Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

So, i would ask the people to generate these for me...

1. by service numbers
2. Thier service start date
3. How many times they use each week
4. How long have they used it each week
5. What kind of services they use now(we offer a few services that are entitle to this free service now)
6. How much are they paid for monthly service charge

have i missed out anything?

Ni hau, Anita.

You have a good list. If you work FOR the telecom company (the one that provides the service, keeps track of the usages, and sends bills), then this information should be available inside your company and you don't have to ask customers. Asking customers for this kind of information is probably a fruitless act. They won't know accurately this information and unless you give them an incentive, they won't go to the trouble of looking at past bills to find it out (if they even kept them).

If I were part of your management, I would also want to know what the "customer loss rate" would be if you start charging for a service that is free today (the percentage of customers who will move their service to another provider if you make the service not free). This is difficult information to obtain, since if you ask a direct question like, "Are you willing to pay for this service now?" - everyone will say "NO!" And if you ask, "Will you move to another telecom provider if we begin charging?" - they will say, "YES!" You could ask customers to rank services they presently have for a) How important the service is to them, and b) How often they use it. For the first question, if you have them rank 10 features, have them rank each relative one through 10 (there is only one that is ranked "one" - most important - and one "two," and one "three," etc. For the second, rate them on a five point scale:

• 1 = Use on every call


• 2 = Use on most calls


• 3 = Use on some calls


• 4 = Use on few calls


• 5 = Never use


By looking at these two indicators, you can infer the customers' impressions for the feature under review. If most customers don't feel they use the feature much and rate it as less important, they won't be too upset if they have to pay for it.

Another factor to consider is competition. Gather information from your competitors' plans on if they charge, how much they charge for the feature. If they charge already, then you are in a much better position to start charging.

If the competition doesn't charge and your customers believe this feature is important and that the use it often, then one way to phase in a charge is to charge for NEW customers. Existing customers continue to use it freely until they renew. Usually, renewal is required when they want to upgrade their phone or add other features or more minutes - they sign a new two year agreement and then you bump up their costs.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

i went through the exact same situation you are. Once you give service away it is very difficult to be paid for it. You can, however, use it to justify higher prices. And, ultimately, position yourself to charge. The first thing to do is begin measuring how much of each service goes to each customer. You certainly dont want to give free service to bad customers at the expense of good customers....

Contact me via my profile if you want to discuss specifics

Thank you everyone, I finally asked the team to run data to see the total useage of the people actually using the service compare to those who register but did not really use them. I found that only some people actually use it heavily while many didnt really use the service at all. Now, will have to make a decision rather to charge or not. Thanks again, you guys are all very helpful.
=)