Thread: Your perfect mobile phone tariff

I am currently researching the Spanish pay as you go mobile market with a view to potentially launching a new product. The idea is to provide the perfect 'expat' service. I've outlined below a few of the features that we would try to include. Grateful for any thoughts you may have. Thank you.

1. Cheap local calls - we'd be competitive with the other providers such as Hits, but likely with a flat rate 24 hours a day as I find the other products confusing

2. Cheap international calls - UK landlines around 5 eurocents; UK mobiles around 15 eurocents and other international destinations similarly competitive

3. (Possibly) free calls between users

4. A local Spanish mobile number

5. (Possibly) an English mobile number so that people can call you from the UK on a UK mobile number and you can receive calls for free or a small charge

6. Good value data - as with calls, we'd probably make this a flat rate per MB to keep it simple

7. Opportunity to refer your friends and get free credit

8. Free SIM card and a small amount of credit to get your started

What do YOU want from your mobile provider that you are not getting now? What do you think of the options above?

This is a very interesting one and a great idea. I'd say with huge potential!!!!

1. Good
2. Very good.
3. I'd say sounds good, but be careful. A Spanish provider launched with such an offer only to take it away a few months down the line, leaving countless customers frustrated! Their slogan was something like "free calls for life for all our users".
4. Good..
5. Not sure how necessary this would be.... What about those from Germany? France? Holland?...
6. Not sure how many actually need this but simplicity would definitely be key.
7. Good.
8. Sounds great!

Simplicity is definitely your best bet. Most providers offer extremely complicated rates and contracts. The other big frustration many people experience I'd say would be customer service. For those who don't speak good Spanish it can be a very frustrating experience. If you'd offer multi-lingual support that would surely be well received.

So would this be like a pay as you go?

Would it be mainly targeted towards expats?

This is a very interesting one and a great idea. I'd say with huge potential!!!!

1. Good
2. Very good.
3. I'd say sounds good, but be careful. A Spanish provider launched with such an offer only to take it away a few months down the line, leaving countless customers frustrated! Their slogan was something like "free calls for life for all our users". MAKES SENSE - WE'D ONLY DO THIS IF WE KNEW IT WAS SUSTAINABLE. WE WANT AND EXPECT PRICES TO FALL SLOWLY OVER TIME RATHER THAN RAISE THEM AND ANNOY CUSTOMERS
4. Good..
5. Not sure how necessary this would be.... What about those from Germany? France? Holland?... POTENTIALLY WE COULD HAVE A SIM WITH A SPANISH & GERMAN OR SPANISH & FRENCH OR SPANISH & DUTCH NUMBER
6. Not sure how many actually need this but simplicity would definitely be key.
7. Good.
8. Sounds great!

Simplicity is definitely your best bet. Most providers offer extremely complicated rates and contracts. The other big frustration many people experience I'd say would be customer service. For those who don't speak good Spanish it can be a very frustrating experience. If you'd offer multi-lingual support that would surely be well received.I THINK WE'D FOCUS ON HAVING ENGLISH CUSTOMER SUPPORT ONLY TO START WITH. DO YOU THINK TELEPHONE SUPPORT IS ESSENTIAL OR CAN THINGS ALWAYS BE DONE BY EMAIL IF YOU GUARANTEE A QUICK RESPONSE TIME?

So would this be like a pay as you go? YES - IT WOULD BE PAY AS YOU GO. WE MAY LOOK AT DOING CONTRACTS FURTHER DOWN THE LINE, BUT IF OUR PAY AS YOU GO OFFERING IS REALLY GREAT VALUE I DON'T THINK WE NEED TO GET PEOPLE TIED IN FOR 12/18/24 MONTHS

Would it be mainly targeted towards expats? YES - ABSOLUTELY. THIS IS THE MAJORITY OF THE EXISTING DIALABROAD CUSTOMER BASE AND A DEMOGRAPHIC WE KNOW WELL. I WOULD POSSIBLE RELOCATE TO SPAIN TO SUPPORT THE PROJECT

In terms of marketing, we were thinking about taking stalls at local markets and selling face-to-face so we can fully explain the service and offer support to people switching from other providers.

A couple of additional questions:

- how important is keeping your existing Spanish number?
- do you think most people have unlocked mobile phones so can switch SIMs without difficulties?
- how much free credit would you expect/would tempt you to switch from your current provider?

Many thanks.

