This is how you do a backdown
Vodafone have just done a press release which should be a template for how to apologise when you get it wrong:
Late last year we announced we’d introduce a new online billing process that meant customers would be able to receive a TXT or email alert about their bill and could go online to pay it.
Nice idea, we thought. People will like that we’re thinking of the trees and the convenience factor will be a big plus. Certainly the trial group liked it, so we rolled it out to the public. To encourage customers along we also said we’d charge $1.50 per month for those customers who still want a paper bill, with that charge kicking in some time in the first half of this year.
And that’s where the wheels came off.
Our customers have told us they quite like the idea of online billing but they hate, hate, HATE the idea of being charged to receive a paper bill.
Did we mention they hate it? Well they do. And we’re going to listen to what they say.
Very clever – indicates they have listened to what people said.
So, being the company we are we’ve decided to do a U-turn, an about face, a 180: now you can get your bill in the post each month if you so want, and it won’t cost a penny.
In fact, we’ll go a step further – customers can opt to carry on getting the email or TXT alerts, they can get a paper bill posted out to them or they can chose to get their bill emailed out to them in PDF format.
No weasel words trying to deny it is a u-turn.
And we’d like to say sorry for all the trouble. We’re not perfect. We’re only human but hopefully we’re grown up enough to ‘fess up when we make a mistake.
And an apology to boot.
The only thing missing is the photos of the buring at the stake of the persons who dreamt up the idea of charging customers $1.50 to receive a bill!
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Those ones who thought it up will now have jobs at a bank implementing just such a policy.
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
I don’t mind getting e-mailed bills… But why oh why do they format them as PDFs? The things are huge, it is a proprietary format (even if it is a widely used one), and the Acrobat client takes ages to start up. Why not just send them as text or, if they really feel like formatting the things in a graphical format, as HTML?
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Almost everyone charges you to send out the bill. And process your payment. And deal with support calls. Frankly I’m surprised that Vodafone thought they could do it for $1.50. Yeah, that will cover the actual printing, paper, and postage, but not any of the human effort, which is probably the expensive bit.
My electricity bill shows 17c per kWh for the power I use, plus 95c a day ($29/month) for “sending out the bill”.
My internet account is $110 a month for the first 40 GB and $1.50 a GB after that (we’re always *way* over…). Working it backwards, that’s $110 – 40 * $1.50 = $50 for “sending out the bill”.
The only thing to fault Vodafone on is that they obviously already had this cost and should be giving people who make their job easier a discount off the previous charges.
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Bugger. I liked it. I forgot to pay twice, because emails are easy to miss, but then got the txt to remind me to get my shit together.
And I liked the $1.50 charge for the people who wanted a paper bill, for obvious environmental reasons.
So good on Vodafone for having a try, and a bugger that the public isn’t ready for this yet it seems.
Just a pity Vodafone can’t be a bit more innovative in getting their email service up to speed instead of concentrating solely on buying out their competitors. That said (because I’m required to use Telecom/Yahoo as a mail provider at work), Vodafone are not the worst mail service provider, but there’s probably only one behind them.
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I would call Vodafone to complain about the $1 service fee to get the prepay helpdesk, but I don’t have the credit. By Vodafone’s reckoning, prepay customers must love, love, love being charged a dollar for the helpdesk.
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:25 pm
davidp – good point. Can’t see why they could not have been sent as html rather than pdf (although still not really a biggie – they are small PDF files) – but we all do like to cut down data download).
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:32 pm
“But why oh why do they format them as PDFs? The things are huge, it is a proprietary format (even if it is a widely used one), and the Acrobat client takes ages to start up.”
1) there is no good reason for PDFs to be huge. I’ve written plenty of programs that make tiny ones, certainly comparable in size to HTML with markup. If your PDFs are huge then you’re using a crappy program to create them, simple as that. See MS Word for an example.
2) The definition of PDF is proprietary but is freely published, has been stable for twenty years, has never been deliberately obsoleted, and there is no license fee for making programs that create or display PDFs.
3) there are much better viewers than Acrobat. I don’t even have it installed on my Mac.
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:51 pm
@Davidp
PDF is not a proprietary format any more. PDF 1.7 is approved as ISO 32000. six or seven years ago you could find people making plug-ins and printer drivers using part of the PDF spec Adobe left for everybody’s use free of charge with no chance of Adobe prosecuting for misuse. This is just the next step.
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Paul B is the MAN at Voda
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:07 pm
# davidp (425) Vote: Add rating 0 Subtract rating 0 Says:
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
“I don’t mind getting e-mailed bills… But why oh why do they format them as PDFs? The things are huge, it is a proprietary format (even if it is a widely used one), and the Acrobat client takes ages to start up. Why not just send them as text or, if they really feel like formatting the things in a graphical format, as HTML?”
You have something configured wrong. On my four year old laptop running XP I just searched for a vodafone invoice. Having found one (6 pages of it), I double-clicked and it was open and fully accessible in less than a second. If they did it in a tenth of the time I am not sure I would know what to do with the extra 9/10 of a second in my day
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Why did they have to do a u turn, I think charging extra for a paper bill is a good thing, we don’t need the paper. I think it was marketed wrong, it should have been a percentage reduction or $1.50 off your bill if you choose not to have a paper bill. Must be all those baby boomers complaining.
One other thing, the my vodafone portal is crap, it is so slow to load, runs on Oracle portal software.
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Of all the service providers, Vodafone has the greatest need to discourage the use of paper bills. I’m not a particularly heavy phone user, but before they began emailing the bill I’d get 20 or so pages every month detailing every single phone call or text message I’d made. Seems hugely wasteful.
