Operators have crafted wonderful digital experiences for consumers. Take iD Mobile, for example. iD Mobile provides its customers with a 100% digital experience via a simple app. Customers can check their allowance, buy bolt-ons, rollover unused data, and in fact do anything they need to via this app, giving them complete control of their accounts.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the digital experiences operators offer their business customers. These customers have little or no ability to manage their own accounts, which can cause a range of problems. This is particularly true for businesses taking advantage of legislation introduced in late 2018 which requires all mobile providers to give new customers, and those extending their contracts, the option to limit the cost of their bills.
For consumers who opt to have a bill cap applied, most operators can provide flexibility in the form of a self-serve app or portal so that they can purchase additional bundles of data or minutes as required, as in the iD Mobile example. However, few operators are able to replicate this level of flexibility for business customers as they do not offer enterprise-level front-end control.
For businesses that want to control their spend via bill capping, this lack of flexibility can be costly. If the bill cap is applied bluntly, end-users can be left without access to data or minutes, potentially limiting their ability to do their jobs - take the example of a sales rep who relies on Google Maps when visiting prospects or customers, or who has just disembarked from a long-haul flight and urgently needs to check in with the office. If their connectivity is suddenly terminated, not only are they inconvenienced, they may also be stranded.
However, if operators could give their business customers the tools to manage their account themselves, they could choose to redistribute allowances between end-users, reduce or throttle allowances for end-users who regularly use more than their fair share, perhaps due to excessive video streaming habits, or buy an additional bundle if there isn’t enough to go around.
By providing this level of control, combined with proactive alerts when customers are nearing their spend cap, operators could both make life easier for their customers and end-users, and potentially increase their own revenues, as businesses would prefer to pay for additional connectivity than to have their employees stranded.
Of course, business customers do have more complex requirements and processes than consumers. They may have multiple accounts, or multiple phones linked to a single account, and they may take a wide range of products and services.
For these reasons, it is assumed that business customers need personal interaction and service every time they want to make a change, yet this has resulted in them having a worse experience than pre-paid consumers. Most of the time, such as in the example of the sales rep who is about to run out of data, all they really want is to be able to manage their account themselves in real-time, via an automated approval processes, without having to speak to an account manager or controller.
MDS Global’s B2BonDemand enhances the front-end experience for the B2B sector. It provides the controls necessary for multi-stakeholder environments, enabling business customers, from SMEs through to enterprises, to manage their accounts in real-time. Using online notifications and messages, self-serve portals and real-time apps, B2BonDemand improves the customer experience, from first engagement through to sale or issue resolution.