The Nature of a Poor User Experience and the Thankless Role of Mobile Operator

by John Giere, SVP Products and Marketing

To be clear, this post is not a pity party for multi-billion dollar telco corporations. The negative PR that they get, deserved or not, is part of doing business. I do often wonder why we as consumers are much more likely to blame the carrier for a poor user experience rather than the device or any other member of mobile ecosystem.

Certainly, one reason is that their networks are to blame some of the time. However, in the behind-the-scenes yet still well-documented battle between AT&T and Apple over sub-par service, it became known that the software running the iPhone’s main radio underperformed and at least partially responsible for the service problems. Yet it has been AT&T’s reputation that has suffered far worse than Apple’s. Perhaps Apple has a better PR department, but I think the answer goes deeper.

Let’s say, hypothetically, that in a given week six out of ten service interruptions or delays for a typical subscriber are the fault of the network. From the consumer’s perspective, phone issues are phone issues. There are no telltale signs that would point to a particular culprit. Plus the nature of mobile service issues are mostly fleeting. When my call is dropped, I usually dial that person again and get on with it. Still, that doesn’t stop me from pointing the finger . . . right at my service provider.

Operators make great scapegoats. Their relationship with the consumer is based on billing and customer service calls, both of which can easily sour the relationship. Bottom line: network operators tend to only get recognized when things go wrong.

Meanwhile, we give our devices the benefit of the doubt. Our mobile devices are dear to us; we own them; we personalize them; we carry them everywhere. When our user experience is interrupted, blaming the phone would be like blaming ourselves. Not likely, right?

My point is this: Mobile Operators will always have the thankless job of controlling (and sometimes limiting) the traffic on their network, while device makers will keep making cool gadgets that entertain us and encourage us to do more. Despite this divide the two groups do care about what you and I think about them.

Mobile operators may not be able to change human nature, but they can find ways of adding value to the user experience beyond just making sure it doesn’t fail. As tiered pricing and data caps replace unlimited data plans, operators have an enormous opportunity to separate themselves and change their image as cost conscious gatekeepers. Custom-tailored plans that take into account your own online behavior (heavy Facebook user, Netflix member, text-aholic, etc.) can be powerful tools to connect with consumers and manage traffic. The secret to success lies in flexibility and transparency. The more the consumer has a say on his or her plan, the closer the relationship between carrier and subscriber will be.

Operators need to consider the revenue opportunities that exist in empowering users to build their own personalized subscriptions; the Gold, Silver, Bronze packages that we are seeing today are not enough. The capabilities exist today: we now have the analytics platforms and policy-based technologies in place to move to more sophisticated pricing models – what’s holding us back?