News Archive

Mobile services are too expensive and too complex for most users

14 November 2005

The main barriers to up take of mobile data services are cost and complexity, with users quizzed in an NOP survey carried out for Olista, saying they would do it more if the services were cheaper and easier to fathom. If this wasnt bad enough news for the already hardpressed content producers, the 1000 mobile users quizzed by NOP largely said that they would give up on services if they failed to work first or second time and go elsewhere rather than seek assistance.

More than two thirds of those who had actually tried to use a mobile data service such as picture messaging, ring tones and gaming downloads confessed that they would give up trying after just one or two attempts. A mere two per cent claimed that they would actually seek assistance from their operator or content provider and a quarter said they would carry on trying until it worked.

The survey follows on from research conducted earlier this year, also commissioned by Olista, that revealed that 77 per cent of phone users have never used any mobile data services, and of those that had, only 12 per cent professed to be completely satisfied with the experience. The focus of the latest research was on understanding how mobile data users react to poor user experience.

According to Oren Glanz, CEO of Olista: "The findings make salutary reading for mobile operators, content providers and ISPs seeking to increase the take-up of mobile data services. The monies that they are investing in call centre and self-care solutions are not working, as mobile phone use is often an impulsive activity and the majority of the public are not prepared to continue trying or seek help when the services fail to work."

When quizzed on what would encourage them to use more mobile data services, lower prices and easier to use services were top of the list with 53 per cent and 43 per cent of respondents, whilst 32 per cent also felt that better help and advice at point of sale would influence them positively.

"The survey highlights the need for a proactive approach to customer care. Operators need to be able to discover a mobile data problem before the customers know about it and contact them to solve the issue or they face them never returning to the service again" states Glanz. For example by contacting a subscriber about a failure such as a MMS that did not reach its destination and explaining how to fix it before the subscriber is even aware of the problem the operator can turn the customer's experience into a positive one. It should never be too late to assure service experience and understanding the mobile content experience from the end user's point of view can be the key to ensuring customers use your service again".