phone customers respectively; operators typically focus on indirect sales channels to serve them. These channels can only support simple service configurations.

With the pre-provisioning model, the range of services available to new customers is restricted by the availability of SIM cards. The model makes it impossible for operators to offer even simple personalization of services, like choice of telephone number for example, as such details will have already been fixed well in advance of the SIM card reaching the subscriber. This lack of personalization means that operators struggle to engage with pre-paid customers, or gain an insight into their behaviour, ultimately leading to low rates of loyalty and high levels of churn.

Attractive tariffs
Today, this situation has changed radically. Now, by provisioning the SIM card at the moment of first use, operators can offer customers a choice of telephone numbers, as well as attractive tariffs, options, products, promotions and upgrades. These can be targeted on the basis of the customer device, location and a range of other criteria. In other words, they can be effectively personalized to the customer’s wishes and needs. Subscribers are attracted by these enhanced services, and operators are able to drive up average revenues per user (ARPUs) as a direct result.  

Maintaining loyalty and driving up revenues also means offering more to users after they sign up. The ‘golden moment’ at first use is a great opportunity to engage with customers, but it is only part of the story. To effectively maintain the relationship, operators need to continue offering new services over a much longer timeframe.

The new SIM card provisioning methodology can help support operators in their ongoing efforts to offer more choice to customers in-life too. In particular, this allows them to drive new sales opportunities, and to upsell and cross sell to long-term customers, all the time strengthening their customer relationships and further building customer loyalty.

In driving up customer satisfaction levels, it is also important that operators are able to match the user experience to the device used; the sophistication of mobile devices is increasing all the time. It is critical here too that the chosen SIM provisioning solution allows operators to be both device- and location-aware. There is a significant difference between the kind of marketing message suitable for delivery to a feature phone connected to a GPRS network, and that appropriate for a mobile broadband network-connected iPad with a large colour screen and multi-touch capability.

The best solutions will fit the engagement point to the device type. For example, users of connected devices should automatically be taken to an easy-to-use web landing page that they can personalize according to their specific requirements, allowing them to choose suitable price plans and data limits. This browser-based approach also enables the operator to promote its brand, and deliver high-impact and highly persuasive marketing campaigns.

The key here is in making the process as easy as possible for users, and tailoring it to their needs. In this way, operators will be able to use personalization to effectively combat the market pressures they are facing; reduce churn; drive up ARPU; and build competitive edge.

Thad Dupper is chairman and CEO of Evolving Systems