WIN plc, a leading provider of interactive information and entertainment to mobile phones, is working with Vodafone to improve its services to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).  The initiatives centre on new customer acquisition and support as well as helping to increase ARPU for Vodafone and the MVNO by making it easy for customers to set up Internet and picture messaging services on their handset. The partnership ensures that new customers on MVNOs hosted by Vodafone can request a new SIM by simply sending a text to a shortcode.  Vodafone’s MVNO partners include well known brand names such as Asda, Talk Mobile, BT Mobile, Truphone and Lebara.

After receiving the text message request, the WIN platform manages a short dialogue with the consumer which results in a full user profile being created and a SIM card being posted directly to them.

Vodafone’s Director of Wholesale and New Business Development, Tim Stone, said:  “The text service is ideal.  Potential customers can see a promotional offer and simply send a short text message to order a new SIM and take advantage of a good deal. It allows potential customers to respond to advertising instantly whilst ensuring costs to manage those customer enquiries are kept to a minimum.”

WIN also partners with Vodafone on an automated service delivering picture messaging and Internet settings direct to handsets “over the air” which is also triggered by text.  Importantly Vodafone’s systems have the intelligence required to detect the type and model of handset being used, and WIN’s service then allows the right settings to be delivered and installed.

WIN also offers Vodafone’s new MVNO customers other ways to request their settings – for example via a self serve web interface – and supplies the Vodafone Customer Care centre with a simple to use web tool.  Whichever method the customer uses to request the settings, the systems determine the type and model of handset being used and use the WIN platform to deliver the correct settings. 

 “WIN’s short-code text for Internet and MMS settings works in partnership with our own systems to ensure that when a customer requests the settings, we are able to automatically detect, deliver and install the right settings for the make and model of phone” says Vodafone’s Stone.

“Unless you get these settings right, new customers tend to just use voice and text and that affects their perceived value of the virtual operator service – this in turn makes them much more likely to churn to another carrier,” explains Stone.  “Our partnership with WIN and the short-code settings service ensures that customers get online straightaway and access the things they like, such as their Facebook and Twitter accounts, direct from their mobile. 

“By maximising consumers’ accessibility to value added services, we help our MVNO partners to drive their ARPU.  What’s more, the intuitive and simple nature of the set-up process also helps to drastically cut back the number of calls to our customer service teams,” Stone adds.

WIN CEO Graham Rivers explains that the services were borne out of discussions with Vodafone to look for ways in which the global operator could improve its services to its MVNOs.

 “WIN has been providing similar services to Vodafone for the last couple of years so it seemed only natural for the Wholesale team to leverage that relationship and extend some of those features to its MVNO partners. 

“Everyone wins in this scenario,” added Rivers.  “The set up process becomes easier for the host operator, the MVNO, and most importantly the new customer.”

First introduced last year, Vodafone say the service has made for happier customers right across the supply chain.

“From our end we can see improved customer retention, more efficient after sales service, and increased data traffic,” confirmed Stone. “There’s no doubt in my mind that part of the  improvement can be attributed to the enhancements we have made to the process of acquiring and setting up services for new customers.”