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:10 pm
1) The $1.50 was a price increase and a negative incentive, so I don’t blame people for getting ticked off. Customer relations are better if you have a positive incentive and offer a discount for those who stop their paper bills.
But the U turn was refreshingly honest: Vodafone isn’t perfect, but Barking Dog (Telecom, remember their stupid SPOT the dog [the dog is Telecom] mascot?) could learn some lessons from them.
2) davidp: Acrobat Viewer is bloatware and slower than a 1970s wharfie. Try Foxit Reader (basic) or PDF X-Change Viewer (more features & prettier). Both free.
http://kpscomputercounsel.wordpress.com/
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I’ve seen bills in the US amounting to huge numbers of pages, sent to users in boxes. $1.50 seems cheap for something like that.
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:21 pm
But I need a paper invoice to keep my accountant and the IRD happy when I claim a business expense. So far I havent received Vodafone bills for December and January (two business phones) just txt message to say they are overdue.
I dont think the accountant, auditors and the IRD will except a copy of a text message as a bonafide GST invoice.
PDF’s are no problem as I get the Vodafone broadband invoices by email, they open up quick. Just cant seem to get the mobile phone ones.
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Well, they had better get their sh*t together. Things will start getting more competitive when the new player moves in.
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:48 pm
I’d just love to know the *real reason*.
maybe – billing system is shit and isnt up to the job?
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:00 pm
brucehoult said: there is no good reason for PDFs to be huge. I’ve written plenty of programs that make tiny ones, certainly comparable in size to HTML with markup.
Yep, good point. I’ve just gone back and checked mine from Vodafone, and they are far larger than they needbe, even in PDF format.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Paul Brislen at his finest. All hail. True re the PDFs but what a great response.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Or maybe certain VF staffers learnt from the last episode where they dicked FairGo around and go crucified.
Either way it is nice to see them act like people who are grateful for the customers who CHOOSE to spend money with them.
God bless an economic downturn eh?!
February 3rd, 2009 at 1:20 am
They use pdf because it’s the format that has a free reader that most people have, it doesn’t have virusses (maybe 1), prints consistently and if you’re like me tend to configure one’s email program to be careful how it deals with html files so they won’t get through. I never open an attached html file – if they send it through as an email body they can’t be sure it will print properly – they could send through as rtf but that’s often as fat as the pdf and lot’s of people can’t read rtf.
February 3rd, 2009 at 1:59 am
The reason they backed down, wasn’t only because their customers hated it, but also because many of their customers weren’t paying their bills, as they weren’t able to view their invoices. The fact is that with online billing, you have to have a computer to view and print off the invoices. Not all vodafone customers would have a computer, so those customes who didn’t would be paying extra to use vodafones services, as there is no alternative for them. Phone companies really have no option but to mail invoices, until such a time when they can be viewed and printed on phones. Vodafone could actually learn some things from Telecom, as telecom have never tried charging for mailed invoices, even though they already have an online invoicing system.
A pity Vodafone don’t hear their Prepay cusomters complaining about the $1 service fee for talking to a CSR. In order to complain to Vodafone, their customers have to pay $1 !. If you try emailing vodafone, they never reply. I would say that Prepay cusomters also hate hate hate that fee, but vodafone aren’t listening.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:57 am
Ah, so revenues were suffering. Bet that projects cost benefit justification is looking shot now huh?
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:59 am
Brilliant from the marketing gurus at VF.
What I learnt from this:
A funny press release gets free coverage and even appears on Kiwiblog.
Vodafone can txt out alerts and email accounts.
fantastic advertising campaign done on the cheap.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:06 am
brilliant? gurus?
more like digging out of a hole and avoiding getting reamed by fairgo again.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:26 am
robbyp – most on-account customers will have (or have access to a computer) to bill viewing shouldn’t be a problem. i agree that many pre-pay customers may not have this access.
as for the $1 fee for pre-pay CSR support… vodafone’s profit from many pre-paid customers is completely wiped out if they call the call centre just one per month. in fact meny of the lowest margin customers call the call centre many times each month. that cost must be bourne by someone and i’d rather it wasn’t me thanks.
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:28 pm
getstaffed – ‘Many’ may have access, but that is not ALL customers. I know a lot of people who simply don’t use computers. Having to have a seperate device to get your invoice, was never going be able a goer. NZ has some of the highest mobile rates in the world, so people would feel ripped off having to pay xtra just to get an invoice, which is something that is legally required by the IRD.
Regarding the $1 fee charged to prepay cusomter, to report problems with Vodafones network or for billing errors. I don’t have an issue with this , IF there was a free alternative. My friend emailed vodafone at the end of december over a billing issue, and are still awaiting a resolution, which is very poor customer service. There is nothing they can really do, as the $1 fee to talk to someone would negate the amount they are claiming back for the billing error.
There are ways around stopping people making stupid calls to CSR, such as giving people a free number of calls a month. NZ prepay customers are charged some of the highest calling rates in the world , and prepay fees are upto $1.39 per minute to call a telecom mobile, so they are making a huge margin. Vodafone are hardly going to put their calling charges up, as I don’t believe they are allowed to under their agreement with the commerce commission. Vodafones CSR is outsourced to a low wage economy, so the costs are lower anyway. Telecom also don’t have that problem, and they aren’t charging for customer service.
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
ASB Bank don’t charge you your monthly account fee if you turn off paper statements. It’s a no brainer, Vodafone should’ve absorbed the cost and offered a reduction in your bill for turning it off. Then you’d have a very high adoption rate.