Firstly thanks for all the comments on Part 1 of this piece. I received a lot of constructive feedback on Twitter and face to face, I just need more people to leave me comments here, hint hint 
It was pointed out via Twitter that the Operator should concentrate on delivering a great pipe. I’d like to think we can bring more to the table than the pipe, but on reflection I should have included the delivery of a world class network as one of the assumptions listed in Part 1.
Before I move onto the role of Customer Services, the interest in the marketing discussion justifies a little more attention. Last week we announced that, uniquely, O2 Litmus has started a marketing campaign to promote the Litmus Developer community to 1 million of O2 UK’s consumer customers.
This coupled with the instigation of the O2 Litmus “App of the week”, where we promote an app across our social media channels, has hopefully raised the bar in terms of an Operator’s commitment to increasing the profile of 3rd Party Developer offerings with its customers.
Throughout November 2009 we will contact 50,000 select O2 UK customers per day inviting them to participate in O2 Litmus via a personalised email invitation, with a competition incentive for completing registration.
The sample group of customers have been carefully selected based on a number of criteria including handset ownership, usage of mobile data services, and the customer segment they sit in. We will of course update at the end of the campaign, but the initial results are very encouraging. Our registered customer base has increased 28.5% over the first 7 days of the campaign. To maximise cut through we are also sending a follow up SMS message to all customers that successfully received the email but did not open it within a predefined timeframe.
A great example of the “hidden” value that this kind of exercise can deliver is we have discovered an existing O2 UK customer that has participated in beta testing for Microsoft products, and has agreed to become an O2 Litmus admin to help us support and engage the fledgling Litmus community.
To provide you with some insight into the high quality of the Litmus community, here are some interesting facts and stats about the registered customer base ahead of the start of our current marketing campaign:
- Impressive levels of previous testing experience amongst the target audience, from websites, phones and software through to novels and cosmetics.
- 59% of O2 Litmus customers are Pay Monthly Consumers
- Over half (53%) of the Pay Monthly customers on O2 Litmus are on £35+ a month tariffs
- O2 Litmus members have a tenure of over 20% longer compared to a typical O2 consumer customer
- O2 Litmus customers have higher Voice, SMS and data usage than a typical O2 consumer customer
- 38% of O2 Litmus members use over 10Mb of mobile data per month
- There is a higher Male bias amongst O2 Litmus customers (66%) compared to the overall O2 consumer customer base.
- Customers going for O2 Litmus tend to be aged between 18 and 45, with 32% falling between 26 and 35.
- From registration data, there is a very diverse handset ownership pattern in the membership base. The Nokia 6300 is the most common handset in the member base, but only represents 6% base share
Hopefully this data reinforces the high quality of the customer resource that we have made available to our Developer partners for testing and co-creation. They represent the cream of O2’s consumer base, and more importantly they have opted in to participate with O2 Litmus, indicating their willingness to be hands on, if the right apps and services come through.
As a refresher to Part 1, I explored the marketing support a Mobile Operator can bring to the table in answer to the question: “What role does the Mobile Operator have to play in the Developer ecosystem?”
Now on to the second part of the answer: Customer Service.
The world of mobile apps is still a very scary place for the average consumer.
Our consumer research tells us that trust and reassurance in times of trouble is the number 1 deal breaker for consumers getting involved in Developer programs.
Customers are fiercely protective of their personal data, and do not want to be spammed by Developers promoting apps to them. There is a clear role for a trusted middle man to “referee” the interactions of the community to ensure all parties are comfortable and respected.
Secondly the risks of beta testing unproven software are not clear in customer’s minds. There is a lack of understanding if software can damage their handset, corrupt or lose their personal data, or introduce viruses and other malware. Therefore having the confidence that a trusted brand is there providing a safety net is a huge value add to unlocking the vast potential of customer led innovation.
Who is best placed in the App ecosystem to step in to address these consumer concerns?
I would argue there is only one kind of organisation that operates in the value chain that can bring the necessary Customer Service competences to the table; experience, investment, infrastructure, backed with a trusted brand: The Mobile Operators.
Also, importantly, the Mobile Operator can take a more agnostic approach in supporting the high degrees of fragmentation in the market. Operators support multiple device manufacturers and operating systems as a business as usual activity.
Customer Service provision is costly and complex, and not for the fainthearted. It is unsurprising that other players in the ecosystem have, to date, avoided providing the required consumer safety net that is so important to unlock the value in this nascent market.
Of course it is a broad statement to say Mobile Operators can step up to this challenge. Execution is an entirely different thing. Already there is big variation in the levels of service provided by Mobile Operators around the world, and many Operators are already struggling to face up to the significant challenges of moving from supporting voice networks and billing, to supporting data services, laptops, smart phones, IPTV and other advanced services.
However I maintain that the Operators are in the best position to exploit this opportunity, should they choose to compared to the other organisations in the ecosystem.
As I have already stated, the Mobile Operators have the foundations in place to do this, and more than anyone else, they will be impacted by the move to 3rd party apps, regardless of their own in house Customer Service strategy, as more and more of their customers use open internet access to experiment with new non Operator services.
The simple question is then; if this is going to happen anyway, why not turn this into an opportunity by differentiating through service and delivering a unique selling point for their organisation in the industry. By getting this right it unlocks the commercial opportunity for the entire value chain.
With the support wrap in place, customers will increase their experimental behaviour, driving adoption of smart phone devices, usage of apps, usage on the network, and build an engaged audience that advertisers are looking for, thus driving value for all stakeholders.
