It’s an exciting time to be a part of the telecoms industry.
Data usage has exploded in recent years and with so many new technologies being adopted, resellers have a huge opportunity to differentiate their brands, not just through the solutions they offer, but how easily end-users can manage those services.
Whether your reasoning is a better customer experience, or to stay in line with Ofcom’s recent regulations changes, now is the time for resellers to imagine the future of their telecoms billing and capitalise… Here’s how:
Increased data usage
Particularly with the uptake of 5G and home working, new high-bandwidth consumer products like VR and 4K streaming, as well as businesses moving significant resources to the cloud, it’s becoming very easy for users to rip through large amounts of mobile data.
During the pandemic, both BT and TalkTalk announced they experienced approx. 40% usage jumps across their networks.
Obviously, these new technologies will bring new connectivity and communication services to the fore – bolt-ons for protected low-latency VR connections, possibly?
Furthermore, bundles and shared data pools can help businesses (and consumers in some respects) take more control over their data usage, and help you attract new customers, but only if they have the visibility and ability to customise their services to manage them effectively.
Having designed ZOEY as a cloud-based portal from day one, your end-users can check on their usage whenever they like! And, with the same UX for your staff and your customers, quick how to questions to support lines can be easily answered with no extra training, or mistakes!
Plus, this ability to control and check usage is a major aspect of those Ofcom changes we mentioned earlier…
Ofcom General Conditions
Towards the end of last year, Ofcom’s first of two planned changes (the next coming in the summer) went live with three noteworthy aspects:
- Resellers must now help consumers and Small Enterprise Customers manage their usage and spend on, communications services, as well as providing a way of monitoring and controlling their use…
- They should also give consumers and Small Enterprise Customers timely information on tariff usage and notify customers when allowances have been used-up…
- As well as provide consumers and Small Enterprise Customers with additional information on their usage, and the ability to set usage limits (either financial or volume-related).
Read our blog for more in-depth info on Ofcom’s 2021 and 2022 GC changes!
These changes mean that offering this functionality is not just for the end-user’s benefit; if a reseller wants to minimise risk of fines and damaged credibility, they MUST OFFER this functionality or feel Ofcom’s wrath!
“We were shocked at the number of resellers who reached out to us after discovering their legacy billing solutions were non-compliant with the recent Ofcom updates.”
– Harry McKeever, Director
Thankfully, ZOEY has provided these abilities since day one:
- ZOEY automatically imports and rates usage hourly.
- End-users can access their portal to see current consumption as %, £, and duration.
- They can also set two stages of alerts at any percentage, cost or time threshold.
- ZOEY sends automated SMS and email alerts at these stages.
- Resellers can customise body text in alerts, including customer specific placeholder values.
Discover how ZOEY can future-proof your billing here
Billing bundles of bundles
As stakeholders in end-user operations look for more long-term flexibility, especially in OpEx solutions, many businesses are gravitating to subscription-style services, with plenty of inclusive usage.
Not only do these safeguard precious resource for investment in other aspects of the business, but financing is more predictable and service management is typically much more streamlined too.
As bundled services become more common, users tend to fall out of the habit of keeping an eye on their expenditure, expecting costs to remain stable. This is why it’s so important that end-users can set and manage usage or spends alerts, setting bars if they wish for an added layer of protection, in case they do exceed their allocations.
While overage costs are a famously lucrative revenue boost for channel businesses, we would argue that a customer that has the control over their own costs, (and keeps them within budget would be more profitable in the long-run) is less likely to turn to another provider after a few months of un-anticipated additional data costs, frustrating bursars and accounting teams.
All told, the state of flux the channel finds itself in is the perfect time for introspection and future-planning. Considering that many existing billing solutions can’t provide this level of end-user management, it could be the ideal time to see if a new billing platform could help your business grow through the next decade!
If that sounds like something you’d want to explore, feel free to call us on 0203 9723723 or book a demo to speak to our expert billing team.
