Olista, the pioneer of Service Adoption Management (SAM), has revealed that up to 55% of potential 3G users abandon VAS due to basic usability issues such as difficulty navigating through menus, inability to find downloaded content, or a forgotten password. The findings came from live trials conducted by Olista and European mobile operators to identify the common barriers to potential 3G portal and content users.
Further statistics showed that users are confused between streaming and download, an issue further hampered by the bad billing experiences affecting 10 – 25% of users who receive multiple downloads of the same content. This makes disappointing reading and shows the gap between the number of customers who could use VAS and the number who actively do is huge.
OlistaSAM was implemented at a number of European mobile operators and from the combined findings of these trials it has been possible to identify revenue generation opportunities and remove usability, training, pricing, interest and other experience barriers. OlistaSAM’s problem investigation and resolution process is ongoing and allowed the mobile operators to see how VAS services were performing, how campaigns were working and the experience of both individuals and larger groups of users. This level of detail allows operators to make VAS more effective and attractive as well as providing them with the opportunity to proactively contact customers who need training or an upgrade to use service successfully.
Ultimately, OlistaSAM allows the mobile operator to understand their customers better and successfully manage service adoption. For example, if OlistaSAM discovered a user had tried to download same MP3 to the same phone several times, it will automatically send an explanatory text and wave the charge, in another example, OlistaSAM is able to monitor campaigns effectiveness in real-time and alert if results are lower than expected due to barriers such as usability, pricing and configuration.
Olista CEO, Oren Glanz explained “One of the key issues affecting the adoption of mobile data services is ease-of-use and building confidence amongst users that the service will work first time, every time. Customers enjoying a positive first experience become more likely to use them again. If services do not work or perform properly, operators should proactively work to solve the problem and either offer resolution or a refund. By treating customers positively operators can enjoy the reward of loyal customers using VAS services again.”