I THINK WE'D FOCUS ON HAVING ENGLISH CUSTOMER SUPPORT ONLY TO START WITH. DO YOU THINK TELEPHONE SUPPORT IS ESSENTIAL OR CAN THINGS ALWAYS BE DONE BY EMAIL IF YOU GUARANTEE A QUICK RESPONSE TIME?

I would say email support may be enough to start, especially if the response time is quick. It would obviously be a huge cost saver that the end customer enjoys too.

YES - IT WOULD BE PAY AS YOU GO. WE MAY LOOK AT DOING CONTRACTS FURTHER DOWN THE LINE, BUT IF OUR PAY AS YOU GO OFFERING IS REALLY GREAT VALUE I DON'T THINK WE NEED TO GET PEOPLE TIED IN FOR 12/18/24 MONTHS

Sounds good. I think a lot of people will prefer this. The existing providers have taken the approach that pay as you go is way more expensive than contract, forcing customer who don't need or really want a contract to go for one or pay the price.

YES - ABSOLUTELY. THIS IS THE MAJORITY OF THE EXISTING DIALABROAD CUSTOMER BASE AND A DEMOGRAPHIC WE KNOW WELL. I WOULD POSSIBLE RELOCATE TO SPAIN TO SUPPORT THE PROJECT

That's a good focus. Definitely an untapped niche as such...

In terms of marketing, we were thinking about taking stalls at local markets and selling face-to-face so we can fully explain the service and offer support to people switching from other providers.

This may be costly and difficult to implement large scale... I mean from Tenerife to Madrid, Murcia to Seville... How about 100% online? Another option could be to offer it to business centers, "locutorios", kiosks, etc. as another business line?

- how important is keeping your existing Spanish number?

Business users will surely want this, but otherwise the majority may not find that to be such an issue.

- do you think most people have unlocked mobile phones so can switch SIMs without difficulties?

Hmmm good question! The main providers have been "smart" and ensured over the years that most phones are sim locked.

- how much free credit would you expect/would tempt you to switch from your current provider?

Could such "free credit" not become a problem? What would stop people just getting a new sim card continuously to use the free credit?

Thanks Greg.

On customer support, I think we'd adopt a three tier strategy:

(1) Rapid response email support

(2) A forum on the web site to encourage peer to peer (customer to customer) support aided by official representatives

(3) The option to make an outbound support call to a customer who is getting frustrated and cannot be adequately dealt with via email or the forum

As you said, this allows us to keep costs down and focus on providing an excellent value service.

I think pay as you go is the right product - I think the two issues we need to address are:

(1) Making it easy to top-up and not be frustrated from running out of credit (e.g. auto top-up, online top-up, local store top-up)

(2) And your credit/number not expiring after a short period

On actually selling the product, we have a few ideas that we will start to market test. I think peer to peer selling is the way we want to go - this could be a great opportunity for expats to sell to their fellow expats and generate a side income.

Agree re free SIM credit - we'll have to think about that.

Do you get a sense of how large the addressable market is/how many expats there are in Spain?

What do you think is the key thing that would make them change their current provider?

Originally Posted by DialAbroad

On actually selling the product, we have a few ideas that we will start to market test. I think peer to peer selling is the way we want to go - this could be a great opportunity for expats to sell to their fellow expats and generate a side income.

This is an original idea. I'd advise looking down the online route. Perhaps even an affiliate structure. Online tracking, digital data... You will surely find it ten times easier to find 1000 webmasters in Spain than 1000 people offline.

Put it this way: Imagine you provided this to every ASF member. Each one could put their unique link in their signature promoting your product (provided they want to take part of course). Give it some thought. I sense this may be the easier route than face-to-face selling.

Do you get a sense of how large the addressable market is/how many expats there are in Spain?

I just received the latest stats from Europe's statistical office this morning (see attachment). According to their figures there are 5.7 million foreigners living in Spain (12% of the population). 2,327,800 are from the EU (5.1%). The exact figures regarding country are not available but there is an email address at the end of the report. I suggest you send them an email, perhaps they can provide you with UK expat figures.

What do you think is the key thing that would make them change their current provider?

Your focus should be individuals as opposed to businesses or entrepreneurs. Focus on mums, children, husbands, wives, fathers, friends, uncles, grandpas... Make a real trend out of it. Something like the "smart expat" chooses "smart mobile"...

The key selling point should focus on Simplicity + English.

This should give you an easy marketing approach, quick message, key target.

I will come back to this when not time limited by free wifi in bar.