When your competitors all start running in the same direction. You need to ask, ’what if we ran in a different direction.’’

Mobile Number Portability: A Design Not A Marketing Problem

By: Charles Ikem

The purpose of my articles is to popularize the design and service design discipline in Nigeria. But i was moved to adapting this piece to suit, seeing that number portability has kicked off and watching as telecom companies fight on the pages of newspaper and the internet.

 

What is all this about I don port? Managers strongly have the conviction that the next phase of customer acquisition is by bombarding customers with marketing messages. This would not be achieved by sending unsolicited sms to buy ringtones or to recharge more. Why would anyone even buy a single track of a song for N75, where you can get the whole album with like 12 tracks in Alaba for a N200. I just don’t get it. This brute-force marketing approach in Nigeria must stop. It is not only unethical but also wasteful.

 As a warning to the Telco’s, nobody is going to port, because there is no difference between all the four big GSM companies. They are all the same and unreliable. Now that number portability is live, here is what mangers should do before wasting marketing budget.

The implications of this new policy is that Telco’s must work really hard to earn a kobo, retain customers and then make a profit. First, start by understanding your customers and anticipating their future needs. Customer relationship, product innovation and even infrastructure management will need rethinking.

First organisations should understand what really earns loyalty, what moves customers and what are they looking forward to. This can only be understood through solid-qualitative research. Managers must have to step out of their oval office this time. Traditional research would not uncover the whole context of the problem or opportunity going forward. Asking customers what they want, the danger again according to Henry Ford, ‘’If I’d asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse.’’ Customers do not know what they want because what they want does not exist. Through observation, ethnography and probing we can better understand those needs to create. I will like to see Telco’s step outside and into the streets with cameras and notepads and putting themselves in the shoes of the customer.

Secondly, redesigning the business model. With number portability comes disloyalty, eroding profits. A manager should be sure to future-proof his organisation by creating multiple-streams of revenue. Using a platform-based business model through creating more unique value-propositions for customers. The catch is; creating new VPs as part of a platform will have the capacity to hook your customers-in. Proposing products as well as service innovation like intelligent apps, M2M services will allow you to make profits on a wide variety of product segments that forms part of the everyday life of your customers. You will then have the capacity to call your products a Commodity.

Apple created the most sophisticated platform based business the world has ever seen. They created an ecosystem of products and services that ties everything together. So when you buy an iPod, you are likely to invest in songs catalogue from the iTunes store. Same applies to the iphone with the appstore. Also Telenor,the Norwegian mobile giant did it with huge investment in the popular crowd-sourced ‘telenor playground.’

The future in this portable era is for Telco’s to start creating ecosystems for their customers. There is abundance in this approach because you will not only earn their patronage but will keep them for long. Think of ways of creating this ecosystem for your customers. I believe service design and design thinking could help in understanding your customers, their journey, their desires and aspirations. If your network allows users to shop, call, bank, see friends, play games, watch news, and it is delivered efficiently, easily and at the right price then you are in business.

A new form of business model such as the one proposed herein would usually involve a change in innovation philosophy from a closed innovation system that telecoms are currently running to a more open system. Open up your portals to game developers, apps, content developers, aggregators and even ordinary customers. Through this way can we see a major disruption from a telecoms company.there is a massive opportunity for this industry to have an even greater impact on our economy than any other industry in a long time to come. Think of what might be of the music industry, logistics, and healthcare if we utilize the massive technology, IT infrastructure and customer data available with the telcos.

The third factor is No matter what you sell. It doesn’t end until the customer decides its over. After sales and the service environment would matter now than ever. Making sure you engage with your customers on a more humane level is very essential. The state of telcos- so-called experience centres is so demeaning. Designing your centre to appeal to people’s senses with good servicing, conducive environment, embedded technologies. Why should a customer spend 3 hours in such a place just trying to configure a sim card. It is not a hotel for crying out loud. Staffs should be trained in a capacity to listen and work with the customer as well as create customised service to each one-customer. The purpose of such a centre would be to help customers achieve their objectives, easily and more relaxing. Don’t try to complicate their woes. Simplify the entire service process and ensure that the shortest possible route is taken.

As portability looms the reality is that loyalty is in question. Building your organisation’s ability to ask questions, understanding the context of the challenges, problems and/or opportunities and then innovating is prerequisite. Investing in the 3-dimensions of this article would be key; Research, Business model innovation and service design.

Finally, managers remember that a super brand is built and maintained on the power of the provocative. A culture that should form the basis of its proposition, vision and marketing. If you are no longer providing something different, providing it exceptionally or ensuring that by its very nature it is connecting with the right audience, then you need to throw away your strategy and find a new one. I DON PORT OR I PORT is not part of that strategy. Simples!

·         Platform based business model credited to Alexander osterwalder &Yves pigneur

Charles Ikem is the Design Director @ HOUSE OF LOGIC.A Design & Innovation Consultancy Based in Lagos, Nigeria. He leads a team of abnormal youths and zombie slayers using design to solve problems from; Telecoms to security, healthcare, financial services and business strategy.

Twitter:@apache22